I am certainly guilty of filling Noah’s speech void with my own assumptions, usually because I don’t have a lot of other options available, but this week I learnt a valuable lesson of why this shouldn’t always be the case.
As much as Noah loves going to Pre-school, and always seems to have fun whilst he’s there, I just assumed that he hadn’t exactly made friends. He isn’t in a position to tell me himself, but I knew that the other children would interact with him, and had been told that some of them were aware that he would sometimes need a bit of extra help, but I never really equated that to him having friends there. Not how I would define them for myself at least.
As we left preschool one day this week however, all that changed. A little girl who had been picked up a few moments before had spotted us as we walked out of the main carpark. She was up in her mums arms watching us over her mums shoulder and suddenly bellowed “BYE NOOOAAAAHHH!!!!!!!” waving her little arm with so much enthusiasm that her mum stopped and turned around to see who she was waving at. I stopped and lifted Noah, encouraging him to wave back. Her mum let her carry on waving and shouting to us “BYE NOAAH!” for a couple of moments, and then us mums smiled at each other before we bundled the children in to our cars.
That moment meant the absolute world to me. I assumed Noah didn’t have friends, that the kids understood he was different but that that was as far as it went. To see that little girl so excited and so happy to have spent some time with Noah absolutely broke me and I burst into tears in the car with pride. Noah had a friend! I didn’t know! I’ve always worried about him making friends or having meaningful relationships with his peers, and here was the proof that he is perfectly capable of doing it all by himself.
I realise now I had underestimated him, however unintentionally, and decided that was not going to happen again. He may not be able to tell me everything, but I won’t make assumptions like that again. He can do anything that anyone else can do. I wish I could tell that little girls mum what it meant to us to hear her calling out to him. Maybe one day I’ll pluck up the courage to tell her!
Here’s to Noah’s little friend!
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