Saturday, March 16, 2013
And now he talks
We were at the Book Fair at Elijah's school this week and the librarian related a story from that week. She said that Elijah had raised his hand to ask a question. A few minutes later he raised his hand again and told her "I used to not talk. But now I do."
And we are grateful for that.
We realized when he was in preschool last year that he really didn't talk at all in class. Ever. It was with this knowledge that he entered Kindergarten this year. And unsurprisingly did not talk. We did what we could to help him engage in school and worked to help him feel comfortable with talking. It was interesting because I could literally see him shutting down sometimes when we walked into school.
We met with the school Student Services and Child Psychologist and as is typical in our society today, walked out with a label. Selective Mutism. Google it and it will tell give you a description of a lot of what Elijah was doing. (It also mentioned that the Virginia Tech shooter had Selectism Mutism that had not been dealt with. Thank you kind internet for helping to increase my already healthy mother guilt.)
And then a few weeks ago his teacher emailed me to tell me that he started talking in PE and didn't stop. And then his music teacher stopped us in church on Sunday to tell use that he had started talking there.
We were at school this past week for what used to be called Parent/Teacher Conferences but now it's Student Progress Conference where you get to see your child doing things in their class. And he talked. He talked about his journal entries. And he talked about his numbers.
And it felt like a weight had been lifted off our shoulders. Now he can get on with the business of learning and having people see what a terrific kid he is. There is so much great stuff in his head that was getting lost because he wouldn't, or couldn't, get it out.
And thank you God for answering the prayers of a little boy that last Christmas asked me to pray that he would talk in school.
And we are grateful for that.
We realized when he was in preschool last year that he really didn't talk at all in class. Ever. It was with this knowledge that he entered Kindergarten this year. And unsurprisingly did not talk. We did what we could to help him engage in school and worked to help him feel comfortable with talking. It was interesting because I could literally see him shutting down sometimes when we walked into school.
We met with the school Student Services and Child Psychologist and as is typical in our society today, walked out with a label. Selective Mutism. Google it and it will tell give you a description of a lot of what Elijah was doing. (It also mentioned that the Virginia Tech shooter had Selectism Mutism that had not been dealt with. Thank you kind internet for helping to increase my already healthy mother guilt.)
And then a few weeks ago his teacher emailed me to tell me that he started talking in PE and didn't stop. And then his music teacher stopped us in church on Sunday to tell use that he had started talking there.
We were at school this past week for what used to be called Parent/Teacher Conferences but now it's Student Progress Conference where you get to see your child doing things in their class. And he talked. He talked about his journal entries. And he talked about his numbers.
And it felt like a weight had been lifted off our shoulders. Now he can get on with the business of learning and having people see what a terrific kid he is. There is so much great stuff in his head that was getting lost because he wouldn't, or couldn't, get it out.
And thank you God for answering the prayers of a little boy that last Christmas asked me to pray that he would talk in school.
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