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After Edith suffered a stroke in 2006, she was self-conscious when speaking to others due to impaired speech, stopped socializing and began to feel isolated. She recalls what it was like to try to express herself following the stroke, "I wasn’t able to put sentences together to express myself in a way that others would understand what I was talking about." Edith initially came to ICD for Physical Therapy, but was also referred to the Speech, Language, Learning & Hearing Department to evaluate the ways in which the stroke had affected her speech. She began receiving Speech Therapy twice a week and, since then, has seen a tremendous improvement in her verbal communication. According to Edith, her Speech Therapy sessions include learning how to paraphrase and extract main ideas from reading selections to most effectively relay those ideas to others. "My speech therapist at ICD has really made me feel comfortable and relaxed. After only one month, I’m learning how to speak in more succinct sentences. Now that I can understand what I’m saying, I find that other people also understand me much better. Now all I want to do is talk, talk, talk!" In addition to Speech Therapy, Edith continues to attend Physical and Occupational Therapy at ICD on a regular basis. "Everybody here is so pleasant and helpful that they have become just like family and friends. There is a very relaxed atmosphere here and I recommend that others come check it out too!"
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