Realization

I took Big Guy to his second appointment with his speech lady yesterday. I dropped him off and headed out to the car to deal with insurance. When I picked him up she said she noticed I had worked with him. Slightly confused, I said yes, as in of course. She went on about it for awhile, how he seems to have made a complete 360 turn around, had everything down that she had laid out to work with him on today and was doing amazing. She also seemed blown away that I actually worked with him. I guess most parents don't. Relieved and proud of my little guy I said maybe he just needed a little reminder to watch how he's pronunciating. She agrees that may be the case. When we had gone for his screening she noticed a lot more things than we had realized he needed to work on, I guess not working with somebody for so long had brought back a few of his old habits that we didn't notice. Really I only worked with him two or three times - extensively each time, and I know how much better he does when I work with him at home, on a continual basis as well, but I didn't realize it would make that much of an impact.

It continually amazes me the little amount of time kids need to learn. I understand that they go to school eight hours a day and when you're thinking about home-schooling that is often intimidating because you know there's no way you're going to be spending eight hours a day teaching them. But if you think about it that's because there's often ten to twenty kids a class, and they need that time for each child to get the individual amount of time they need. When I stop and think about that, I feel a little relieved.

Any way, back to Big Guy. We did a memory game with LOTS of cards twice, and worked with a handful of Cheerios on where his tongue should be. That was hard for him at first, but he really got it down and wanted to finish the whole handful. I'm so glad. Now we have a new load of stuff to work with and I can't wait to see what he accomplishes next. I remember his speech lady in Austin always talking about how quickly he picks up things, and I've always known that myself, but sometimes I need a little reminder. This was a big one. The kid loves to learn if somebody will just sit down and teach him. Sometimes I really wonder if all children love to learn like that, the ones that aren't may just be being taught in a way they don't learn or absorb well.