Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders Partners with International Aphasia Movement to Inaugurate Aphasia Therapy Program

The program will run out of the Ruth Smadbeck Communication and Learning Center, which is only one of a few state-of-the art facilities of its kind offered at an undergraduate higher education institution in the United States to speech-language pathology and audiology students. Marymount Manhattan students will assist in running the group and earn experience required to obtain a Certificate for Teaching Students with Speech and Language Disabilities (TSSLD). 

“We are thankful to celebrate this wonderful new program and have already set goals to push forward the momentum of the program,” says Teresa Signorelli, clinic director of the Ruth Smadbeck Communication and Learning Center. “We plan to double the patient capacity in the program by fall 2008 and to start a Spanish-speaking group.” 

The therapy group will provide social, emotional, and cognitive-linguistic support for 13 stroke survivors. Participants will engage in a variety of large and small group sessions throughout the day. Caregivers, or “co-survivors,” are invited to observe and participate in structured activities with an IAM facilitator who will provide them with advisement on helping family members suffering from Aphasia. The services are offered free to participants. The group will meet for four four-hour sessions throughout the spring 2008 semester.

The program is funded thanks to the generosity of the family of a former patient of the Smadbeck Center, Byrd Drucker. After his death in the fall of 2007, Dr. Drucker’s family started the Byrd Drucker Aphasic Fund, which supports the clinic, out of appreciation for the care Dr. Drucker received. The Smadbeck Center and the Drucker family plan to continue and expand fundraising for the Byrd Drucker Aphasic Fund, in order to support the growth of the program.

Aphasia is a communication disorder that often results from brain damage, most often a stroke. The brain trauma often leaves patients with motor difficulties, such as controlling their articulators, chewing and swallowing, using their arms and walking, in addition to the cognitive-linguistic communication difficulties.

Published: March 17, 2008