Thursday, June 21, 2007

Um. ....

Help?

I'm swallowing hard, here; breathing deep. Tuesday night, around 6:30 the UPS truck pulled up in front of my house and delivered the package for which I had been obsessively checking my front porch. I opened the box immediately and pulled out a text-book size green volume: "Teaching Language Deficient Children." I quickly flipped through it then set it on the floor in front of me. This was followed by a deck of Association Method Noun Picture cards and another stack of 295 phoneme, drop drill and word cards.

Here it is, I thought. Time to get started. Then I was immediately overcome by exhaustion and packed everything back in the box!

I took the book out again yesterday as the kids ate their pizza lunch and skimmed through it a bit more thoroughly. I was fighting another wave of exhaustion after five minutes. It is intimidating to me. The book is packed full of vocabulary that I don't know and symbols that I don't understand. How in the world am I going to teach this? And where is the step-by-step here is how you do it chapter? It isn't in there! Why? Because it is written for teachers and speech pathologists. I'm neither.

More deep breathing.

BUT! last night I sat down with a sharp pencil in one hand and that surly green book in my lap and went to it. The only way to get started is to get started. I'm giving myself to the 1st of August to organize a game plan for beginning instruction. I may not be a teacher or a speech pathologist but I am one determined mama.

Wish me luck!

10 comments:

  1. Good Luck!!!!!
    I the same thing happens to me too. I'll be reading and minutes later realize that I had not retained anything. How frustrating!
    I'm cheering for you over here :o)

    Kristin

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  2. You can do this! (And I'm sure you will even be good at it! :-p)

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  3. Anonymous2:25 PM

    Good luck! That book is definitely intimidating but, you can do it! Take your time, and don't be afraid to adapt things to your own particular circumstances...

    Cheering you on!

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  4. May sound a little too obvious (mind you, this is coming from a mother who isn't even up to tackling that sort of stuff yet...) but have you considered contacting someone (like a teacher/SLP?etc.) who might know how to do this already and could give you a quick primer?

    Best of luck, you brave mother, you! (grin)

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  5. Kudos to you! You can do it! Just carve some time out and take it slow. The "professionals" didn't know what to do with those materials immediately either! Of course, you'll have to educate yourself on the process! But best of all, once you get your footing you will be the most motivated "therapist" for your son!

    Just take it step by step and you will be fine!

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  6. Somehow I think your determination and need to succeed will see you through. Good luck! And if all else fails, I'm with Niksmom, find a SLP to consult with.

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  7. Thanks everyone for being such good cheerleaders!

    And to Niksmom and Kristen: It just so happens that my neighbor, who is a stay-at-home mom, is an SLP. She has promised to mentor me through this and thank goodness for that!

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  8. Good luck on this journey! I was going to ask whether you'd visited "Taffy" (http://ourladyofprovidence.blogspot.com) who is using the association method successfully in her home. But I see she's already left a comment. ;-)

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  9. Lots of luck, but I have perfect confidence in you.

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  10. Dive in! Before you know it, your blog posts will be full of your new vocab---you'll be teaching us!

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