I'm back readers!
Hi everyone! I hope you are all having a great summer so far! I have deeply neglected my blog these past few months, barely posting anything. Just could not bring myself to write anything. But I am back now and have many exciting things to share!
I would first like to write about my experience as a teacher assistant with a child with special needs. As some of you know, I succeeded in completing my first year with the school board (conseil scolaire viamonde). Being a teacher assistant was extremely tough. Working with a child with special needs or any child for that matter is hard work. I think sometimes that people underestimate the work of teachers, ECEs, and anyone that works with children in general. So it is not like"babysitting"? NO. It is nothing like babysitting at all, it is a lot more than that. But the fight for recognition and equal pay in the work place is a subject for another blog post. Today, I will keep it solely focused on my positive experience I have been so blessed to have. In February 2018, my eyes have been opened to something different and unexpected, a door of opportunity that I had the choice to open or close. It was not dance but, well, I decided to open it because hey, different can be good right?
So my job as a teacher's assistant began. I started part-time at first because the child I was to work with was just going to school for half of the day. I will keep the child anonymous for professional and privacy reasons. The moment we locked eyes, I knew we were going to build a special relationship. Despite all the behaviour issues, the scary moments and the many times I had doubts and wanted to quit, this child would change me as a person. This child who could not even speak a single word spoke to me all the same. The child's actions replaced the million words he could have said if he could. We did not need to talk at all. We just had this connection, like a spark of understanding that would grow with time. And because of that connection, because of that spark or whatever it was that happened between us, the child was able to come to school for full days by the end of the month.
I worked with the child on simple tasks, relevant to his development, using things I learned in my ECE courses to my advantage and the child's. There were moments I was more confident and other moments, less. Which is totally normal. I had to understand my child's special needs and build around that. It was hard because of the non verbalism and the not always so pretty behaviour shown by the child. But did that stop me from giving up? I was often close to, but no, I kept at it. In the end, it did not matter that my child had austism, that my child was non-verbal. I had to treat my little buddy like any other child, because I did honestly sometimes forget he felt the same emotions as the other children because he was different. Just because they weren't translated into words, did not mean he did not feel the same way. So I made a different approach. I set up a visual schedule for my child, one that would show what will happen during the day such as play in the morning, then have snack after. Or it's recess now, then we will have nap time after. Or it's potty time now and after, we wash our hands. At that moment, everything changed! My child could understand more and more the daily routine and his behavior miraculously changed. Yes, you may realize I typed "my child" more than once. Well, of course he is not and it might seem odd but he did feel like he became my child as our bond grew stronger. Like another preschooler told me "He has a mama at home but you're like his mama at school!" And I said "Why yes, you're absolutely right little one!" As funny and cute as it may sound, I was truly his school mama. I got to work with other people that helped with the little guy as well such as a speech therapist and a specialist in autism but in the end I realized that I did a lot of the work with my child, I am the one who helped him grow the most. All of a sudden, there was no more running out of the school and a lot less hitting and biting. Instead there was a sense of calm, comfort, understanding and kisses, lots of kisses! And my child is not the only one who has grown. I grew too. I felt that because of him, I truly transformed into the mature woman I was meant to be.
I am ecstatic to share the good news that I have been employed to be a full time teacher's assistant once more starting in September and still with my child! It's amazing how one little child can change your perspective on life isn't it?
Now, it has been so long and I wanted to write a lot more of what I have been doing such as my experience at my summer ballet intensive I attended this year or my wisdom teeth surgery but why don't we make that a couple topics for another blog? I think I've written a lot more than I should have and let's not have you read so much more of my rambling. But before closing, I just wanted to wrap up this post with a quote "Having an open door in front of you means having an open door before you" -Revelation 3:8
I would first like to write about my experience as a teacher assistant with a child with special needs. As some of you know, I succeeded in completing my first year with the school board (conseil scolaire viamonde). Being a teacher assistant was extremely tough. Working with a child with special needs or any child for that matter is hard work. I think sometimes that people underestimate the work of teachers, ECEs, and anyone that works with children in general. So it is not like"babysitting"? NO. It is nothing like babysitting at all, it is a lot more than that. But the fight for recognition and equal pay in the work place is a subject for another blog post. Today, I will keep it solely focused on my positive experience I have been so blessed to have. In February 2018, my eyes have been opened to something different and unexpected, a door of opportunity that I had the choice to open or close. It was not dance but, well, I decided to open it because hey, different can be good right?
So my job as a teacher's assistant began. I started part-time at first because the child I was to work with was just going to school for half of the day. I will keep the child anonymous for professional and privacy reasons. The moment we locked eyes, I knew we were going to build a special relationship. Despite all the behaviour issues, the scary moments and the many times I had doubts and wanted to quit, this child would change me as a person. This child who could not even speak a single word spoke to me all the same. The child's actions replaced the million words he could have said if he could. We did not need to talk at all. We just had this connection, like a spark of understanding that would grow with time. And because of that connection, because of that spark or whatever it was that happened between us, the child was able to come to school for full days by the end of the month.
I worked with the child on simple tasks, relevant to his development, using things I learned in my ECE courses to my advantage and the child's. There were moments I was more confident and other moments, less. Which is totally normal. I had to understand my child's special needs and build around that. It was hard because of the non verbalism and the not always so pretty behaviour shown by the child. But did that stop me from giving up? I was often close to, but no, I kept at it. In the end, it did not matter that my child had austism, that my child was non-verbal. I had to treat my little buddy like any other child, because I did honestly sometimes forget he felt the same emotions as the other children because he was different. Just because they weren't translated into words, did not mean he did not feel the same way. So I made a different approach. I set up a visual schedule for my child, one that would show what will happen during the day such as play in the morning, then have snack after. Or it's recess now, then we will have nap time after. Or it's potty time now and after, we wash our hands. At that moment, everything changed! My child could understand more and more the daily routine and his behavior miraculously changed. Yes, you may realize I typed "my child" more than once. Well, of course he is not and it might seem odd but he did feel like he became my child as our bond grew stronger. Like another preschooler told me "He has a mama at home but you're like his mama at school!" And I said "Why yes, you're absolutely right little one!" As funny and cute as it may sound, I was truly his school mama. I got to work with other people that helped with the little guy as well such as a speech therapist and a specialist in autism but in the end I realized that I did a lot of the work with my child, I am the one who helped him grow the most. All of a sudden, there was no more running out of the school and a lot less hitting and biting. Instead there was a sense of calm, comfort, understanding and kisses, lots of kisses! And my child is not the only one who has grown. I grew too. I felt that because of him, I truly transformed into the mature woman I was meant to be.
I am ecstatic to share the good news that I have been employed to be a full time teacher's assistant once more starting in September and still with my child! It's amazing how one little child can change your perspective on life isn't it?
Now, it has been so long and I wanted to write a lot more of what I have been doing such as my experience at my summer ballet intensive I attended this year or my wisdom teeth surgery but why don't we make that a couple topics for another blog? I think I've written a lot more than I should have and let's not have you read so much more of my rambling. But before closing, I just wanted to wrap up this post with a quote "Having an open door in front of you means having an open door before you" -Revelation 3:8
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