SPEECH PATHOLOGY

SPEECH

For the past month, my brother has been seeing a speech pathologist. These one on one sessions with Betty, happen once a week. I have been attending these sessions 3 times now and I really do enjoy being a part of my brother's speech development.

In these sessions, there is a lot playing involved; this is because my brother learns through play. She has this things about 'stupid creativity' or something along those lines where she will give everyone else a card, but won't give my brother one, therefore he has to learn to ask for help. Betty says that my brother struggles to ask for help which makes this concept something to work on and continue.

My brother also does this thing called 'labelling' where he will point and say:" This is ...." What we are trying to help him with is also starting to using describing words to help him. 

Singing songs also helps my brother increase his length sentence. There's this particular song called: "3 green speckled frogs" that my brother really likes. This is also involves play so he really does enjoy it!

As of February, my brother is going to be joining a group session with a couple of other boys his age, as this will encourage him to interact with other children. He will also learn to take turns( which he is struggling to do) as all of this will prepare him for primary school!

Holland

HOLLAND

When you're going to have a baby, it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip - to Italy. You buy a bunch of guide books and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum. The Michelangelo David. The gondolas in Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says, "Welcome to Holland."

"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean Holland?? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

But there's been a change in the flight plan. They've landed in Holland and there you must stay.

The important thing is that they haven't taken you to a horrible, disgusting, filthy place, full of pestilence, famine and disease. It's just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guide books. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower-paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you've been there for a while and you catch your breath, you look around.... and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills....and Holland has tulips. Holland even has Rembrandts.

But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy... and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life, you will say "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's what I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever, ever, ever go away... because the loss of that dream is a very very significant loss.

But... if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special, the very lovely things ... about Holland. - 

 Emily Perl Kingsley

I was first introduced to this piece of writing in year 8 by my English teacher whilst we were studying 'The Curious Incident of the dog in the Night time.' This writing is a very good anecdote to what I was thinking through the whole process of my brother's autistic diagnosis.

I had to come to the realisation, that I was now in Holland, and I wasn't going to Italy. And just like the Emily states, I would get to discover the wonderful things that Holland had to offer. And sure, my friends would talk about Italy and what a magnificent place it was, but it doesn't really matter, because I went to Holland, and I experienced the wonders and joy of Holland.

Maybe that's what this blog is really about. Maybe it was to keep you updated on what Holland is like. To share to you, those that were in Italy instead, or those that have never been, the ups and downs of Holland.