How have speech and language therapists, in their work with older stroke patients, moved from doing traditional therapies to doing the life-participation approach method? And how do these practitioners realize that changes have to be made and then go about changing an entire discipline's established way of doing things?

These questions are being explored in a book-length study by Professor Peggy Goetz of the Speech Language and Pathology Department (SPAUD). The traditional approach is to have patients work on vocabulary and write and speak words over and over. The same exercises are used for each person. However, speech therapists have increasingly become aware that each individual has uniquely different desires and that they grapple with diverse challenges. This has led Goetz to investigate the "life-participation approach" method. In this method, the speech pathologist starts with what the patient wants to be able to do, such as go camping with a spouse or phone a loved one every week. Since the goals are personally generated, the affected person is more motivated and may recover faster.

Each chapter in the book will touch on a different topic in speech language pathology. Goetz is considering bringing a co-author on board.