Best of all: Cierra

Cierra W. is a 22-year-old participant here at GiGi’s Playhouse Tinley Park. She recently completed the summer session of our Amina Grace 1:1 Speech & Language Program in August.

Cierra can be slow to warm up to people. With this in mind, her speech therapist was challenged with finding an icebreaker early on, in order to engage Cierra in the speech sessions. She tapped into something Cierra loves most: FOOD! Their weekly speech sessions involving basic cooking activities brought out the best in Cierra! She made iced coffee drinks, pancakes, mini pizzas, chocolate covered pretzels…the list goes on! Each week Cierra needed to talk with her speech therapist about the things they needed for each recipe, interact with others throughout the Playhouse to take “orders” or offer what she made, and plan for the following week. 

Cierra really grew through these weekly activities, and you could see how proud she was each time she approached someone with one of her treats and asked them if they would like any! These cooking activities helped Cierra grow in her communication, social interaction, cognitive planning, and so much more. We are proud of the progress Cierra has made and look forward to seeing her continued growth through the Amina Grace Speech & Language Program program during the fall session.