CHAT can’t do this work without your support.
Donate today and give the gift of communication to more children in need.
CHAT works to reach as many underserved children as possible, bridging the wide service gaps for speech-language therapy.
One involves 3-5-year-olds. They’re too old for Early Intervention (EI), but too young for kindergarten. If they didn’t receive EI, have they even been evaluated for a delay? If not, how are they supposed to access the therapy they need?
These are questions to which our new partnership seeks answers.
CHAT recently announced the Communication Justice Project together with Northwestern University’s Pediatric Speech Technologies and Acoustic Research Lab (PedzSTAR) and the Childcare Network of Evanston (CNE). This partnership addresses a significant gap at underserved preschools, bringing services onsite at no cost to families and removing the geographic and financial barriers to accessing speech-language therapy.
CHAT only recently began this work, but the project has boundless impact. Theo’s story is one example:
Theo is four. He barely speaks at school. His teacher couldn’t engage him in anything but reading. He struggled to follow directions. Ms. Shanah supports Theo’s classroom through the Communication Justice Project and suspected he might be a hyperlexic learner—precocious readers who struggle with language and social interaction, a longtime CHAT specialty. She suggested that Theo’s teacher write directions for him on a whiteboard. This proved game changing: Theo is now following most directions, and his teacher is thankful for the support.
Through this project, CHAT will serve hundreds of children like Theo. Our presence at these schools will enable early detection and intervention, leveling the field with more affluent peers heading into kindergarten.
Current funding enables only one morning a week per site, just beginning to address the need. In 2025, we will grow to provide deeper, sustainable services, furthering CHAT’s mission of serving those with few – if any – other options.
We are reaching more children than ever before. But the work is complex, and the need is vast.
We need YOU to help us serve more children like Theo with life-changing speech services. Will you donate today?
Click Here & Give TodayFor $1520, you can change a child’s life with a year of 1:1 therapy.
Your $600 gift sends a child on Medicaid to one of our life-changing summer programs.
$280 funds two speech-language evaluations, which open the doors to CHAT therapy.
Your $160 gift provides a month of weekly therapy for a child on Medicaid.
100% of annual appeal donations fund direct services for children in need.
Through its partnership with PedzSTAR and CNE, CHAT is bringing speech-language services to hundreds of children at eight Head Start and Preschool for All sites in Evanston and Skokie.
“Our partnership is opening up new pathways to care for families and schools, giving them hope that the impossible is possible.”
– Dr. Marisha Speights, Assistant Professor, Northwestern University; Director, PedzSTAR
“The highest rate of return in early childhood development comes from investing as early as possible, from birth through age five, in disadvantaged families.”
– James J. Heckman, Professor of Economics, University of Chicago; Nobel Laureate in Economics
CHAT teaches families to advocate for their children and to overcome the systemic inequities experienced by all children in our education system but especially by children in marginalized communities.
– Nerissa Coyle McGinn, CHAT Board Member; Partner, Loeb & Loeb LLP