Monday, November 23, 2009

University of Montevallo


For those students at the University of Montevallo, here he is (no matter what he said about his little sister tonight) blowing her toes after he's just painted them (this pic is only a couple of months old)...

I'm very proud of little man, tonight he gave his first "presentation" to the up and coming Deaf ed and speech pathology majors at a college here in Alabama. And I BARELY GOT  A WORD IN EDGEWISE at certain times...his story telling has come a long way over the years, these days his stories never end sometimes (lol). You may have noticed me trying to 'butt in' on occasion and change the subject when he spoke for more than five minutes but there's good reason. I was nervous. You mamas can feel me on this one...when your kids get to telling stories about home events, home life and then out pops something so random and unexpected that your embarrassed to death...that was my fear. I've been so enthralled with a child's story before only to be blindsided with  a "you remember that mama, when you said you didn't like the neighbor's kids" or something like that (which may or may not have been true, depends on if the neighbor ever reads this, lol) But you get the idea, I was so afraid he'd get carried away on the subject and throw in a random, "like when I saw you in your bra" type thing so I was only trying to stop that before it happened! Luckily, he's maturing and no such story was exploited. Had a great visit with the college students, thank you for letting me come by and visit. I appreciate your questions and Gage is hoping to come back next year to speak with the next year's students! Topics Gage discussed, speech reading, school, self advocacy...topics I discussed, language opportunities, IEPs, audiology, siblings with cochlear implants/deafness, resources, parenting, history, Goldenhar syndrome, and much more I'm sure.
p.s. he loves the Legos thanks for offering a reward, he was expecting nothing though, he talks for free! lol, it's a hobby of his

2 comments:

leah said...

I seriously LOVE the fact that a deaf child was able to give a lecture to college students on a syndrome, aspects of hearing loss, and self advocacy. And he's only what, eight? LOVE IT!

Gage totally rocks.

Tiffany C. said...

That is so awesome! Too bad you didn't have someone recording it. :)