May 31, 2016
Today’s blog was written by one of our ECD Trainers, Kauthar Ebrahim, who owns her own ECD centre. We wish to thank her for sharing one of her success stories which highlights that where we have the passion and drive we can meaningfully include learners as far as possible.
Children, when they enter the world they are like blank canvases. Children have the right to our protection. It is our obligation to ensure that every child is given the best of education and in doing so we protect their future. This may even mean going to lengths you never thought possible to ensure this would happen.
*David, was 3 years of age, attended our centre, and was not speaking. Mom was convinced that there was nothing wrong with his hearing and at school we found that he would respond to different sounds. He also reacted appropriately to instructions given to him. He loved the close contact with his teacher and would lick her hand every so often. He would sniff at the toys he played with and even his snack. So why this strange behaviour?
We put it down to the fact that his parents had gotten divorce and mom was battling with issues around his 11 year old brother. It was very evident that Mom was also not coping too well and so we patiently persevered. One afternoon his nanny fetched him from school. The teacher decided to engage her into a discussion about little *David’s antics at home, from the time he leaves school in the afternoon until he goes to bed. Her response was that the only company he had was his puppy. He loves his puppy and follows it around all the time. He often imitated his puppy.
The next day the teacher engaged him by pretending to be a puppy. We saw such joy and animation in him that we could barely believe our eyes. It was like we had found his “on” switch. With a lot of patience and love (and barking) we managed to move *David into a better space. All he really needed was for someone to engage him meaningfully and thank goodness with hard work and perseverance we were able to do so.
*Please note that the child’s name has been changed in order to respect his identity.