JACKSONVILLE, FL (Mayo Clinic, Stroke Support Group, Jacksonville, FL, Tuesday, February 4, 2020 at 11:00 AM to Noon.)
I presented “Aphasia, Regaining your language after a stroke” to about 15 members of the Stroke Support Group at Mayo, several SLPs, plus my hosts, Jessica Talbot, and Suzanne Brown, RN at the Mayo Clinic’s brand new Mangurian Building.
We talked about the need to educate more people in the healthcare community and the wider public, given that only 8.8% of the U.S. population are “aphasia aware.” We discussed exercise (walking) and language activities as the active ingredients that induce plasticity and the resultant learning and recovery. We also used the analogy of a neural polygraph (duplicating device) with plasticity ink to better understanding how plasticity works (see the plasticity ink article on my website, www.strokeeducator.com).
We also talked about how each one of us can help educate others, from the wider public to new stroke survivors in need of education, with a “Each One, Teach One” approach as stroke survivors and now as stroke educators. It was a wonderful, aphasia awareness day at Mayo today!
Thank you Mayo and thanks to the new members of the stroke educator network!