Friday, May 6, 2011

Speech therapist finally

At the speech therapist
       Since our talk with the school and also our audiologist, we had been on a lookout for a speech therapist.I was doing it at home, but now we realized, she needed someone more than me.We moved here and our whole life has changed too.The whole field of language has changed as we needed to learn new concepts, new line of thinking, new words, new accents from across the world and all the concepts too have changed.Back in India we talked about temples, festivals of a different kind, food which was different,spoken English is very clear cut and without accents,clothes, seasons,rules of living......etc....everything is different.And so she needed so much more input and more exposure to language.Since the whole field has changed and so does need lots and lots of language input. We looked for the last 6 months for a speech therapist, but failed as most of the therapy is done in German.We had a very hard time as my input was just not enough.A speech therapist would be able to find out her gaps and we could all fill them up together.
     Then we did find one.After a lot of leads we did find Mrs.Essar who is German, does speech therapy in English and German and is also training to be a teacher.Before I registered, we had a long conversation with her about her techniques and methods and felt her English was better than most and we decided to come to her and see over the months how it goes.So started speech therapy sessions 2 times a week.
    Over few weeks that we have been with her, we can see more clearly the places where we need to work with her.As She has a different style of talking,prisha found it difficult to understand her, but she is getting used to it slowly and enjoys her sessions.She loves the worksheet given to her by her and does them regularly and happily.there are times i see my exhausted prisha , tired after 7 hrs at school, then to go for speech therapy.We have to go far, need 3 tram changes.So my husband has volunteered to pick us up so we save a lot of time changing trams each side.A car journey takes us 20 mins and trams 1 hour.So look forward to car rides as much as we can,keeping fingers crossed for husband to be in town on therapy days.
     Mrs.E finds us very motivated and hands on parents and wishes more people could take the sessions seriously.As it is covered by insurance, people take them lightly.many issues are there which we discuss regularly.I wish this kind of facilities were available in India so that more kids could get help.we pay for all the services by ourselves and so try and take as much as possible from what is available.Some parents cannot afford them and so go without it.Here the government gives so much aid for hearing aids,therapy sessions and also pay if the people do not turn up for the sessions.Wish they could appreciate it and take it more seriously.
     We are working on a lot of grammar, picture reading,putting them in order and writing a story.They are a great source of input fr us too.We are maintaining a journal so that we are able to see her growth over the months.Last week we worked on third person and this week we are working on pronouns.Lets see where we are heading.the only negative as of now, I have to sit outside the class as she does not allow parents to sit inside.So I have to either sit outside or go shopping!So do my weekly grocery shopping , big help and also extra clothes from the town centre close by!!

1 comment:

  1. It must be difficult for Prisha to understand English with a different accent. She is doing very well to learn to listen to his voice!

    I wish that all parents could have access to the right hearing technology and good speech therapy. It makes so much difference for the children!

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