Paolo Gets Speech Therapy through an IWL Special Needs Grant

"On behalf of my family I would like to thank the Italian Welfare League for your generous support towards our son Paolo's speech therapy at Speech Language Pathology in Motion. Paolo is a very sweet 4 year old boy. At the age of 2 he was diagnosed with a speech delay and we have come to find out that he has difficulty processing speech/language. He has trouble understanding it and verbally expressing himself. When your child has developmental delays you want to provide them with every opportunity available to help them learn, thrive, and reach their potential. Thank you for helping to make that possible for Paolo. With your help we have been able to provide hippotherapy (a form of speech & occupational therapy utilizing horses) for Paolo, and we have noticed remarkable improvements already! Since starting hippotherapy, we have seen an increase in Paolo's vocabulary along with other speech abilities. Most notable to me is that his ability to verbally recall past events has emerged. In fact, the first time Paolo has ever verbally recalled a past event was after a hippotherapy session when his therapist asked him to tell me the animals that he had seen during his session and recount things they had done. Hippotherapy has also improved Paolo's gravitational insecurity as well. Before starting this therapy, he was uncomfortable being off the ground in any way but being on a sweet & gentle horse with a kind & supportive therapist seems to have been just what Paolo needed to begin to overcome this challenge. The benefits of hippotherapy have dramatically improved many aspects of Paolo's life and again we want to thank you for your support. Having a child that struggles in any way can take a heavy emotional toll on a parent. We want to thank you for lessening that weight for our family, and for all of the other families that you have so generously helped. Sincerely, Deanna" The IWL makes annual grants to several hippotherapy and speech therapy organizations.