Cowboy Aphasia Camp 2026

Butterflies will be the symbol for Cowboy Aphasia Camp 2026.  They are like the brains of people with aphasia:  resilient and changing.  They are like the words of a person with aphasia:  sometimes elusive.  They are like the careers of OSU students:  full of promise!

Aphasia is the loss of language abilities, usually after stroke or similar brain injury.   In rare cases, it can be an early sign of other progressive neurological disease.  In all cases, aphasia steals a person’s words and can make it hard to express ideas verbally or through writing.  It can also limit the ability to understand spoken and written words.  Aphasia is NOT a loss of intelligence, but it does make it difficult for people to use words to show their competence, sense of humor, and identity.  

Cowboy Aphasia Camp is offered annually on the OSU-Tulsa campus. This event partners OSU graduate students in the Communication Sciences & Disorders Department and people with aphasia for a week of mutual learning.  Activities include 1:1 conversational exchanges and computer-based treatment, group communication interactions, and holistic activities such as painting, music, and animal-assisted therapy. You might even catch us dancing, laughing, singing, and telling jokes!

The National Aphasia Association estimates that close to 2 million people in the U.S. have aphasia.  This makes aphasia more common than Parkinson’s disease, but a survey by the NAA in 2020 showed that most people were not familiar with aphasia or ways to help a person who has it.  

Your donation to Cowboy Aphasia Camp supports people with aphasia, and the OSU students who are learning to help them in their recovery journey.  The funds are used for supplies, food (campers and students are hungry!), and other camp expenses. You are helping people with aphasia regain their identity, and you are helping OSU produce outstanding speech-language pathologists! Thank you for joining our team in this way!