{"id":123070,"date":"2025-06-16T15:34:58","date_gmt":"2025-06-16T20:34:58","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?p=123070"},"modified":"2025-07-14T12:53:22","modified_gmt":"2025-07-14T17:53:22","slug":"art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/","title":{"rendered":"Art workshop helps participants with communication disorders"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Jon Reid often gets frustrated when he can\u2019t get the right words out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Reid, who has a progressive condition that impacts his speech, was able to work on his communication skills alongside his wife during a 10-week art program held at the Munroe-Meyer Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The experience was made more special since the workshop was facilitated by the couple\u2019s daughter, Kim (Reid) Darling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The program, Creative Arts and Aging, had about a dozen participants with various cognitive communication disorders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The budding artists started with making marks and mixing colors before taking to their canvases. Participants followed Darling\u2019s simple, concrete direction. They also communicated with each other by asking for materials, naming their artwork and talking about their projects, said Carol Gaebler, a speech-language pathologist at MMI.<\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Linda Reid, left, and Jon Reid pose for a photo next to their paintings.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

In addition to individual pieces, participants also worked on a collaborative painting that will eventually hang at MMI.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By the second and third weeks, participants became more comfortable, and chatter came more easily.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople were talking and laughing more,\u201d Gaebler said. \u201cThey were relaxed and not in their head about the words they wanted to say. Conversations were organic.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This was the second time the Reids have participated in an art workshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jon Reid has been taking speech services at MMI for about three years. He was diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia, which affects his ability to find words.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During one-on-one sessions with Gaebler, Reid works on strategies for when he can\u2019t find the right words or put them in the correct order. Those strategies include using gestures or drawings and pulling from a word bank, Gaebler said. Reid also uses a speech generating device that has pre-programmed buttons for his high communication needs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition to sessions with Gaebler, Reid also benefits from group activities, his wife Linda Reid said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He\u2019s part of a primary progressive aphasia communication group that meets in summer and fall for eight consecutive weeks. Each week is themed, with conversational topics such as the Olympics, for example. Participants then split into smaller groups and have discussions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Linda Reid attended speech therapy sessions of her own at MMI after suffering a stroke.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The art workshop challenged them to \u201cgo outside the lines,\u201d she said. \u201cIt created an increased opportunity for communication. I was so wonderfully pleased to have this opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Darling, with the Nebraska Arts Council, is a working artist. But she enjoys community-based projects like the MMI workshop.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to advocate and give back through programming,\u201d Darling said. \u201cI think when people relax and are in this meditative role, they can find a place of restorative practice within art making.”<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A 10-week art program held at the Munroe-Meyer Institute helped about a dozen participants with various cognitive communication disorders.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":140,"featured_media":123078,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"38632,41082,51989,96446,112260,31767","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-123070","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","department-munroe-meyer-institute","author_override-kelsey-kirk-unmc-strategic-communications"],"yoast_head":"\nArt workshop helps participants with communication disorders<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"A 10-week art program held at the Munroe-Meyer Institute helped about a dozen participants with various cognitive communication disorders.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Art workshop helps participants with communication disorders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A 10-week art program held at the Munroe-Meyer Institute helped about a dozen participants with various cognitive communication disorders.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Newsroom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2025-06-16T20:34:58+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2025-07-14T17:53:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2639-copy-scaled.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"2560\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1707\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Kelsey Kirk\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@unmc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Kelsey Kirk\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Kelsey Kirk\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/4e3146fb1da6082c4559ef1440548ce5\"},\"headline\":\"Art workshop helps participants with communication disorders\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-16T20:34:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-14T17:53:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/\"},\"wordCount\":460,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2639-copy-scaled.jpg\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/\",\"name\":\"Art workshop helps participants with communication disorders\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2639-copy-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2025-06-16T20:34:58+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2025-07-14T17:53:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"A 10-week art program held at the Munroe-Meyer Institute helped about a dozen participants with various cognitive communication disorders.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2639-copy-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2639-copy-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1707},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Art workshop helps participants with communication disorders\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"name\":\"Newsroom\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization\",\"name\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png\",\"width\":500,\"height\":153,\"caption\":\"University of Nebraska Medical Center\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/unmc\",\"https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/4e3146fb1da6082c4559ef1440548ce5\",\"name\":\"Kelsey Kirk\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/1385974ed5904a438616ff7bdb3f7439\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Art workshop helps participants with communication disorders","description":"A 10-week art program held at the Munroe-Meyer Institute helped about a dozen participants with various cognitive communication disorders.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Art workshop helps participants with communication disorders","og_description":"A 10-week art program held at the Munroe-Meyer Institute helped about a dozen participants with various cognitive communication disorders.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/","og_site_name":"Newsroom","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","article_published_time":"2025-06-16T20:34:58+00:00","article_modified_time":"2025-07-14T17:53:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":2560,"height":1707,"url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2639-copy-scaled.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Kelsey Kirk","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@unmc","twitter_site":"@unmc","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Kelsey Kirk","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/"},"author":{"name":"Kelsey Kirk","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/4e3146fb1da6082c4559ef1440548ce5"},"headline":"Art workshop helps participants with communication disorders","datePublished":"2025-06-16T20:34:58+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-14T17:53:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/"},"wordCount":460,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2639-copy-scaled.jpg","inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/","name":"Art workshop helps participants with communication disorders","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2639-copy-scaled.jpg","datePublished":"2025-06-16T20:34:58+00:00","dateModified":"2025-07-14T17:53:22+00:00","description":"A 10-week art program held at the Munroe-Meyer Institute helped about a dozen participants with various cognitive communication disorders.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2639-copy-scaled.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/06\/IMG_2639-copy-scaled.jpg","width":2560,"height":1707},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/2025\/06\/16\/art-workshop-helps-participants-with-communication-disorders\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Art workshop helps participants with communication disorders"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","name":"Newsroom","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#organization","name":"University of Nebraska Medical Center","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/overview-1.png","width":500,"height":153,"caption":"University of Nebraska Medical Center"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/unmcedu","https:\/\/x.com\/unmc","https:\/\/instagram.com\/iamunmc","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/user\/UNMCEDU"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/#\/schema\/person\/4e3146fb1da6082c4559ef1440548ce5","name":"Kelsey Kirk","url":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/author\/1385974ed5904a438616ff7bdb3f7439\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123070","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/140"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=123070"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123070\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":123085,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/123070\/revisions\/123085"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/123078"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=123070"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=123070"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.unmc.edu\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=123070"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}