Work as a Remedy Good Practices Book EN

A m a li a ’ s J ourney: A Fa mily ’ s R esilien c e, S ofi a ’ s L ove, a nd the T riumph of a Da ughter This sweet baby came into the world! Smiling, beautiful, quiet, easy to put to sleep… She grew and blossomed. With her large eyes, she looked deeply into the eyes of whoever was in front of her, observing and exploring... some would say into the depths of the soul. The first two and a half years passed. She was ready to speak, but just as she began, something stopped her… I didn’t know, we didn’t know; we just tried to understand her, to communicate. Sometimes we succeeded, sometimes we didn’t. At two and a half, almost three, she was trying to talk with children her age. Amalia was so kind and charming that other little girls immediately approached her, making friends on the swings… but as soon as they spoke to her and she didn’t respond, they would leave. She would be sad for a little while, but then she would grab a ball and play on her own. At three years old, she could only say twenty words, and they all had an L in them… She would point with her little finger to what she wanted. I understood quite a bit, but how much? For the things I didn’t understand, Amalia would say “ato,” which meant “let it be,” making the corresponding gesture of giving up. Little Amalia says “ato” and plays ball alone... what a dagger to a mother’s heart! Even though the pediatrician told us to wait, not to worry, that every child has their own rhythm, luckily we didn’t wait... her father didn’t wait, and thank goodness for that! He was then taking “child development” courses for his job (as part of obtaining teaching qualifications to work in education), and he realized that Amalia seemed to have significant deficits for her age. We didn’t hesitate for a moment. Exams followed— pediatric neurologist, EEG, and various others… No! She didn’t have a developmental disorder; she didn’t have autism... but what did she have? They told us about difficulties with auditory awareness, articulation issues, fine and gross motor difficulties, ADHD traits, and possibly signs of dyslexia in the future. Upon hearing all this: Panic! “What do we do now?” asked the clueless and terrified parents!