Brochure Brief: We are a preschool and agency that works with deaf kids and kids with speech and processing issues. We would like a brochure targeting multi-cultural parents of children with Central Auditory Processing Disorder (CAPD) or other language learning deficits. When someone looks at our brochure, words that should come to mind are professional, modern, clean, kid-friendly, knowledgeable, warm.
A Tale of Two Children One spring afternoon, 18 years ago, two beautiful babies – Sara and Daniel – were born. Sara was fair and weighed 5lbs 2, Daniel dark and 4lbs 7. Their parents exchanged congratulations, happy and grateful for their new and healthy babies. All was well. That is, until about 18 months old… Sara didn’t seem to be listening when her parents spoke to her. And Daniel’s mother noticed he wasn’t babbling happily like other children. They were worried. By second grade, Daniel was driving his parents crazy. He was fidgety, had this aimless look and couldn’t even play nicely by himself. It got worse. Nobody wanted to play with him. They just made fun and he felt hurt and humiliated. His parents were also frustrated because they didn’t understand him either. “What’s wrong with you? Why aren’t you listening?”
But what happened to Sara? A Tragedy that Could Have Been Avoided By fourth grade, Daniel is often violent, involved in fights or seems lost and introverted. He’s falling behind and failing academically. He feels he doesn’t belong. He can’t even figure out basic stuff, like understanding jokes, what his teacher said after “open your English books,” or how to get kids to include him in Dodgeball. It’s really embarrassing for his family. By the time he gets to middle school, he’s developed a pattern that will last for the rest of his academic life. He’s been labeled as stupid, feels like a loser and knows he’s a social failure.But it doesn’t stop there. He hangs out with the wrong kids. Drops out of school. No chance of college. He won’t hold down a job. And you know what happens next. Poor parents. Poor Daniel.No friends. Low self-esteem. And very little hope.
WHAT MADE THE DIFFERENCE?
Strivright. “The school where miracles happen daily.”
Pnina Bravman
Set up in 1999 by Sam and Pnina Bravmann – an audiologist, speech language pathologist and certified auditory verbal therapist – Strivright now serves over 500 children every day in all five boroughs of New York. It’s the largest school of its kind in the world.
Solution: Using the colors of their logo, I designed a clean, modern looking brochure. Text was organized in a non-overwhelming, yet informative, professional way. I used pictures that show kids who are happy and learning, together with pictures of staff members that depict a warm, caring atmosphere.
Strivright is really a school that cares about each and every child and makes them shine like a true star.
Miriam’s Mom
Well, Sara has been mainstreamed since the age of 5. She speaks fluently, sings in a choir and leads a perfectly normal teenage life, playing sports, socializing with friends and doing well in school. She has an excellent chance of entering college and literally has a big say in her own future.
Lemons to Lemonade How did it all start? Well, after being exposed to rubella during pregnancy, Pnina gave birth to a beautiful baby daughter, Batsheva. For the first year of her life, the cute little girl seemed to be in perfect health. Alert and adorable, she began talking at 12 months. Perfectly normal. However, her speech did not pick up as quickly as it should. Sam and Pnina immediately noticed something was wrong. Testing confirmed their fears and Batsheva was fitted with hearing aids. The change was remarkable and she became a happy, smiling toddler once again. But that didn’t last long. One year later, the agony returned. “She would see a bird chirping and ask me, ‘Mommy, do you hear that? I don’t hear it any more.” Further testing had revealed a significant drop in Batsheva’s hearing. The Bravmann’s hearts sank. After the initial shock and sadness, they set about looking for solutions. A cochlear implant was the first step. And then they began looking for a suitable framework for their daughter. NO organization could help Batsheva mainstream into the local school system. What were they supposed to do now? Sam and Pnina had no choice. They decided to go it alone. “I kept asking over and over – Why isn’t there a place where kids with hearing, speech-language and processing problems can really grow and develop? Not a special-ed school but a framework where they learn to listen, speak and sing along with mainstream kids.” Such was their determination that today, Batsheva – like Sara – is a healthy, well-adjusted teenager in every way, academically and socially. As Batsheva herself says, “There are no limits to what I can do.”