Here’s To You, Mrs. Robinson…

…Jesus loves your more than you will know…and Mason :) Ok. Now that I am done singing I will explain-hahaha!

The past year has been a wonderful one. When we took Mason to his well-child check-up a year ago, and they got to the developmental question, “Can he put two or three words together?” I had to answer “No. He can barely even say two or three words”. I was heartbroken as they handed me pamphlets and told me to contact the Early Intervention program in our county. I felt like I had failed him. I felt like the worst mother ever. For some reason I had it in my mind that only neglectful mothers had to use government programs to help teach their children (outside of school, of course).

I made the call on the way home from the appointment. Within a couple of weeks Mason, Morgan and I were at the office meeting with two fun therapists. They played games with Mason and asked him and myself questions. Mason loved it. I was put at ease. After all was said and done they said he qualified for help; he was a year behind in speech. Enter Mrs. Robinson (I understand that this is not a great movie; but in my naïveté I always and still think it’s just an awesome song about an awesome teacher…and so that is how I am using it in this sense).

Mason and I hit it off instantly with our speech therapist. She was exactly the right person for us; open and fun and truly, really loved Mason. He did things for her he would not do for Rob or me. We looked forward to her visits, and every other Tuesday (when she came) you could find Mason and I glued to the window waiting for her arrival.

We also had the opportunity of going to “group” or “preschool” with other kids and parents in our same situation. It was wonderful. I realized I was not a bad mother. The other mothers were beautiful, intelligent, hard-working, and good. I realized I had been 100 percent incorrect about what kind of parents need/get help for their kids. Good parents get whatever help they can for their kids, and having that little “support-group” was therapy for me. 

 

Now fast-forward a year. At three years all kids are tested again to see how they are doing. If they need further help they can qualify to go to preschool with Early Intervention. We got our results back today and Mason is right exactly where he is supposed to be!!! He caught up TWO YEARS of speech in one year thanks to the love and dedication of our wonderful speech therapist. She was willing to do anything for us; even sit in a tire store while we got a flat replaced. :) Today was her last day. We worked on Mason’s extreme fear of the shower-head and getting his hair washed (no it is not speech, but they and their team will help with anything you need). She just used something Mason was having fun with anyway. Mason thought it was awesome! haha!

So, in short, thank you for everything dear teacher! We love you so much! And if anybody (of the three people who actually read this) thinks they may need help in some area of their child’s development- this is a WONDERFUL place to go. Good parents get help-others try to do it all on their own…It made all the difference in the world for us!