Current student, Caroline Loyd-Jones, shared the following about being a Summer Intern at the Shirley Ryan Ability Lab …
What did you do as an intern at this organization?
Under the mentorship of Dr. Victoria Diedrichs (PhD, CCC-SLP), I worked on two research studies for the Center for Aphasia Research & Treatment that employed a new brain imaging technology, functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), to investigate brain activation patterns during reading tasks in adults with aphasia. Aphasia is a communication impairment typically caused by stroke-related damage to the areas of the brain responsible for language comprehension and/or production. My contributions to the studies included setting up and cleaning the fNIRS caps before and after each participant session, scoring audio recordings of participant responses to stimuli, entering participant data into REDcap, and programming sentence stimuli for new participants. I am also grateful to have had the opportunity to shadow a clinical speech-language pathologist through a day of her swallowing sessions.
How did you find this internship?
I cold emailed Dr. Leora Cherney, the Scientific Chair of the Think + Speak Lab.
What did you enjoy most about your internship?
I am very grateful to have been assigned to a study that was actively enrolling participants, and that a significant part of my role involved attending and facilitating these participant sessions. Over the course of my 8-week internship, I observed more than 20 study sessions, getting to know several participants with aphasia on a deeper, personal level, and had the privilege of witnessing their improvements in oral reading across repeated treatment sessions. Though I had not previously felt particularly drawn to the clinical side of speech-language pathology, these sessions made me realize just how rewarding patient interaction can be, and that I want those interactions to be a major part of my career going forward.
What did you find challenging?
As a significant portion of my job involved interacting with individuals with aphasia, I think my greatest challenge during this internship was developing confidence in my supported and aphasia-friendly communication skills. When speaking with study participants and/or members of my aphasia conversation group, despite my best efforts, I initially found it very difficult to alter my speech in real time. I would try to speak more slowly, use simpler terms, and accompany my words with gestures, facial expressions, and/or quick sketches, but I often worried that this might come across as condescending or disingenuous. However, through continued practice and observation, I felt much more comfortable in these interactions by the end of the internship.
What advice would you offer to someone who wants to make the most of an internship like yours?
Attend as many department and organization-wide meetings as possible. As an intern, I frequently accompanied my supervisor to weekly grand rounds sessions, research seminars, and lunch-and-learn sessions. Attending these meetings provided me with a thorough understanding of how a translational rehabilitation hospital operates, as well as current research goals in the fields of speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, physical therapy, and neurology. Additionally, I gained insight into some of the challenges/stresses that clinicians often face, as well as strategies to manage burnout. Although these sessions were usually high-level, discussing topics I had little to no prior knowledge of, I found attending these sessions to be an invaluable part of my internship.
