"Duck."
Looking into Ethan's eyes, she brought her hand close to her face, made the sign for "duck," the pointer and middle finger opening and closing on the thumb like a mouth, and said again "duck." Swiftly she pulled a stuffed toy duck out of her bag and said, "quack." Then she once again brought her hand up to her mouth and signed and spoke the word "duck."
Ethan was sixth months old when he started with this therapist. We had a different therapist for about two months, but she didn't really work well with Ethan and us. I told a parent of a student who had hearing loss that I taught about this, and the parent told me to request a new therapist. Early Intervention therapists come into homes to work with children. If the vibe is not right, something needs to change. We did just that, and the one we ended up with was amazing.
Our first meeting with our Early Intervention case manager was on 1/5/18 when Ethan was two months.
She was talking about getting him started with therapy at four months old. I had made peace at this point that Ethan did have special and was disabled. I was delighted at the idea that he would be able to get therapy at a young age but four months old seemed really young.
Until we switched therapists at six months old, I didn't really believe that it made sense to do therapy this young.
At six months old, Ethan was not sitting reliably like most kids his age, so he often sat in our laps during therapy. His attention span could not last the forty minutes of work time that therapy sessions lasted, but this didn't deter his new therapist at all.
As soon as Ethan lost interest in the duck, she would pull a ball out of her bag, make the sign for "ball," and roll it towards him. She had so many different ways to assess and teach him. For example, she would distract him with a bright spinning toy and then press the button on a noisemaker behind her back to see if he would notice. It was amazing to watch.
I have had the privilege to watch master teachers work with students, and it is one of the most inspiring and impressive things to witness. She was clearly a master teacher, and she could get this baby to work and really engage. It was a struggle often to keep him engaged, and After these sessions, Ethan would be exhausted and nap really well. In every session, Buffy would always be close by within a couple of feet of Ethan and the therapist, watching carefully to make sure things were okay.
We started with this amazing therapist on 4/25/18. Sometimes the session would be every two weeks and at other times every week. I was able to make some of these sessions, but Diana did most of them.
I'll never forget coming home from work a couple of months into therapy and Diana coming up to me so excited.
"Ethan did great in therapy today!" She exclaimed,
"Yeah? That's great."
I replied. "Ethan learned the work, duck!!"
After months of work, Ethan finally demonstrated to his therapist that he understood the spoken word and the sign for the word "duck." I went over to Ethan and gave him a big hug. I was so proud at that moment. He was really doing the work, and he was growing.
This therapist guided us through every question we had about Ethan's disability, and through it all, through all of her work with Ethan, she never stopped believing in him. Ethan did nothing to earn this. She walked into that door during their first session, and she looked at him and spoke to him, believing he could learn, he could grow, and that he was worth her time, effort, and care. That is so special to find in a teacher and a human being.
I don't know how many times she said the word duck, made quacking sounds, and signed "duck" for Ethan, but she never got frustrated, never gave up. Little did we know that this perseverance would be further displayed by a pandemic that would force the therapist of a child with hearing loss to do remote therapy.
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