d. m. arney, m.a.

I have a student that wouldn’t talk when I met him. Now, he’s handling important phone calls on his own, and he said it started less than a week ago. Before this he’d been improving, but I can see the sudden surge myself. Two things happened, the first is he communicates very well with his deaf ASL instructor, and the other is his new dog. Both of whom are doing an excellent job of ‘hearing’ him when he speaks. It’s very powerful. Being heard makes us feel human, feel alive. Try listening again, sometimes a student really needs to talk.