If you care for and help my child, I’ll love you forever!
After David’s 5yr. check up in September, with the advice of our pediatrician, I finally took the plunge and began pursuing speech therapy for him. It was time to get the little guy some help. Strangers could hardly make out his speech, and even Rich and I had trouble at times.
Because David was 5, I had to go to the public school for help (instead of the “birth to 3” program). I didn’t mind working with them, but they seemed surprised that a homeschooling mom would want their services. I spoke to the ones in charge there at the local elementary school and we finally arranged a time for David to begin. My friend Caroline generously agreed to watch my other 4 children during the sessions.
We meet every Monday at 10:30 with a wonderful lady named Mrs. L, who obviously likes her job and enjoys David. Last week when we got there, she was ready and waiting for us in her small room, with a cheerful “Hello, friend!” for David.
I have had the privilege of just sitting and watching the two of them work together. And work it is, Mrs. L. made that clear from the beginning, David was there to work hard. She makes me laugh to myself when she helps David along with promptings to sit still, “When we want to learn in here, we need to keep our bottoms in a chair, okay David?” and to keep his fingers out of his nose. (for example). Anyway, I enjoy watching her work with David, her eyes light up every time he does something right. She’s excited with his progress.
She and David sit at a little table together and I sit off to the side. She talks to him and explains the sounds very carefully, with cue words and hand motions. She uses charts, beads, small flat circles, etc, to keep him interested.
Before we go, I make sure to have him run up and down the stairs to get the energy out, and make him go potty so he can sit still. Today we forgot to brush his teeth. Oh well. But we did take her a couple of roses that were still left from my party.
Today Mrs. L. told David stories and then had him tell the story back to her. Each story was full of the certain sounds he was working on (“s” “f” and “t”) David liked that.
Here they are, practicing the angry cat “F” sound:
Mrs. L uses a big mirror. She and David look into it, and David always becomes very animated, making the most fantastic faces that I can hardly control myself with laughter in my corner of the room.
Today David learned the hard “G” sound and the “K” sound. Here she is, demonstrating the sound:
And then David tried it, and succeeded! We were so happy!
He looked right at me, with the proudest look on his face like, “Did you hear that, Mommy?”
I love how he leans into her. He must trust her.
I just want to say, if you work with little children and you do it out of love and joy of teaching or serving, than I thank you from the bottom of my heart. You make a mother so encouraged when you help her with her babies. Sunday school teacher, Doctor, Dentist, Speech Therapist, Music teacher, librarian, babysitter, whoever you are. . . .
THANK YOU! You are so special and what you do makes a difference. Keep up the good work!
Good to be Home 
Aww! This brought tears to my eyes!! That could be the pregnancy hormones, but this was a very sweet post nonetheless!!
And I cannot believe that I am the first to comment!! lol
You can tell by the expressions she uses, she definitely enjoys her job. Your son is adorable by the way!!! Have a great night….Lisa
That’s so sweet!… David’s profile really looks like your husband.
Have a great night!!!!
shanda, this post speaks very close to my heart this evening. bless mrs. l!!! during our wedding festivities i posted some photos of my neice lily. she is also my very precious god child. lily was diagnosed with some special needs at age 4 and has been seeing an occupational therapist and tutor faithfully since. she is now 7 and almost completely “caught up” with her peers. her thereapists have radiaclly changed her life and are practically part of my sister’s family now. i applaud mrs. l along with you and everyone who makes the difference in the life of a child… they are angels unaware!
There’s something so sweet about this post; it brought tears to my eyes too. Loving a child, helping a child…is there anything more valuable? A mother’s heart and the sweetness of little boy….so special to God.
~C
this is just a really precious post. My nephew was dealing with the same thing — at 5, and they went the same route — it did marvels for him and at 7 now he speaks so clear you would never ever know there was a day not too far back that no one could understand him 🙂 I adore that expression on your son’s face in that second to last picture — what pride and joy :)blessings on your week there~Alyssa
This was beautiful! I’m glad David has found such a great teacher. He looks very comfortable and at-ease with her. I know how you feel, I have the same affection for one particular teacher at church, who “gets” Ainsley. That smile on David’s face is so precious, he must have been so excited. 🙂
WOW it brought tears to my eyes & I am NOT prego..LOL How wonderful!
awwwwwwwwwwwwww I LOVED watching David interact with Mrs. L, SO sweet. I PRAISE GOD for speech therapy, my little guy Isaiah is in therapy right now.
You can say that again!!!!! It is so wonderful when others help our children in whatever capacity it takes. It takes a village…..as the old saying goes. I went to speech therapy as a child for my “r” and “th” sounds. I LOVED it. I always looked forward to it. I felt special to have the extra class in school. I had a great therapist also. That makes all the difference! You can tell from the pictures that she loves what she does and she truely cares about the kids. What a gift!
Awwww, what a sweet, heartwarming post ~ you go, David!
I’m glad that it went so well! I was praying for you today, and hoping that you had a good day. The pictures of David so cute!
Definitely a sweet post….such precious pictures of David and Mrs. L….brought tears to my eyes, but you usually do. We should just admidt it…we women are hormonal and emotional. That is OK….God made us so….as long as we use self control So glad you were able to get this great helper! I love 4 and 5 yr. olds….what a neat age. They have sooooo much joy and joy of learning. I taught our roomates son to read a few years ago and he loved it so much he used to grab my hand and kiss, kiss, kiss it…then snuggle in for more.
I am packed with wonderful scriptures, stories, momments from my mommy conference this weekend and then a special class David and I went to today. I will try to post segments all this next week! Blessings to you, Jenny
Aw, this is just magnificent. I love seeing David learning and happy doing it. That lady looks like a marvelous, dear woman. I’m so glad you found someone like her to help him. I’m glad he’s doing so well, you can tell from the pictures that there is definitely a trusting bond there. I hope you had a great day and I’ll talk to you soon. Love ya.
Wonderful! How proud he must be! Wonderful!
David looks like he is enjoying himself…so glad you could find help for him. We did this 23 years ago…it worked wonderfully, and we were so thankful that we did it. His playmates were more likely to listen to him….and he had so-o-o-o-o much to say. 🙂 If you haven’t already, record some of the sessions…you will be glad you did.
awww…sweet pics…sweet times…reminded me of when I took Garrett to speech therapy about 6 yrs. ago…
How wonderful that he has such trust in Mrs. L that he’ll really work to “get it.” What a sweet post!
It looks like the teacher is enjoying these sessions too! After many years teaching 5th grade, my sister is now a Reading Specialist working with Kindergarden students and she just loves it — she has some sweet stories to tell.
I love watching people who love their jobs – and that teacher is fabulous. Even more I love seeing the look of pleasure on David’s face when he was successful.
so sweet Shan! Mrs. L is so nice and you can tell that she loves her job and she loves children. Kids always know the difference and I’m so glad David is learning and is proud of the milestones he’s going through as he learns. that one shot of his look at you was so precious! Your words, the story, and the pictures brought me to tears Shan! Way to go David! Keep it up! Love, Lish
Echoes of the above, with thanks for sharing this sweet and encouraging post. I love the looks on their faces all the way through. What a good mama you are for making sure David got the help he needed. Love, Maxine
Thank you for posting this I have been thinking about how his speech lessons have been going! Teachers are such a great enouragement and we both know how much patients you need to be dedicated everyday in educating small children.
Abbie has been coming home from school everyday excited about what she has learned and filling me in on things….Like the ChineseNew Year… Martin Luther King and Ground Hogs day (she even looked up on the internet to see if the groundhog saw his shadow) ect… I love how some teachers have a way of making everything exciting for children.
I hope you have a great day teaching your babes today! Love ya -sis
I agree! My hat is off to teachers everywhere!
What a marvellous post! I wish little David success in every undertaking.
David looks like he really enjoys his time with Mrs. L. 🙂 We have a friend whose son needed speech therapy from 4yrs on up. When we first met him, we couldn’t understand him, and he would get so frustrated. He would hardly talk to anyone because of it. The speech therapist really worked hard with him and now except for an occasional stammer, he is very clear. (and talkative ;))but I love hearing it because I saw where he started and I rejoice with his progress. :)Anyway. Thanks for sharing this post. I always enjoy coming by and seeing what you guys are up to. HugsMelody L
Speech therapy is wonderful. This is what i studied in college. I am so happy that David is enjoying his speech therapy and his therapist. She looks like a sweet and patient lady. David will learn so much and you will be amazed at how well his speech improves in just a short time. Just be sure to work on the sounds at home too. (I am sure you will. 🙂 David looks so tickled and proud of himself. He should be!!
I loved this post. What a precious smile on his face and a proud look of “I did it!”. It looks like a successful trip and I’ll be praying all goes well.
This post is so sweet and you brought tears to my eyes. My own little guy has had speech problems and I am hoping that school and a strong phonics program will help him work through those issues. But if his teacher needs to recommend speech therapy, now I know that I dont have to be afraid of it but to welcome the help! Yay for the Mrs. L’s out there! 🙂
She seems like an elegant lady. David is just too cute! I can see it just in the pictures what you are describing about her, I can see that she loves her job. It might be David though…any teacher would be delighted to have him! 🙂