The Penny

You know my little mute student? I'm referring to the one who speaks ("in paragraphs," per mom) at home but gives everyone else suspicious stares when they try to interact with her. Right, that one. She's making great progress!

I think Betsy would be a good name for her.

Betsy makes comments to me during circle time, like, "My Dabby idoo!" Translation: My Gabby igloo. She's kind of hard to understand, but I'm not even bringing up articulation until she's comfortable with talking. I asked, "Oh, Gabby made an igloo like that one in the book?" "No, daddy." Daddy made an igloo for Gabby. (Go dad!) So she's volunteering information, which we call initiating; and she is answering questions, which we call responding. IEP goals, check and check. Betsy has goals to initiate and respond consistently with at least three different adults (not counting family).. and at least three different kids in the class. Well, that second part is not really happening, unless you count screams of, "No!" "Stop!" or "Mine!" while pushing/hitting/grabbing. It's a work in progress.

I just love this sober, perpetually stressed-out, little child. She got into my heart very quickly and is one of my favorites.

Here's a little gem from one of my deaf students. He gets into little obsessions, and last month it was pencils. They MUST be shark. After a brief glance at a pencil, he'd say, "It's not shark. I need to shark it." Maybe he was just looking for an excuse to use the totally cool, electric pencil sharpener. Whatever, I let him. Who am I to judge a boy's need for shark pencils?