unfamiliar place & faces-EC's 1st day @ school

 Time really flies…EC has come to age for new level of socialization at school.  Consequently, we decided to enroll her in a regular progressive school.  We had specially chosen a progressive kind of education to maximize her potential, taking much in consideration her hearing impairment on the process. 

We came to a decision by carefully analyzing and weighing up advantages over disadvantages.  Putting EC in a school that offers a special education program is very expensive.  Furthermore, attending a SPED program will not be compatible with the kind of therapy she has.  There is a great chance that her hearing development will regress.  EC was registered to receive an Auditory-Verbal therapy.  It is a specialized type of therapy designed to teach a hearing impaired child to use her residual hearing provided by a hearing aid or a cochlear implant for understanding speech and learning to talk.  Signs, cued speech and lip reading are simply not allowed.  Mainstreaming is the ultimate goal of AVT because  daily interaction with her hearing peers will give EC the chance of learning the normal patterns of speech, language and social behavior.  

PLAY is what EC loves the most

Progressive education involves two basic principles: 1st each individual is recognized for his or her own abilities, interests, ideas, needs, and cultural identity and 2nd the development of critical, socially engaged intelligence is nurtured that enables individuals to understand and participate effectively in their community.  Given these criteria of progressive education we know we could not asked  for more.  Other than being progressive we had also taken into consideration the medium through which the lessons will be taught.  Our main consideration is PLAY…so we decided to put EC in a regular PLaYScHOOL..

EC's first little red star

Contrary to the expectation, EC’s first day was a success.  Going to school proved to be just a natural occurrence in her life.  There were no crying, no forcing, no bribing nor sweet-talking.  Separation anxiety was simply miles away during her first day at school.  Maybe she could sense my excitement, thus my enthusiasm just overwhelmed her i guess.  She is happy all the time.  She loves to go to school everyday, she loves to hear stories read aloud by her teacher, she loves to do yoga, she wants to dance before her class starts, she likes to play with her classmates and when she goes home she loves to show me her little star .  She even loves wearing her uniform and likes carrying her bag too. She did not tell me all of these through words though instead she expressed her delight through her actions.