Onward House

A 2011 grant from Nuestro Futuro is helping provide teachers and language therapists for two-year old children in the Belmont Cragin neighborhood.

When she first came through the doors of Onward Neighborhood House, two-year-old Yadira didn’t say a word. Diagnosed with a language development delay, she could only point or make noises to communicate. Yadira's only way of expressing her emotions was to cry—which she did every morning, when it was time to come to school.

"At first, Yadira hated going to school," recalls Samantha Krawczykowski, a teacher for the Prevention Initiative Classroom and one of Yadira's closest friends. "She was detached and secluded. Now she walks in and speaks with confidence, expressing what she wants."

Yadira's mother enrolled her in the Onward House Prevention Initiative Classroom and sought the help of a speech therapist. For one hour every Monday, the speech therapist works with Yadira, her mother and teacher. Together they assess her progress, and devise techniques like word modeling and repetition to be used at home and in the classroom.

Thanks to this collaborative approach, in less than a year Yadira has gone from not speaking at all to using declarative sentences ("I want red!") and responding to open-ended questions ("I don't know.") She engages freely with her peers and teachers and possesses a newly found sense of independence.

"Yadira is talking all the time now," her mother says. "I can't get her to stop."

Learn more about Nuestro Futuro, the Trust's affiliate that supports programs improving the quality of life of Latinos in metropolitan Chicago.