I meant, a long time ago, to write a post about Ms. Lisa but I always made excuses and then I kind of forgot about it. Until a couple weeks ago when I read someone's blog about an influential teacher in their life. And I realized that Ms. Lisa might be one of the most influential teachers in your young life, but you'll never remember her. So maybe I should write down a few things about her, so you can read about her when you're a little older.
Ms. Lisa came in to your life when you were a little more than 2 years old. She is a teacher for Early Intervention services, and you qualified for Early Intervention under the kind of vague title of "Social Development." Which meant you didn't have a speech therapist or an occupational therapist or a physical therapist. You had Ms. Lisa, who is kind of a jack of all trades.
Ms. Lisa started coming to our house when you were talking up a storm, but had a few issues with saying some letters. F was hard for you. V was hard for you. T was hard for you. After a few weeks of Ms. Lisa's brilliant suggestions (we made and colored posters with pictures of words starting with those letters, and we played other letter games) you were talking like a champ.
Ms. Lisa helped us expand your imagination a little bit. You were always a very "inside the box" kind of player. Your cars didn't talk to each other. Your cars didn't do anything they weren't supposed to do. You liked pushing buttons to see what would happen, but didn't like to do much more with a toy than just push the buttons. Ms. Lisa expanded your horizons. Eventually your trains had conversations. Eventually your cars could pretend to drive on a road, instead of driving on an ACTUAL road. Every now and then your cars would have a party and you'd serve them some yummy food.
When you started going to school, Ms. Lisa went with you once a week. She helped you grow from the little quiet boy who would let anyone take his car (and then follow that person around to wait for them to be distracted and drop it) to the more outgoing little boy who would fight for his car tooth and nail. She helped you learn to tell your friends, "No, I don't like that." She helped you learn how to play right next to your friends, instead of playing off by yourself in a corner. And, bless her heart, she taught you how to put on your coat, all by yourself.
But the most important influence Ms. Lisa had on your life is one you never really saw. It wasn't anything she taught you. It wasn't anything she said to you. Instead, it was her realization that something was perhaps a little bit "off" with you. Ms. Lisa was the very first person to give us an article about Asperger's, and suggest that maybe, even though not everything fits, maybe this was something we should look in to. Ms. Lisa was the person who recommended we re-do your Autism screening questionnaire. Ms. Lisa was the one who helped us answer the ambiguous questions that we had a hard time with because, to us, you were a totally normal little man. We didn't see a lot of other kids, so your little quirks were normal to us, not a flag for something greater. In short, were it not for Ms. Lisa you never would have had an Autism evaluation. You never would have been diagnosed with Autism. You never would have received the resources you have now. You wouldn't be in your awesome special pre-school. You wouldn't have speech therapy and occupational therapy and behavior services and Medical Assistance. All of this is possible because Ms. Lisa noticed, and cared, and helped.
Sadly, when your turned three you left the Early Intervention services and entered the big scary new world of the Intermediate Unit. And we lost Ms. Lisa. I think it was probably harder for me than it was for you. We saw Ms. Lisa at the gym a couple weeks ago and you didn't remember who she was. I certainly did, though, and I will always be so grateful for all that she did for you.
And there you have it, little man. The story of the teacher who may have had the most influence on your life. Who you will never remember. Thank you, Ms. Lisa.
Love,
Mama
 |
| Your medal from Soccer Shots. But if we had another medal, we really should give it to Ms. Lisa. |
No comments:
Post a Comment