Rewarding experiences

I worked as an aide in a school for Special Education students for 20+ years. I worked with many children over the years. At times it was difficult and frustrating, but it was also rewarding. It bothered me that we didn't really have specials such as art and music as part of the education we were giving the children. I would like to relay two experience I had while there that really touched my heart. Both stories involve children with CP.

I am very This It was free time, and this student had gotten paper to draw on. I walked over to see what he was doing and to just talking to him and other same time, in a round about way work on his speech and language skills. I asked him what his father did for a living. He kept saying "Shan, Shan." I couldn't understand what he was saying and I could see he was starting to get upset/frustrated. I asked him if he could draw a picture of what his father did for me. He proceeded to draw a picture of a truck, then he found a template of a Swan and traced it onto the side of the truck. When I saw this, I asked him if his father worked for the Shwann Ice Cream company. He said YES! The look on his face lit up because I understood what he was trying to tell me.  If it hadn't been for art, this student could have gotten upset because of his communication problems. Thankfully, that didn't happen.

The incident involved another student who had communication problems. Under the direction of the speech therapist, I had been working on him being able to say what his name was when asked. I had been working on this with him on a daily basis for quite some time. He was making great progress, but still was unable say what his name was without a verbal cue. One day, my mother came in to bring me something I had for gotten at home. He walked over to my mother to greet her. She asked said hello and asked him what his name was. He spontaneously answered her by saying "Albert". I nearly cried. I told Mom that I had been working on that with him and that was the first time he had answered spontaneously. We both praised him for his response.

I am not working and am on disability, but every so often I think of experiences like these and I miss them. Thank you for indulging me and I hope you liked reading this and that you will see that sometimes things that seem impossible aren't always so.