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Acquired Brain Injury Communication Lab
Investigating communication disorders
Improving communication between people with acquired brain injury, their family members, friends and carers.
About us
The University of Sydney Acquired Brain Injury Communication Lab is a team of researchers investigating communication disorders following acquired brain injury (ABI). We work with research participants with traumatic brain injury, aphasia following stroke, dementia and other acquired neurological communication disorders.
The team is lead by Professor Leanne Togher, and includes experienced researchers, early career researchers, PhD candidates and honours students.
Our research
We’re working towards these main objectives:
- Improving equity of access to treatment after brain injury
- Improving outcomes for individuals with brain injury
- Advancing technology and digital health delivered rehabilitation to improve social connection
- Using technology to optimize mental health and wellbeing in people with brain injury
- Creating digital health technology to enable return to work and meaningful engagement.
Some examples of our ongoing and new projects include:
- TBI Express, a communication-training program for people with traumatic brain injury, their families, friends, and carers
- TBIconneCT, a telehealth program designed to help people with traumatic brain injury and theory family, friends, or carers have better conversations together
- The Social Brain Toolkit, new online tools to help everyday interactions between people with a brain injury and their communication partners.
- Interact-ABI-lity, a resource that provides information and strategies to help you interact more successfully with people with a brain injury.
- Social-ABI-lity, a resource that provides information and strategies to support social media skills and safety after an acquired brain injury (ABI).
- Convers-ABI-lity (coming soon), an online portal that will guide a person with brain injury alongside their communication partner to complete a communication skills training program, with guidance from a speech pathologist.
- Communication for Safe Care Project, a collaboration between the University of Sydney, SWSLHD, WNSWLHD, which will investigate how to make health care environments accessible for all people with communication disability
- Virtual Reality, which offers a new lens into areas such as online social interactions, theory of mind investigations and treatment approaches for changed social identity following injury
- Artificial Intelligence and Chatbots, which offer opportunities to create social interactions for people with TBI monitor their mental health and behaviour and enable timely intervention
- TBIBank Database development (in collaboration with Carnegie Mellon University, USA)
- Return to work development programs using online technologies (in collaboration with University of Kentucky, USA)
Get involved
We have many different projects underway, read about our opportunities to find out how you could be involved.
Our people
- Professor Leanne Togher (Director)
- Dr Petra Avramovic
- Dr Sophie Brassel
- Dr Melissa Brunner
- Dr Elise Elbourn
- Dr Sarah El-Wahsh (Affiliate)
- Dr Penelope Monroe
- Dr Rachael Rietdijk
- Ms Kylie Southwell
- Victoria Norris, PhD Candidate
- Kate Smith, PhD Candidate
- Kylie Southwell, PhD Candidate
- Ashna Nadan, Honours student
- Roisin Hayes, Honours student
- Minh Tien Victoria Lam, Honours student
- Charlene Cheukling Lo, Honours student
- Lauren Mckibbin, Honours student
- Sumaita Tasneem, Honours student
- Sonia Fiza Tint, Honours student
- Yong Yong Zhang, Honours student
Contact Us
Address
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Level 6, Susan Wakil Health Building (D18), University of Sydney, NSW 2006