2025 Research Symposium at the ASHA Convention

Saturday, November 22, 2025

Washington, D.C.

The Research Symposium is an annual event at ASHA Convention where clinicians and researchers discuss current research in communication sciences and disorders (CSD). Each year's symposium has a specific research theme. 

Find out more about the Research Symposium at the ASHA Convention and its associated travel award.

Clinical Trials Conducted with Adult Populations

Coordinated by Leora R. Cherney, PhD, CCC-SLP, BC-ANCDS, FACRM (Shirley Ryan AbilityLab / Northwestern University) the Symposium will highlight clinical trials conducted with adult populations. Speakers will discuss their federally funded clinical trials that focus on (a) different adult populations, including people with aphasia, people with primary progressive aphasia, and people who have had swallowing impairment in head and neck cancer (HNC), and (b) improving healthcare communication between providers and patients with communication disabilities. The presentations will address critical issues and challenges in clinical trials research such as identifying key treatment ingredients, determining relevant outcomes, transitioning from efficacy to effectiveness and pragmatic trials, and clinical implications of results.

The 2025 Symposium is part of the ASHA Convention. Any in-person Convention registrant may attend. No separate ticket or registration is required.

Not attending ASHA Convention? The Research Symposium sessions will be publicly available through the Live-Broadcast Sessions.

8:00 a.m.

Methods and Results of an RCT Designed to Improve Script Training for Aphasia
Speaker: Leora R. Cherney, PhD, CCC-SLP, BC-ANCDS, FACRM (Shirley Ryan AbilityLab / Northwestern University)

9:30 a.m.

A Comparative Effectiveness Trial of Many vs. Few Features in Semantic Feature Analysis
Speaker: William Hula, PhD, CCC-SLP (VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System / University of Pittsburgh)

11:00 a.m.

Building Meaningful, Implementable Dyadic Interventions—Lessons from the Communication Bridge Trials
Speaker: Emily Rogalski, PhD (The University of Chicago)

1:30 p.m.

Improving Healthcare Communication with Patients with Communication Disabilities—A Tale of Two Trials
Speaker: Megan Morris, PhD, MPH, CCC-SLP (NYU Grossman School of Medicine)

3:00 p.m.

Respiratory-Swallow Training—Impact on Swallowing Safety and Efficiency
Speaker: Bonnie Martin-Harris, PhD, CCC-SLP (Northwestern University)

The Research Symposium at ASHA Convention is funded, in part, by a grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders (NIDCD).