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Yesterday, Satchel and I took Jiro to his first speech therapy session with the Memphis City School system. (Last year, he was accepted to the program at the U of M and we were on a waiting list for MCS. After jumping through all of the designated hoops, he was accepted for therapy this year. He'll continue at the U of M until I decide which program is working the best.)
Since he doesn't attend a public school, we were assigned a therapist at the nearest school to our house, which is the lovely new Brewster Elementary on Sam Cooper. When the therapist called to set up his classes, she was very accommodating and I was able to get him a one-on-one session on Mondays & Tuesdays from 8-8:30am. (This is way better than having to leave work early two days a week, pick Jiro up in Midtown, then drive him back downtown.)
Warren is working in the field this week, and leaves the house at 7:30am, so that's why Satchel came with us. But really, he wanted to go--he's still jealous of Jiro's game playing and snack getting from last semester. Also, he's hip to the complex reward system I have set up. (Go to therapy with no struggle, go to Exxon for a treat.)
Anyways, despite our long & crazy weekend, we somehow made it to Brewster on time. In the parking lot, Jiro stopped being excited about his new class and started saying, "I'm not going." I convinced him to get out of the car by promising him that we would just meet his teacher and then leave. "You better not be lying," he said.
We signed in in the office and then were escorted down the hall. As soon as we walked into the foyer, Ms. Kim greeted us enthusiastically and then invited us all into her office. Considering our big struggle at the U of M was having Jiro go alone (without me) up an elevator, down a hall, and into his classroom, this was a refreshing change. Then Ms. Kim asked Satchel if he wanted to stay and play games (he did), and she pointed to a nearby chair for me.
Having both of us in the room immediately put Jiro at ease. (Satchel started running his mouth non-stop, thus taking some of the pressure off of Jiro.) Soon the three of them were playing Kerplunk, Go Fish, and all the while, practicing Jiro's letters. I enjoyed watching and I think it will definitely help me to know what he's learning and how he's learning it.
At the U of M they were very secretive and also very serious about the parents not coming into the classroom. They had the attitude that the children would not do work with their parents in the room. Jiro totally disproved that. He worked really hard and barely even looked my way during the entire session.
At the end, Ms. Kim gave Jiro a sticker for his shirt (which he put on his hand) and he gave her a high five. We left and both boys were in a really good mood, and busily talked about how much fun they had.
Ms. Kim said I could bring Satchel back whenever I wanted, and of course he wanted to come again this morning. Again, they started off with Kerplunk and then moved on to Alligator Golf (which the boys requested yesterday). Again, Jiro worked really hard and I was impressed with Ms. Kim's ability to mix play and work. I also really felt like she knew what she was doing and most importantly, that she was doing it well.
I'm just so thrilled; I hardly know what to say.
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4 comments:
Yay! I think it is so weird how a variety of child-serving professionals are just sure they know the ins and outs of children's reactions better than do the parents. Children are as varied in their ways as everyone else.
That's great news!
I'm no speech pathologist, but as a younger sibling who attended a large number of my sister's speech therapy sessions, I'd say it seems beneficial to all parties to have as many family members as possible involved. My mom would learn the exercises and integrate them all week long, and I learned how to read by the constant phonic reinforcement.
So glad to hear this was a good experience!
While I am not a student at Memphis, I am a student clinician at a university and keeping the parents out of the room is probably more for the benifit of the student than your child. We're not seasoned speech therapists who are totally comfortable with the whole therapy process yet, and having a parent in the room would only serve to make us nervously fumble our way through therapy. Plus, if Memphis's clinic space is anything like ours, the therapy rooms are tiny! Can you imagine being a new clinician and having your client's mom practically sitting in your lap? I'd be sweating bullets!
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