A path to hope for a mother of language-delayed twins
“My children’s lives no longer seemed hopeless”
“Nothing is more important than my children.” Every parent echoes this sentiment, which is why when many parents discover that their child has a developmental delay, the feelings of shock, loss, and confusion are like a hammer to the heart. What is left is a feeling of helplessness akin to falling into the abyss without any light. These feelings of helplessness and anxiety can easily fragment relationships and tear families apart.
PenguinSmart’s family-centered intervention model can help parents get out of the loss of not knowing how to help their child, and build a bridge for the child to communicate with the outside world.
We recently interviewed Ruth who used our service and invited her to share with us her feelings and changes since the diagnosis of her twin children to the present. During the interview, her past sufferings and memories came to her from time to time, but seeing her child getting better and better during this period of intervention, she no longer has only a bitter smile but encourages parents facing similar situations to not give up, because when there is hope everything will get better.
Next, let us watch Ruth’s interview video and hear her story!
The Diagnosis of My Children Has Brought Great Changes to My Life, but It Also Made Me Stronger
“It wasn’t just one of my babies, but both of them had language delay… After the start of the intervention, although we appeared strong outside and did not shed tears easily, only we knew how sad we truly were.”
Ruth shared with us her journey from taking her children to the hospital for evaluation to accompanying them on the intervention. She mentioned that, before the intervention, one of the twins was like a statue and could not speak a single word, and the other could speak a little, but nothing comprehensible.
Just like the experience of many parents, Ruth once held her baby in the hospital and cried hopelessly. “If I disappear, will everything be forgotten…”, though such as these flashed away, concerns about her children falling into the life of the idling, missing the golden period of language intervention woke her up. So, after a few days of sadness and crying, she wiped her tears and started looking for intervention resources. At that time, she contacted PenguinSmart through family recommendations. Under the guidance of the online training team, she started to implement intervention methods into the day-to-day interactions with her children, making efforts to help her children take initiative and improve their speaking ability.
The Furthest Distance is Not Being Able to Touch My Children’s Heart
“At first, I didn’t know how to communicate with my children. I think the furthest distance is when I am so close to my children, but we can’t communicate. I can’t get into their world, touch their heart, and pull them out…”
One of the biggest difficulties parents face in intervening with their children at home is how to interact with them, get their attention, and do effective exercise. Many exhausted parents must have once thought, “Why does my child ignore me? How long will this life of not being able to communicate with each other last?”
To the parents, their child’s developmental delay is like a silent killer, who kills without blood, wearing away their original positive mind and strong spirit day by day. However, just like we tell ourselves when we are at a low “There is no hurdle in the world that cannot be overcome, but only ourselves that need to be overcome”, the rehabilitation path is the same. Together with the child, as long as parents do not admit defeat and bow to reality, parents can call on their courage and strength to continuously seek the most appropriate intervention method. It is okay if the child does not display improvement in one or two days, parents should aim and insist on long-term recovery results.
Effective Family Intervention Lights Up the Children’s World
“This guidance method means that instead of me forcibly pulling my children out of their world, I enter their world. I now understand that my children know that their mother is there for them!”
Maybe the children’s progress is very slow, and perhaps in the process of trying to communicate with the child, one loses patience, but when parents see that the child begins to connect with others and finally makes a breakthrough, their joy is enough to forget the past struggles and heartaches. Parents can heal themselves and call on their strength to continue helping their children.
“This is a commitment I make to my children, and also to myself.”
In addition to continuing to implement intervention exercises, Rui also mentioned that a family must have one person to first take up the mission of interfering with the child and then call out other family members to participate. All family members should take part in communicating and interacting with the child, recording their growth through videos. If the family is united under the same mindset, everyone can act as the child’s therapist, and the journey of intervention will be smoother, allowing the child to move forward step by step embraced by love and care into a better world.
For more information on home-based language therapy intervention for children, please visit:
About the Contributor:
Interviewed and summarized by PenguinSmart Service Team. Names were anonymized for client privacy.
