Ella Grace in Kindergarten
September 11th, 2009 by Robin Pass
Ella Grace came to us 4 years ago with no language. She understood Chinese, but had never heard English & didn’t speak at all because of her open cleft palate. She had surgery in Feb of the following year and started speech therapy.
Do you know how much is learned in the first 3 years of life? During those first 3 years, Ella Grace was abandoned, taken in to an orphange, fed the bare minimum…mind you we feel like they did the best they could but there are a lot of babies. In addition, the cleft set up perfect conditions for recurring ear infections that were probably never treated. Her first hearing tests indicated mild to moderate hearing loss due to obstructions.
Last week, she picked up a list of color words and READ them. I had no idea she could do that. This made me tear up. I smiled and told her how very proud I am of her. She’ll be reading before the end of this year. She has come so far.