Ben* is a five-year-old child who was referred to the CHW Center for Clinical Training & Community Care for speech therapy at age three.

Ben is a very intelligent little boy. However, when he arrived to the CHW Center, he was unable to express himself. Very quickly, the speech pathologists were able to diagnose Ben with verbal Apraxia. Apraxia is a speech disorder that causes people, including many children like Ben, to have difficulty articulating themselves.

When Ben began treatment, he could only say two consonants correctly and spoke few, single-syllabled words.

For two years, Ben received speech therapy at the CHW Center. The treatment method that the speech and language pathologists together with the audiologists felt would be best for Ben was a structured and graded therapy approach which emphasized teaching Ben new sounds to say while increasing the complexity and length of the new words.

After 18 months he began to speak fluently. Today, Ben is in kindergarten and does not require any further intervention.

As a result of the CHW Center, Ben’s life has been remarkably changed. He learns alongside the other children his age, at the same rate, and with no disadvantage; his parents are so grateful to Hadassah Academic College and CHW for supporting them and their precious son on this journey.

*Name changed for confidentiality