Volunteers with aphasia are finding healing and community through a Pima Animal Care Center program that pairs them with shelter dogs.

John remembers when the words disappeared. Five years ago, he suffered a stroke that left him with aphasia, a disorder that affects a person’s ability to speak, read, write, and understand language.

Compared with standard intensive speech and language therapy (iSLT) alone, right-sided cervical C7 neurotomy combined with iSLT significantly improved language function in patients with chronic ...