Having an “It’s Possible” Attitude

In the beginning of our journey, I was overwhelmed with emotions. I didn’t know how we were going to get through it. I didn’t understand why this was happening to my child. For a year, my child was developing and progressing ahead of the norm, why did the regression occur? I could have got myself in a rut of why’s, play the blame game, or make excuses. It is easy to say:

·        The therapist will address this

·        My child will grow out of it

·        I don’t know how to help my child

·        Why can’t my child _______________

·        Will my child ever be able to ____________

·        It’s too early to work on _______________

·        I don’t have time to do ____________

It is harder to step up and take action. After coming to terms with where we were at, I decided to approach it head on with an “It’s Possible” attitude.  I started thinking, “It is possible for my child to ______________ , if I tap into my resources and form a plan."

I first reached out to all of my resources. I talked to the developmental pediatrician, therapist, and family doctor to come up with realistic goals (both short and long term). I knew that the best approach to helping my child was to work as a team with the professionals.

Next, my husband and I then sat down and came up with a plan of what we were going to do at home to help our child reach the goals. We also went to training to get help from the professionals on how we could help our child.

Last, we monitored the goals and changed our plan when needed so that our child would feel successful. Some days we did have to take some steps back so our child wasn’t working on a frustration level. I believe that on those days re-evaluation is essential for constant progress.

Throughout the years I have kept our goals and progress notes. Every once in a while (especially on a hard day), I will look back at them and see how far we have come. It helps me remember that our goals are possible when we work as a team with the professionals, set up a plan, and monitor/ re- evaluate/ change our plan when needed.