Reach Society's 2024 Holiday Appeal features 4 year old Arabella, her mom Janelle and REACH Speech Language Therapist Kim. Every year, Reach Society's Gift of Speech raises funds for Early Intervention Speech Therapy sessions that make a crucial difference difference in youngsters lives. In the video below, you will hear Arabella's mom say, "Arabella wouldn’t be where she is today without speech therapy at REACH.”  

You will see Arabella involved in three different therapy exercises in the video:

1. A sentence strip is used to help expand sentence length from 1-2 words to 3-4 words.  Pointing to each picture in a story book helps reinforce the connection between words and their meanings.  

2. Mr. Potato Head uses visuals/pictures to help Arabella communicate for what body part/item is wanted. Offering pictures allows Arabella to make choices and promotes independence.  Using pictures has also been proven to facilitate the spoken word. 

3. The Box Game helps model prepositions - specifically under and on top. This exercise also encourages Arabella to use a sign or word to say "lift up" when she wanted to find the hidden item.

REACH parent Janelle introduces the video and shares input on how important speech therapy is to their family. Arabella has been in REACH speech therapy for 2 years and the improvement to her communication skills has given Janelle tremendous hope for her future. Please help other children like Arabella by donating to Gift of Speech 2024 at Reach Child and Youth Development Society this year. A $75 donation funds one speech language therapy session and our goal is to raise $30,000 to fund 400 sessions in this campaign. Double your impact this year as the first $10,000 in donations will be matched!