Blogger Party

Some days, I think I have the most wonderful job in the world. I work with developmentally disabled adults (among other things), and I teach them to read. When people first hear that, they often shake their heads. They wonder why in the world anyone would want to take on a fruitless task like that. They wonder what I hope to accomplish. They wonder who in the world pays for the service and why it should be supported. Here's the story.

The people I work with spend most of their days at the community mental health facility. They work on tasks like assembling things or sorting, or shredding or packing. Once a week for most of them, I drop by and spend just thirty minutes with each of my clients. We read. I meet them wherever they are academically and work to move them forward. In some cases, progress is slow while for others it's relatively quick. Some of my students learn simple words like in, go, and it. Some master functional vocabulary like stop, exit and poison. A few are learning about letters and sounds and read simple three letter words. A handful actually read at a grade level between grade three and six! All are excited, though, because they see their own progress.

I think probably the most important gift that I give to my clients is a sense of self-worth. For many, no one has ever offered hope that they could ever learn to read. Now we're working together towards that goal. Now, many aren't ever likely to read well enough to tackle a novel, but that isn't the only possible goal. We're working to improve recreational skills, and my students are learning things like how to color by number or do a word search puzzle. They also learn to write simple notes. Every single one of them is learning something that they value.

I've got a few clients who are not able to communicate well by voice or even signs. These individuals are opening up a whole world of communication possibilities through typing their thoughts. Things are still pretty garbled for one man, who makes observations like "no sick Taco Bell," but it's far better than where we started from: "n ske to bl". It's a big improvement!

So I think I have one of the most rewarding jobs in the whole world. My clients may not be able to recall my name consistently, but the look of joy in their eyes is unmistakeable. One gentleman, who can barely hear, put it nicely. He smiled broadly and said, "Well, Hello, Friend!" We walked to our lesson arm in arm. It was a good day.

Posted in developmentally disabled | literacy | mentally challenged | reading | special needs Been There Done That | | | | 79 reads