Four types of developmental speech difficulties were reversed in just eight months of therapy
Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates: Al Mushrif Children’s Specialty Center, part of Ambulatory Healthcare Services (AHS), a subsidiary of PureHealth – the UAE’s largest integrated healthcare platform, shared the heart-warming successful treatment of Khaled Saleh Al Enezi, an eight-year-old UAE national who suffered from several speech issues resulting in delayed speech and language development.
After just eight months of speech therapy at the Al Mushrif Center, all of Khaled’s speech issues were successfully reversed and he can now communicate effectively and live a normal life.
Speech and language disorders are common among children. Such disorders can have a detrimental impact on the child’s ability to communicate and can result in social, academic, and emotional trauma and difficulties.
Khaled’s comprehensive speech therapy included language training to improve expressive language and conversational skills, oral motor training, articulation and phonological processing exercises, and patient and parent counselling sessions to improve verbal communication.
Dr Noura Al Ghaithi, Chief Executive Officer of AHS, said: “We are delighted with the success of this treatment on Khaled Al Enezi, which is encouraging not only for Al Mushrif Children’s Speciality Center, AHS, but also to thousands of children who face similar condition in the region. We are proud of the team at Al Mushrif for this phenomenal success, which is part of our mandate to create healthier, more resilient communities. We are thankful to the support and vision of the PureHealth leadership in achieving these milestones.”
Emadaddin Ali Al Rababah, Speech Pathologist at Al Mushrif Children’s Specialty Center, said: “Khaled had a phonological process disorder causing an inability to discriminate between speech sounds by hearing or talking; oral muscle weakness resulting in reduced oral strength and range of motion; and a bilingual disorder which meant that he jumbled Arabic and English resulting in an inability to form correct sentences or links during conversations. It was clear that these issues would have a profound impact on Khaled’s ability to function normally in the society and naturally a cause of concern for his parents. With diligent and focused therapy, we are extremely glad to say that Khaled no longer suffers from any speech issues and, for us that is indeed the biggest gift of all.”
Al Mushrif Children’s Specialty Center is the first-of-its-kind in Abu Dhabi and part of the Ambulatory Health Services. The Center provides a wide range of children’s specialty services provided by high calibre, experienced consultants.
The spectrum of speech therapies offered include services tailored to treat hearing loss; developmental speech and language delay; fluency disorders like stuttering, special needs like Down’s Syndrome, Autism and cerebral palsy; communication disorders; language learning difficulties; phonological and articulation disorders; and oral muscles weakness among others.
AHS, part of the PureHealth Group currently manages 31 multi-specialty healthcare centres, three dental specialty centres, 14 disease prevention and screening centres, school health services at 250 public schools, and six mobile clinic solutions. Through the years, AHS has acquired numerous local and international recognitions and awards as validations for its quest to provide the best quality care in a safe environment-friendly setting.
