A New Voice

Today, I had the joy of seeing one young boy realize he has a voice.  Baghdat is about eleven years old and has cerebral palsy.  He is unable to walk and unable to speak.  He communicates by pointing and making some a few sounds that his caregiver can differentiate.  Otherwise, he has had little way of communicating, especially with strangers.

The last two times I have visited, I have tried to teach Baghdat to point to picture symbols with words below to make a choice.  However, both times we were in a room with so many distractions and so much excitement that it was impossible for me, let alone him, to focus.

Today, Gulnar and I took another group of four graduated orphans to help.  The difference today was that we divided into two groups.  I took Nushan, one of the graduates, and Baghdat with me to another room.  There, I set out four different things we could play with and allowed him to chose something to play with.

At first, I was afraid he wasn't going to be able to understand what to do.  He was so excited he wasn't looking at the pictures and was just trying to physically scoot to the toy he wanted.  We played with a couple different toys, but he still didn't seem to understand that he could chose.  It wasn't until I started getting ready to play UNO with the others, which would cause him to be left out, that he scooted towards the communication strip and pointed to a ball.  I quickly got the ball out (while playing UNO) and we kicked it back and forth.  He got so excited at one point he lost his balance and fell over backwards, laughing the whole time.  I could tell he was getting tired, but I wasn't going to stop unless he asked.  He looked at his card and indicated that he wanted to color.  When I handed him the coloring things he rewarded me with the biggest smile!

I had been trying to do this activity now for three separate days, in different ways.  However, each time I came away feeling like he might never be able to communicate in this way.  Today, when I had almost given up, he was the one that drew me back to the pictures.  It wasn't until he realized he wouldn't be playing unless he selected something that he realized he had a voice.  I look forward to next week when we can build on the fact that he knows what to do with the pictures and begin building his vocabulary.  Now that I know he can use this system, I need to think through how to set it up so that he has access to it at all times and does not get frustrated using it.  Today definitely reminded me that I need to be more patient and that everyone deserves a voice.