"my" kiddos

I substituted at Starla's school for 2 days last week, in the infant room. I always find myself drawn to the special needs kids, I just love working with them. There was this little girl, Sydney, who attatched herself to me while I was there.

Isn't she cute?!



I don't know what's "wrong" with her so to speak, the teacher there actually asked me if I had any ideas, because the parent's won't say anything other than she is special needs. But she is almost 2 and is sooo tiny, and she can't walk or talk. But she was so smart, and could figure things out quickly, and she could communicate with grunts and pointing. I would walk her around the room while she held my hands for support, and she loved it, she didn't want to stop. The teacher was like "my gosh, have you worked with special needs kids before? You are so good with her?" as if they had never thought to do this with her. She also LOVED playing with the ball, the pic above was taken after she threw the ball, she got SOO excited. It was about the only time she smiled, otherwise she had a pretty blank expression on her face. But once I discovered she loved to walk and play ball, that's what we did for most of the day. I also got her to take a nap both days, which they said was incredible because she never napped. I think she had a really hard time tuning out, she paid attention to everything, and I think it is hard for her to shut it all out to take a nap, but I just rocked her and sang to her and she eventually fell asleep. It's amazing how attached you can get to a kid in just 2 days. :)

But then again, when I accidentially got placed in the special ed class for my second 30 hour pracitcum, I fell in love with little Katie in there too.



Once they got my placement right and switched me out of the room, I still went and volunteered on my own time just to spend time in that special ed room, I loved it. Katie is autistic, and I could barely get her to look at me, or smile or anything. This picture in face was taken by the little boy who sat next to her, so he got much more of a smile out of her than I did. She eventually smiled at me and would act like I was actually there, and would let me help her, but it took a while.

I wish I would have figure out my love of special needs kids before the semester before I graduated though! But eventually, when I have the time and motivation to do it, I want to add the Special Education certification to my degree.



I got to go to JGI to watch the 4th grade play this week, I love those kids......


















I can't wait to have my own class someday!