RemembeRED: Mentors

Prompt: Do you have a mentor, or are you a mentor for someone else?  Now write about an experience with your mentor (or the person to whom you are a mentor) that shows us what that relationship means to you.  




Abnormal psychology is one of the required classes for a psychology major, but I would have taken the class even if it wasn't my major.  The professor sort of reminded me of a larger version of Teddy Roosevelt, with the mustache and the little round glasses.  His name was Ed.  He not only talked about the disorders of the mind, he talked about actual people with those disorders, such as the artist Louis Wain. Somehow, that made the symptoms we learned seem more real than they would have been with just a text book and a lecture.  I thought that Ed was a great professor,  then I moved on to the next class.

After I graduated and taught high school for a year, I realized that I didn't want to be a teacher. I impulsively quit my job.  Then I freaked out a little, because I had never done anything quite that impulsive before.  I didn't have a clue what I was going to do from that point on.  I flailed about, looking for a job, but really I was looking for a direction. Then I ran into Ed.  I don't remember where.  But he remembered me, and since he was the kind of person that people told all their problems to, I found myself unloading about my lack of a career goal and my seemingly directionless life. It was as if I opened my mouth and an avalanche of words that I had never spoken came pouring out.  I may have even cried.  Ed listened to it all, although he must have had other things to do. 

Ed suggested that I look into a post graduate degree in school psychology, and explained a little about the field when I looked puzzled.  I could work with kids who had disabilities, Ed told me.   He said that it would be the perfect career for me.  I was intrigued by the idea, but I needed to think about it.  Ed gave me his card and told me to call if I was interested. 

I called.  I had to jump through all of the hoops to get into the graduate program, but Ed was always there, pointing me in the right direction.  He guided me through my first administration of an IQ test and made sure that my reports were not too long-winded.  He even helped me get my job.  I could always talk to him during those years, and he always listened. 

I miss that.

Improving Expressive Language, One Word at a Time

When Zane turned three, I thought that was it for speech services. The ECI(Early Childhood Intervention) program that had been working with him was supposed to stop the day he turned three, and Zane was a DNQ(does not qualify) for special education. I had resigned myself to being the Universal Translator for my son.

However, the ECI speech therapist seems to be continuing to see him at daycare. We've found two progress notes in his cubby when we went to pick him up, and they are certainly speech progress notes. So I'm torn. Do I call the ECI group and let them know about it? I don't think that any law is being broken, so my first instinct is "no harm, no foul". Meaning that it is not hurting Zane to have extra therapy, and he is deriving "educational benefit" from the service. Zane is obviously getting better at speaking. A short time ago, he brought me his red truck, which was in two pieces.

"Did you break your truck, Zane?" I asked as I took the pieces from him and started trying to put them back together.

"Yes. I. Did," he enunciated perfectly. For the first time I actually understood each word my son said to me. I was very excited at this "Rain in Spain" moment. Zane might make it, after all. *relief*

Oh, and apparently it is National School Psychologist week. Most people have no clue what a school psychologist does. Or if they even exist, and are myths perpetuated by grumpy diagnosticians. Since I am a school psychologist, I am going to appreciate myself a bit this week in celebration. Like eating a few extra chocolates...or a snickerdoodle cupcake from the Gruene Flour Cupcakery, which is simply awesome in a way the tongue just can't describe.

Anyway, the point of all this about school psychologists? Find out who they are and what they do at your child's school! And maybe bring them a cupcake to show that you appreciate them. We never hear that we are appreciated!