Back to School Countdown #19: Problem Solving

This is my first blog, and it’s a story about one of our Help Me grow mothers.  She had her first baby as a single mom.  She had many questions and doubts, not only about the baby, but about her economic  situation, her living arrangements, co-parenting and health insurance for her baby.  She was carrying a heavy load when she first heard about Help Me Grow but agreed to send in the Ages and Stages questionnaires every two months.  Her baby is a quiet, sweet tempered child with a way of looking at strangers out of the side of her eyes.  In fact she puts so much meaning into her expressions and gestures that it gives “body language” a new meaning.  Mom spoke to her provider about her lack of words; Mom spoke to Help Me Grow about why her daughter's speech was a little low on the Ages and Stages Questionnaire.  Her doctor said “Wait a bit” and Help Me Grow sent her communication exercises and a speech evaluation referral.  It was decided to watch and wait for a month.

Yesterday  Mom called me to say she had figured out what to do about her daughter’s speech!  This was her idea:  Every time her daughter pointed or directed her mom to something she wanted, her mom would get face to face and say the words she wanted her daughter to repeat.  Only then would she give her the juice or toy, then clap for her success.

There was more to her idea:  The adults in her household would speak to her daughter in regular sentences, and to each other in regular sentences. Last, they would read books with conversations in them instead of reading “point-to” books.

The point of the story is not that each technique mentioned by the mom has been used successfully before.  The joyful point is that Mom called and said “I have figured out what to do for my daughter!"  Our Help Me Grow family record includes several outcomes for the situations Help Me Grow encounters.  My favorite one, and I think our families’ favorite one, is called “Solved Own Problem”.

If you've got a story about solving a problem in your own way, please post it!