A Parent's Perspective
“As a toddler, Gabriel was meeting most of his milestones, but we were worried about his speech. He was saying a few words but then he kind of stopped. He was not picking up more and not using the words that he had.” Gabriel’s mother, Paulina is a certified Special Education teacher who worked in the schools as well as in homes providing SETS (Special Education Teacher Support) services. The agency Paulina worked for offered early intervention so she was more prepared than many parents, knowing what was available and how to access it. When Gabriel began Early Intervention, however, the providers struggled to connect to her son. "Whenever the therapists would come in. he’d gently push them back out the door. Just give them back their bag and jacket and wave them bye bye," Paulina says. When the therapist would return, Gabriel would spend the session clinging to his mother and crying. Before he could acclimate to the therapists, "Covid hit, and everything stopped, including the services. Then he aged out.”
Re-entering a social world that Gabriel had never had the opportunity to be accustomed to was the next challenge and his parents knew they had to find a way that was not filled with sensory overwhelm or too many demands, academic or otherwise. Gabriel’s parents found a nature-based playgroup and from there were told about the Otto Specht School.
“At first, we didn’t know what to expect,” Paulina says. “Gabriel has always been very sensory. As a baby, he never wanted to play in dirt or snow. His fists were always clenched.” When Gabriel began kindergarten last March, Paulina recalled that it was still very cold and sometimes snowy, and Gabriel would not put on gloves so his mother bought an oversized coat that covered his hands - and brought him day after day, at first for just an hour or two at a time. “Since coming here, he’s started picking up leaves, and hugging trees. Before, he wouldn’t pick up a fork! Now, he is becoming more and more independent. And he’s verbalizing more. His teachers say they have heard Gabriel say ‘Go!’ and count.” In the beginning, Gabriel would not join the group and showed little interest in the other children. “Now,” his mother says, “he is interacting more and more. He still doesn’t speak with them, but they’re working together. The last time I saw them, the children had a big pot and all of them were working on filling it with sand. And Gabriel was in there, too, taking his turn.”
“At my son’s age, social emotional skills and life skills are more important than letters and numbers,” Paulina concludes. “Here, everything is allowed to happen at its own pace. This is a school that respects children as the humans they are. They believe, as I do, that children are born with knowledge and inner guidance. They are already their own little people and we have only to help them grow into who they’re meant to be— not who we want them to be. I know that when Gabriel’s ready for something, that’s when it happens. Of course, you have to give your child the opportunity. That’s why I was searching for something—anything. Thank goodness we found Otto Specht.”