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Changing the Life of a Child |
With this new knowledge, I began to spend more one-on-one time with her in the mornings. As we continued this routine, Savanna became attached to me. On a November day, after four months at school, Savanna verbalized her first words! She and I were reading a story and she went through each page and recognized objects like popcorn, Christmas trees and others. On the following day, Savanna again spoke in the library at our school, this time in front of another child as she asked me to read her a story. On the Wednesday before Thanksgiving Day, our caseworker invited Savanna into her screening room to play a game, but Savanna attached herself to my leg and would not go into the room alone. After encouraging her that she would be safe, I left the room and the caseworker began the screening process. She finished the screening process within minutes and I told her that I was very proud of her. I asked her if I could give her a hug, and she jumped into my arms for minutes. Tears streamed down my face, and my smile swallowed the tears of joy. Savanna had made such incredible progress, and I was involved in the progress by involving myself in her life and finding ways to make her feel special and secure. I realized that as a volunteer, the smallest difference in the way that I speak to, spend time with, or hold an innocent child in my arms can simply make all the difference in the world. As told by former volunteer, Carrie Fitzgerald
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Savanna was a typical four year-old, laughing, playing in the kitchen with pretend food, and drawing amazing pictures of her family. The alarming difference between her and the other children was her lack of communication - she did not say a single word in three and a half months. She would look at the ground when someone would try to engage in conversation or give her a hug. In discussing the situation with our speech pathologist and in doing Internet research, I learned about Selective Mutism. 
