Another tale of promise from Tricia

Tricia Henderson, Director of Speech Services, as well as other speech therapists,  often conduct speech evaluations to diagnose a child's specific speech needs, and to determine placement in our programs. She shares another recent story of encouragement:

"The young child came in with his grandmother and case manager since he was a ward of the state, having been removed from his home. Both adults discussed the deprivation and chaos in the home. He was now residing with the grandmother and would stay with her for at least the next 11 months. Both the social worker for the state and the grandmother reported that he did not use any words, could not imitate words and had not really been exposed to books.

As the evaluation began, he played very quietly on the floor with several truck making no sounds at all. As the interview continued, the evaluator asked him to sit in a chair by her and he eagerly climbed up. When a book was opened, he was THRILLED to point to objects named. When a flashlight was used as a bribe (every child's delight), he eagerly imitated most consonant sounds and even repeated words. He smiled and laughed, eager to do his work, in exchange for a turn with the blocks, truck or FLASHLIGHT! As they left, the grandmother said, 'He never did that before. I didn't know he knew so much or that he would imitate you!' We discussed that he showed great promise and we would try to place him immediately in a language group. The young boy smiled and repeated "Bye bye" when the evaluator told him goodbye. He then turned and ran back to hug her around the legs with a big laugh.

How thrilling to know this one child's future will be very bright because of what we can and will do for him in the next 11 months!"