The Amina Grace Speech and Language Program
We will begin to offer the Amina Grace Speech and Language Program three times per year:
- Spring Session 2025 – 15 weeks
Registration: December 15th, 2024 to January 4th, 2025
Runs: January 20th – May 3rd, 2025 - Summer Session 2025 - 10 weeks
Registration: May 1st - May 15th, 2025
Runs: June 9th - August 17th, 2025 - Fall Session 2025 - 15 weeks
Registration: August 7th - August 21st, 2025
Runs: September 2nd - December 13th, 2025
If your local Playhouse offers speech and language, please apply through them. If your local Playhouse is not offering the speech and language program, please apply through GiGi's Virtual Playhouse.
For more information regarding the Amina Grace Speech and Language program, please contact the playhouse at (216) 529-3333 or email cleveland@gigisplayhouse.org
The GiGi’s Amina Grace Speech and Language one-on-one program provides youth, teens and adults with greatly expanded opportunities to evolve and refine their speech and language skills. Effective enunciation, clarity of speech, word order and message meaning are paramount to fostering greater self-confidence, comprehension, problem-solving, school readiness, social skills, independence, and overall quality of life.
Goals
- Increase clarity of speech and enunciation through a hierarchical approach of repeated exposure and practice of target sounds, focusing on accurate placement of oral articulators.
- Improve word order and message meaning through focused exercises targeting various parts of speech, including: verb tense, word choice, sentence completion and more.
- Increase comprehension through the use of various visual models and tasks targeting functional level-appropriate targets.
Benefits
- Increase self-confidence through positive reinforcement and various forms of appropriate supportive methods, including: verbal, visual and tactile.
- Improve school and social readiness through activities and goals geared towards preparing participants for skills required within their age-leveled school grade, thereby, increasing their chances of improving social skills of blending with classmates.
- Increase independence and overall quality of life through confidence-building activities, self-help skills and a positive-reinforcing approach to therapeutic targets.
The GiGi’s Amina Grace Speech and Language program came to be by the generous donation of Munawar Ali and Maura Cullen in honor of their daughter Amina Grace.
Since the inception of the GiGi's Amina Grace Speech & Language 1:1 program we have served over 2,100 individuals with Down syndrome! We have hosted over 75,000 hours of FREE speech lessons! These numbers continue to grow each day!
The GiGi's Amina Grace Speech & Language 1:1 program is open to individuals with Down syndrome of ALL ages and runs 3 sessions throughout the year. This program, like all others at GiGi's Playhouse, is provided completely FREE OF CHARGE to all of our participants and families!
