Making the World a Better Place - Touro College

second-year student originally from Belarus,
says, “Only six percent of speech language
pathologists in New York are bilingual. This
is a great opportunity to work with people
who really need a therapist who speaks their
language and understands their references.”
The tight-knit group responds to
intellectual stimuli, partly because they are
an educated lot. In addition to Naum, there
is another engineer, Sasha, who often gets
into heated political debates. Irina is an
expert in Russian literature. Pre-aphasia,
she had her own talk show. Now, even
though her language skills are considerably
diminished, she's been known to lecture to
the group for 20 minutes at a time about
Tolstoy's psychology. Larisa, an elderly
woman who is now wheelchair-bound, was
an infectious disease doctor.
Given the difficulties they face, the
members are supportive of and generous
with one another. For example, when Larisa
first joined the group, she was disoriented
and disruptive, calling out for her mother who
had passed away, and occasionally even
hitting her attendant. Instead of rejecting her
behavior, the members displayed
compassion and patience. Over time, Larisa
began to calm down. Now she can put
sentences together, ask questions and play
“Jeopardy.” Israel, a fellow post-stroke patient,
sometimes calls her his “girlfriend,” a playful
gesture that makes Larisa’s face light up.
It’s clear how personally meaningful this
work—building bridges between patients’
intellectual activity and their ability to
communicate—is to the students and to Dr.
Reichel, whose specialty is not only aphasia,
but also stuttering and cluttering. She is a
member of the Multicultural Task Force of the
National Aphasia Association. As chair of the
Committee of International Representatives
of the International Cluttering Association,
she travels the globe presenting research on
emotional intelligence, stuttering, and
cluttering—a speech disorder characterized
by a fast speech rate, erratic
rhythm and poor speech
intelligibility. Yet no matter how
busy she is, the aphasia group
remains a priority. “I just love
these people so much. They
are amazing,” she says.
Rosalie Unterman, Ph.D.,
clinical director of the Center,
says of the committed Dr.
Reichel, “She has the ideas,
skills and passion to help. She
fits in here so well.”
When Naum got excited
hearing the Italian language,
Dr. Reichel (dubbed by
Lubinsky as “a thinker with
heart”) appeared as pleased as the rest of
the group. The swell of positive feelings only
enhanced the magnitude of what had just
occurred. Since different languages map to
slightly different areas of the brain, hearing
Italian sparked new growth for Naum, a huge
victory in an area where small steps take on
extraordinary significance. Ever observant,
Dr. Reichel smiled and said, “Look at that. He
added the word ‘also.’”
As Naum smiled, too, his caretaker
chimed in, “He’s always asking me, ‘Is it
Thursday yet?’” n
“This rehabilitation through
group treatment with
bilingual speech pathologists
is an area that no one else is
addressing. It’s a great way
for us to give back to
underserved populations.”
– Hindy Lubinsky,
Department Chair and Director
of Touro’s Graduate Program in
Speech Language Pathology
TOURO LINKS I SPRING 2013 25