speech – Ezer Mizion

Is “He” Still There?

“It could happen to anyone. Maybe to the person who passes your house each day on the way to work or the man sitting across from you on the train. This time it happened to my ozeret. A very nice lady who has been coming to clean for me for years,” relates Yonit Hagoel-Karnieli, Director of Ezer Mizion’s Speech Generating Devices Lending Center. “She was telling me about her brother-in-law who had a sudden heart attack. The heart attack led to a stroke which resulted in almost complete paralysis. From being a beloved member of a family, an active community member, he became a nothing- a “vegetable”. My ozeret was so upset. Continue reading Is “He” Still There?

Speak for Yourself by Kobi Arieli

Do me a little favor. As you read these lines, look up for a moment and say something. Out loud. For instance, “Pizza with olives.” Someone will come into the room in a panic and ask if you lost your mind. You will laugh aloud and say: “It’s nothing. Just that weird Arieli with his nonsense. Everything is fine.”
Communication. This handy word that we instantly associate nowadays with an exclusive interview with a government minister or a strike by workers at the TV channel or a news bulletin. We’ve almost forgotten that it also has a basic meaning, more basic than any other: The ability of man to maintain a connection with those around him. To benefit from others, to give to them, to ask, to express emotions, to reflect other people’s emotions. To live. That is what you did just a moment ago. You produced a sound. Someone asked you something. You answered. That is how human society lives.
We have almost forgotten that some people lack this basic ability. Ezer Mizion National Headquarters. Fourth Floor. The Speech Generating Device Lending Center. Ezer Mizion’s remarkable place for technological solutions for the speech impaired, one of only three of its kind in the entire world. This floor of Ezer Mizion provides responses for the almost infinite spectrum of people who were not gifted with – or lost – the ability to communicate with those around them through speech.
Just before, they brought here a 43-year-old fellow, precisely my age. Continue reading Speak for Yourself by Kobi Arieli

Victory!

Yediot Acharonot, January 1, 2015 by Yaron Kellner
The victory of little Yael, just 6-1/2, who has cerebral palsy (CP) and cannot speak: A special computer that will enable her and another 625 patients to communicate with the people around them was finally included, for the first time, in Israel’s Ministry of Health Basket List of subsidized medical equipment. “This is a gigantic gift,” says her mother, Dana.

Yonit Hagoel-Karnieli, Director of Ezer Mizion’s Speech Generating Devices Lending Center and the one who led the battle that led to this major achievement, announced today: “Israel’s Ministry of Health Basket Committee has recognized the basic human right to speech!” Continue reading Victory!

Active Nurting Playground Project in Action for Fourteen Years

Ezer Mizion’s “Active Nurturing Playground” project has long become a synonym for “success” in its important goal of identifying children with minimal developmental challenges at an early age and helping them progress within their own pre-school framework.
The program provides a response for the spectrum of developmental fields: gross and fine motor skills, sensory issues, and language/communication. The program also addresses the highly important socio-emotional area. Continue reading Active Nurting Playground Project in Action for Fourteen Years

Gates of Prison Unlocked

Communication is taken for granted by the average person. He can enter a store and ask for a coke.He can say ‘excuse me’ and be allowed to pass. He can express his anger when treated unfairly. For some, though, it is not so simple. A stroke patient, an accident victim, a child born with a genetic disorder may be cut off from human communication due to his inability to speak.

Technological advances have enabled innovative devices to be used to provide the patient with the ability to communicate. He may use his finger to point on a communication board. He may touch a selected square on a touch screen or he may type on a keyboard to make his needs, his thoughts and opinions known to others. Continue reading Gates of Prison Unlocked

A Silent Demonstration

The demonstration was completely silent. But it was a powerful silence…a silence that spoke worlds. The children were demonstrating for a communication device to be included in the items to be funded by the government. The reason for the silence? Inability to speak! Continue reading A Silent Demonstration

Ipads and Toddlers when Speech is Delayed

When iPads, iPhones and iPods were first marketed, there was a lot of talk about their potential for making video viewing, reading books and newspapers, games, social networking. office apps and more, easily accessible.

Millions of i-gadgets have since been sold around the world. With the development and increased presence of the i-devices, children at younger ages have been exposed to them, are playing with them and using them more and more. Continue reading Ipads and Toddlers when Speech is Delayed

Fantastic!

Dear Yaniv and Hila,

Today, Ya’

arah learned wonderfully! The VOCA computer is absolutely fantastic and is very helpful in keeping her up with the lesson.

I worked with her individually on worksheets in the holiday folder. Continue reading Fantastic!

Hope

Dear Ezer Mizion and especially the VOCA Communication Devices Loan Department,

We greatly appreciate the opportunity you gave us to try out such costly equipment to check and see if it is effective for us.

The special computer gave our child a chance at better and more understandable communication, and gave us the impetus to make every effort to buy him a computer. Continue reading Hope

Sharing our Joy

Dear Yonit,

I wanted to share with you and Ayala the tremendous excitement I felt yesterday upon reading Ya’arah teacher’s enthusiastic note. I am attaching a copy of what she wrote in the Parent-Teacher notebook.

Ever since Ya’arah received the VOCA computer, her time in school is filled with content – She participates in the lesson, copies words from the board and has even made remarkable progress coloring and writing thanks to her use of the electronic pen! To my surprise, she even prefers it over a touch screen. Use of the electronic pen has also improved her pencil grip.

All the bulky folders full of communication boards remain at home now, and instead, we send Ya’arah with her compact computer!

Amazing improvement has taken place in her general abilities as well. She can already read and write on the computer: Abba, Ima, Galit (her sister) Tami (her other sister), Saba, Savta and more.

All this in less than a month!

Thank you so much!
Yaniv F.