Leoparents have been looking for a speech therapist for a while now;
someone who would take up the challenge of teaching Leo to speak.
Private sessions at home, without stress.
They have made hundreds of thousands phone calls, pulled all possible strings.
They asked and begged, yet all traces disappeared in the mist of ignorance,
over the wall of aversion or under a wave of impertinence:
- With tracheotomy? No! I don’t work with such children!
After a long search, by a sheer coincident,
they came across the Programme for Early Development Support.
And it turned out that Leo, because of his disability,
is eligible for sessions with specialists.
Two times a week! For free!
Leoparents went to Psychology and Pedagogy Help Centre,
where they were guided through all the procedures by a super nice lady,
and Leo was qualified for the programme.
However, this is where difficulties arouse,
as we couldn’t find a centre that would agree to accept Leo under care.
It started to be unpleasant without a reason again:
- No. I will not put your son on the list. We have too many children. There are no intakes!!
- And when will there be any places?
- There are none. The intake has been suspended.
- Forever?
- Maybe there will be some places next year.
But don’t think we will take yourandomly, just like that, out of nowhere. You will have to wait.
- How long?
- I don’t know how long. Year and a half. Two years.
I don’t know. You should have come with your child earlier.
And so on, and so forth…
Finally, we made it.
Leoparents found a facility.
Unfortunately it is packed to capacity, so instead of two times a week,
Leo will get only one speech therapy session a week, but it’s not that bad for a start.
Some questions arise, however:
Why during dozens of doctor’s appointments nobody has told Leoparents about the programme?
Why isnn’t this kind of information automatically
given to the parents of children who are sick?
Why do we have to take care of (almost) everything completely alone?
Soon, Leo will turn two.
He missed around 170 hours of these sessions that could have helped him
in a very important period of his development.
But they didn’t.
Because we should have come earlier.
Walter Schmögner, Tyrannentreppe 2011
However, big thanks should go to these people:
– Mrs M.W. from Tricity, who made time for Leo during summer holidays and saw him a few times!
– Mrs G. from the Psychology and pedagogy Help Centre in Ochota,
whose involvement and conscientiousness are beyond compare!!!
– Ladies A.&A. From the Cetre of Early Development Support, who will be seeing Leo!!!
Thank you!!!!
P.S. Leofamily is still looking for a speech therapist. Has anyone heard something?
Does anyone know?