ANCDS Continuing Education Webinars

Join us for live broadcasts of webinars!  If you can't make the live event, take advantage of on-demand CE webinar recordings.  Check back regularly for updates to the webinar schedule below.

Language Assessment in Awake Brain Surgery: An SLP’s Clinical Perspective

Live Broadcast:

Friday, October 30, 2026, 1:00 – 2:00 PM CDT

Registration will open soon.

For those unable to attend the live broadcast, an archived webinar will be made available shortly thereafter.

Speaker:


Christos Papatzalas, PhD
Assistant Professor of Speech-Language Pathology and Communication Disorders
Department of Speech and Language Therapy
University of Patras, Greece

Description:

This webinar presents and discusses the unique nature of language assessment in awake brain surgery through a clinical and research perspective. It covers a structured perioperative approach, its evolution over time, cognitive-neuropsychological principles, illustrative cases, and considerations related to functional outcomes, quality of life, and SLP training.

Learner Outcomes:

The learner will be able to:

  1. Describe how the goals and procedures of language assessment in awake brain surgery differ from conventional diagnostic speech-language assessment.
  2. Explain how patient characteristics, surgical variables, and cognitive-neuropsychological models inform perioperative task selection and interpretation of intraoperative language errors.
  3. Identify key components of a comprehensive perioperative language assessment protocol, including preoperative baseline assessment, intraoperative monitoring, postoperative follow-up, and functional/quality-of-life outcomes.

Speaker Bio:

Christos Papatzalas, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Speech-Language Pathology and Communication Disorders in the Department of Speech and Language Therapy at the University of Patras, Greece. He holds a PhD in Clinical Speech-Language Pathology from the University of Thessaly, Faculty of Medicine (Neurosurgery Clinic), where his doctoral research focused on language assessment during awake brain surgery and was supported by a three-year scholarship from the Greek State Scholarships Foundation (IKY). He also holds a BSc in Speech and Language Therapy and an MSc in Linguistics from the University of Patras. His research focuses on acquired communication disorders with particular emphasis on aphasia, tumor-related language disorders, intraoperative language mapping, cognitive-neuropsychological approaches to language assessment, and bilingualism. His work includes the development of the Greek Linguistic Assessment for Awake Brain Surgery and research on language outcomes, quality of life, and functional mapping in neurosurgical populations. He has participated in multiple research projects and has published in international peer-reviewed journals and conference proceedings.

Speaker Disclosures:

Financial: Dr. Papatzalas is a salaried faculty member at the University of Patras.
Non-financial: Dr. Papatzalas is developer and author of the Greek Linguistic Assessment for Awake Brain Surgery (GLAABS), and author/co-author of research discussed in this presentation. He is a scientific collaborator and member of the awake brain surgery team at the Neurosurgery Clinic, University Hospital of Larisa, Greece.

Cost:

ANCDS Members: No charge!
Non-Members: $50
Join now and save $50 on your registration by becoming a member today! Complete the New Member Application before completing registration for the webinar to receive the discount and get access to all the ANCDS member benefits.

ASHA CEUs:

Live Webinar Attendees:

If you would like to receive credit for attending, please complete and submit the program evaluation form after the webinar by Friday, November 6, 2026.

Please note: CEU information is submitted to ASHA on a monthly basis. Therefore, it may take 6-8 weeks for your course to show up on your ASHA CE transcript. If it has been more than 8 weeks since you took a course and you have not seen your course posted, please contact [email protected].

Recorded Webinar:

The recorded version of this course will be available 01/01/2027 – 12/31/2027.

Special Requests:

We encourage participation by all individuals. If you have a disability or other special requests (visual, hearing, physical, etc.), please email this request to [email protected]. We will do our best to accommodate you. Please allow a minimum of 24 hours’ notice to allow us time to process your request.

Refund Policy:

Refund requests must be submitted in writing via email. Requests made prior to course completion will be subject to an administration fee of $15 of the registration fee (if an additional cost is associated with the course). This is to cover the costs associated with the course that have already been accrued based on pre-registration. No refunds will be issued after course completion or for non-completion after the course completion date.

Satisfaction Guarantee & Complaint Policy:

ANCDS’s continuing education offerings are designed to help professionals achieve improved performance and results in all areas. If for any reason you are not satisfied with the content and material presented, we encourage you to file a complaint via the process outlined on our website within 30 days of the completion of the course.