Giving Tuesday is an international day of charitable giving at the beginning of the holiday season created in 2013, a movement dedicated to giving back after frenzied Black Friday shopping.
The Reach Gift of Speech campaign will be live on Dec. 3 on Giving Tuesday. It is an awareness and fundraising initiative to help children with complex needs receive early intervention speech therapy when it makes the greatest impact.
This year, Reach speech language pathologist Katie Scozzafava was filmed with four-year-old Parvaan. Two videos available on the Reach Gift of Speech funding page give a behind the scenes look at a speech therapy session.
According to Reach, at least one in 10 preschoolers need to see a speech language pathologist for support in developing age-appropriate communication skills. The earlier a communication disorder is identified, the better the chances for improvement or even recovery.
Supporting Reach early intervention speech therapy is important because it helps to remove children from wait lists preventing them from receiving critical intervention prior to kindergarten.
Scozzavava said about one-third of children in B.C. are not ready to learn when they reach kindergarten age and this learning readiness gap can follow then their entire life.
Visit www.reachchild.org to access information on Reach Gift of Speech 2019.
