A Small Victory

Our three youngest ones, Yair, Olman, and Josue, are in speech therapy. Fortunately, the therapist comes here on Monday.  Each child needs 4 hours of practice a week.  No one has 12 extra hours.  Luci works with Yair, Mirian works with Olman and I work with Josue. 

Josue could say nothing and knew nothing.  I would ask him where is nose was and he would point toward the ceiling.  Not only did he not know anything, he did not want to be in therapy.  He is accustomed to crying and not having to do whatever he does not want to do.

We are finishing the third week of this.  And, it has been brutal.  The first week, he sat in the chair and screamed and cried the whole 40 minutes.  There was no way I was going to give in to him and quit early.  I would say, " say nose, say eye, say mouth.  Say whatever you want.  Just say something."  When he would stop crying long enough to take a breath, he would look at me as if to say I am not saying anything.

I prayed a lot.  For patience. For Wisdom.

I was not going to let a 3 year old defeat me.

Finally, in the second week, he quit crying and started trying to say the words.  I guess he realized a few 40 minute sessions of crying was not going to defeat me.

We have worked hard every day.  When Josue desires, he can say the vowels.  He can point to hair, eyes, nose, ears, mouth and hands.  The sounds he makes are close to what they should be.  He cannot point to those things on someone else on in a picture, but he can on himself.

This morning we finished.  He ran back to his house.  I followed.  I went in and picked him up and sat him on the counter.  I asked him to show he his hair, eyes, nose, ears, mouth, hands and shoes.  He showed us and said the word after me.  Mirian, Nely and I all clapped and cheered every time.  He was so happy for the praises he received.

I was happy too.  It has taken a lot or work to get him to point to those body parts.

I sort of wanted to cheer for myself, too.  This may seem like a very small victory, but to me it was huge.  From crying and screaming for 40 minutes to saying "na-riz".  A huge victory, indeed.