I have a love/hate fascination with spiders. While I was doing volunteer work at a child development center, I met a little boy. He had never spoken. I was unaware of why he was 'developmentally delayed'. When I sat down with him, he was watching a spider. I asked him if he knew how many legs a spider had. He proudly answered, "Eight". We carried on a conversation about webs and how the spider catches her food. The room grew quiet. Children and teachers listened to him talk with amazment. My theory is that he had previously never been asked a question that he considered important enough to answer. Being from a large family, he had never had to ask ... someone always met his needs. He not only was capeable of speaking, but his vocabulary was excellent!
Sunday 27 May 2007
Just for the fun of it ...
I have a love/hate fascination with spiders. While I was doing volunteer work at a child development center, I met a little boy. He had never spoken. I was unaware of why he was 'developmentally delayed'. When I sat down with him, he was watching a spider. I asked him if he knew how many legs a spider had. He proudly answered, "Eight". We carried on a conversation about webs and how the spider catches her food. The room grew quiet. Children and teachers listened to him talk with amazment. My theory is that he had previously never been asked a question that he considered important enough to answer. Being from a large family, he had never had to ask ... someone always met his needs. He not only was capeable of speaking, but his vocabulary was excellent!
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3 comments:
lovely sample and quite compelling story.thanks for sharing
neki desu
Loved your story Vivian. Wow that sure is a big spider from someone who is a little scared of spiders. (vbg) You did a fantastic job!!!
Interesting story, my husband's first words was a sentence, his Mum had decided after the baby was delivered she would take hime to a speech therapist. When she came home from hospital his 1st words were lovely baby sister Mum. His older brother always interpreted what he wanted so he never bothered asking.
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