The Saffran Conference is an annual program, hosted by the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, where clinicians and renowned researchers from around the world explore new research topics and discuss their practical implications. Each year, up to 16 graduate students attend the two-day conference at a professional level. Through funding from private donors and the National Institutes of Health, the students receive travel accommodations and free registration, and the opportunity to present their current work. This year’s conference took place on Sept. 15 and 16.  Two of this year’s student scholars are graduate students in the College of Public Health at Temple University. Here’s a look at both of them, their work and how they believe the conference benefits them.

Monica Coran is a graduate student in the Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, working toward her master’s degree in Speech-Language and Hearing. She’s been involved with the Saffran Conference since her time as an undergraduate student, and as a student scholar this year, the opportunity to present her work comes at a critical time in her studies.  

How did you become interested in the Saffran Conference?

I volunteered at the Eleanor M. Saffron Center in the summers when I was an undergrad. I had the opportunity to watch how the conference came together with different topics and different speakers from around the world. I saw it as a great opportunity to hear about new research. I first attended in 2015. It was great to see people coming together and having an open dialogue about improvements in treatments and new research. I was able to see firsthand what’s at the forefront of my field. This year, as a student scholar, I can share my current research. I’ll be able to get feedback on my work, see how it fits in with other people’s work and gain knowledge on new research and how I can collaborate in the future.

What research will you present?

I’m working on treatment research for aphasia. It’s a study using novel words as a learning mechanism for people who have aphasia caused by a stroke. I train people over four weeks to learn not-real words that mirror English. By working on learning, we’re seeing if it helps them with other language abilities that use real words. A lot of what we do is putting theory into practice. There are theories that suggest the mechanisms of language, learning and memory are connected. This is a way of testing if and how they’re connected.

Is this research you plan to publish soon?

It’s my master’s thesis, so I hope to have it completed for the spring. The research is completed, and I’m in the writing process.

Are there benefits to being able to present the work for your thesis at the Saffran Conference?

Yes. It’s very helpful to have this type of feedback at this professional level, especially at this point in the process. The conference can help guide the future and direction of my work. It’s a great opportunity.

This year, Heather Kauffman transitioned from a parttime to full-time Ph.D. student in the Communication Science and Disorders department. She originally attended Temple as an undergraduate student and recently resigned from her clinical work as a speech-language pathologist working primarily with stroke patients, to focus primarily on her doctorate work.

Have you attended the Saffran Conference before?

Yes, I’ve been going for four years now. As working as a clinician, because I found it so valuable. Evidence-based treatment techniques were presented by the actual researchers on the first day. On the second day, the conference explored the practical implementation of the treatment protocol.

What do you like about it?

The topics really fit with the populations I work with and am interested in. I like to hear directly from the researchers about these topics and the type of research they’re doing. I like that one day is geared toward putting what’s being discussed into use. We get to work in teams with clinicians and researchers working together. What are you presenting this year? I'm presenting on a naming treatment for patients who suffer from aphasia after a stroke. It combines semantic feature analysis, or conceptual concepts of meaning, and phonological component analysis, which focuses on the sound structure of each word. Research suggests that combining those approaches in treatment is more effective than doing each separately. My study tests the effectiveness of the combination approach.

What do you hope to get out of the conference this year now that you’re attending as a student?

Since I was attending as a clinician before, I was focused more on the practical clinical aspect. This year, I’m hoping to focus on the researchers and what they’re working on, more so than I’ve done in the past.

Did attending the Saffran Conference for the past few years influence your decision to return to Temple?

It did. I developed some good relationships with professors at Temple going to the conference. I also met a lot of researchers, including ones who work at Temple.