Another school year is coming to a close. Sometimes, I think it's gone by so fast. Other times, I think this school year has gone on way too long. At this time each year, I am physically and mentally exhausted, and I can't wait for three months of rejuvenation.
During the course of the year, I don't take enough time to take a step back and think about the good things that have happened and the progress my kids have made. It's so much easier to focus on all the IEPs I have to write, the stress of legal paperwork, trying to prepare a lesson plan last minute to do in preschool the next day, the parents who wont return your emails and phone calls, and the list goes on and on. However, what really matters is the individual child, giving them your undivided attention and letting them know they are important. They are the reason I come to work each day.
Part of my job is that I get to co-teach a preschool class with another speech pathologist, made up of kids who have multiple patterns of speech errors. We recently gave a post-assessment to each child to compare their progress from the beginning of the year to the end of the year. One girl in particular came to us in September only speaking in /h/ and vowels. If you wanted her to say "spoon", she would say "hu". If you wanted her to say "butterfly", she would say "huh-huh-hai". She had no initial consonants other than /h/, and no final consonants. She was extremely unintelligible. We were so pleased, however, so see the results of her post-assessment. She now has most of her consonants at the beginning and end of words, as well as consonant clusters. Her mom can now understand what she says and can therefore meet her needs a whole lot better than before. She is able to communicate! Times like these remind me of why I do what I do.
This an other experiences from this year reminded me that even though we may feel like we're not making any difference, we are! We just need to press forward and do our best each day, taking the time to take a step back and focus on the good.
