moment of a lifetime

There are days when I get so discouraged with my choice of major... days where I don't feel adequate... and days where I simply just want to give up.

Today was not one of those days.

My supervisor for my clients' this semester called me into her office for a meeting. We had talked about discharging one of my clients because she had flatlined- wasn't showing improvement.

Well... let me back up.

When my 11 year-old female client was assigned to me, she was working on nothing but computer programs. Computer programs for reading... spelling... vocabulary. Anything you can think of, she was doing it on the computer. She HATED it; therefore, she hated therapy. When I received her file and began to look into it, it was evident that something was being done wrong. This little girl was showing no improvements, and I was DETERMINED that SOMETHING could be done to help her. I just had to figure out what.

I immediately went to my supervisor and requested to remove all computer programs from her treatment plans and replace them with real life books, spelling words, and so forth. I explained to her that my ONE GOAL was to make her love therapy.

Keep in mind, this is a language/literacy client.

So, back to where I started. My supervisor and I had discussed at midterms to discharge her, because it still didn't seem like she was making progress. However, after fall break, my client started to improve by leaps and bounds. It was incredible- astonishing!

So, when my supervisor requested to meet with me, I was interested to see what she had to say. I no longer felt like she should be discharged, but I also didn't want to overstep my boundaries. As soon as I walked in, my supervisor said, "I do not want to discharge _____." I asked her to explain, and she commended me for taking the intiative, and showing the skills of an advanced clinician, to change the treatment plan when I saw that it wasn't working. She explained that she was extremely proud of me and my efforts, and even went as far as to say that all of the improvements my client made were because of me. She told me I should pat myself on the back because my efforts with my client were above and beyond. Needless to say, I was estatic. I have been walking on air all day, and I've felt so good about myself as a clinician.

Not even that could have prepared for what was about to happen in my last therapy session with my client.

At the end of the session today, I asked the client to write her daily paragraph about what she liked and didn't like about speech (as she calls it) this semester. I had it outlined for her: Topic, Sentence One, Sentence Two, and so forth. Here are her sentences:

Topic: There are some things I liked and did not like about speech.

Sentence One: I like speech because I can have fun.

Sentence Two: I like when speech helps me learn better.

... Then she stopped and thought for a while. Finally, she looked up at me and said "I can't think of anything I don't like." So, I told her to think really hard about everything I had done, what activities we did, and so forth to see if there was anything. She thought a little longer and exclaimed, "OH! I thought of something!"

KEEP IN MIND THIS IS A LANGUAGE AND LITERACY CLIENT!!!!

She furiously started to write on her paper.

Sentence Three: I did not like when we had to stop reading Superfudge.

MELTED MY HEART! It was ALL I could do to keep from crying right there. I am glad she still had two more sentences to write because it gave my eyes time to clear up.

Sentence Four: I like when I got to do my spelling words in shaving cream.

Conclusion: I had fun in speech.

As soon as my session ended, I made a beeline to my supervisor's office to show her the paragraph. I read her the first two sentences, explained to her what my client said, and then read her third sentence. My supervisor's eyes filled with tears along with mine and we both had goosebumps.

This little girl has struggled with literacy all of her life. My one goal was for her to love reading/therapy/etc.

This goal was accomplished- and I now have the sweetest paragraph hanging on my fridge to prove it. She gave me the gift of a lifetime- far better than any material gift I could ever receive. She gave me the ability to help- the ability to foster a love for language and literacy. She gave me the opportunity to make a difference.

My supervisor hopes to work it out to where I can have her again next semester. We're only supposed to have our client's one semester. But, in the 6 years my supervisor has worked with her, she's never seen this kind of improvement. And, that one sentence made it evident to my supervisor that reassigning her to me would be in her best interest.

Join me in praying that the main supervisor will sign off on this decision.

Today, my life was changed with one little sentence. My aspirations as a speech-language pathologist were confirmed. And, I know beyond a shadow of a doubt, I will be far more blessed by the children I meet in this field than they could ever be blessed by me.