{"id":132696,"date":"2026-02-13T17:52:25","date_gmt":"2026-02-13T17:52:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132696\/"},"modified":"2026-02-13T17:52:25","modified_gmt":"2026-02-13T17:52:25","slug":"nyc-health-hospitals-north-central-bronx-help-immigrant-children-overcome-speech-and-developmental-delays-bronx-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/132696\/","title":{"rendered":"NYC Health + Hospitals\/North Central Bronx help immigrant children overcome speech and developmental delays \u2013 Bronx Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

NYC Health + Hospitals\/North Central Bronx<\/a> Community Health Workers (CHW) Mariam Diakite and Desiree Martinez have helped provide two Bronx families with much-needed support for their young children who are dealing with speech and developmental delays.<\/p>\n

Support services offered by CHW include connecting patients and sending referrals to appropriate agencies, such as Early Intervention<\/a> (EI), the Committee for Pre-School on Special Education (CPSE) and the Committee on Special Education<\/a> (CSE).<\/p>\n

The first child, four-year-old Mateo, who immigrated to the United States with his family from Ecuador, had been unable to speak. Before receiving assistance from Diakite and Martinez, he had been limited to communicating via gestures.<\/p>\n

Diakite and Martinez spent seven months navigating obstacles before securing speech and occupational therapy for Mateo twice a week.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cWe worked to ensure the parents felt comfortable sharing their concerns in their own language,\u201d Diakite said.\n<\/p>\n

Now, thanks in large part to the efforts of Diakite and Martinez, Mateo is verbal. He is currently happy and thriving in preschool.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cMy child can now communicate and play with others,\u201d Mateo\u2019s mother said. \u201cWithout CHW support, this would not have been possible.\u201d\n<\/p>\n

The other child they helped was a five-year-old boy named Koffi, who immigrated with his family to the country from Togo. After his family entered the shelter system, he was found to be unable to hold a spoon or pencil, in addition to struggling to speak.<\/p>\n

The CHWs devoted three years to coordinating referrals, escorting Koffi\u2019s family to appointments and helping them overcome missed evaluations and language barriers.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery obstacle meant finding another solution,\u201d Martinez\u00a0said.\n<\/p>\n

Diakite, who is fluent in French, eventually started accompanying the family to visits, marking a major turning point. This led to Koffi receiving consistent speech therapy and special education support.<\/p>\n

Today, Koffi is a kindergarten student. He also takes part in after-school programs. His family now stably lives in the Bronx.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cOur community health workers play a vital role connecting families to developmental, behavioral and social services,\u201d North Central Bronx Hospital Attending Physician Dr. Elisa Karp said. \u201cFor immigrant families learning to navigate complex systems, their advocacy is transformative.\u201d<\/p>\n

North Central Bronx Hospital\u2019s CHW Program helped connect more than 460 at-risk children to critical services in 2025.\n<\/p>\n

\u201cThese stories show how CHWs empower families and prevent delays in care that can change a child\u2019s life forever,\u201d North Central Bronx Hospital CHW Supervisor Hilda Reyes said.
\n\"\"(Left to right) Mariam Diakite, Hilda Reyes and Desiree Martinez. Photo courtesy of NYC Health + Hospitals\/North Central Bronx<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NYC Health + Hospitals\/North Central Bronx Community Health Workers (CHW) Mariam Diakite and Desiree Martinez have helped provide…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":132697,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[38],"tags":[128,56752,56753,56754,9,24,63,32946,129,131,130],"class_list":["post-132696","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-the-bronx","tag-bronx","tag-community-health-workers","tag-desiree-martinez","tag-mariam-diakite","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc","tag-nyc-health-hospitals-north-central-bronx","tag-the-bronx","tag-the-bronx-headlines","tag-the-bronx-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132696","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=132696"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/132696\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/132697"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=132696"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=132696"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=132696"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}