{"id":4707,"date":"2018-10-24T12:07:30","date_gmt":"2018-10-24T16:07:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/?p=4707"},"modified":"2021-07-26T17:07:59","modified_gmt":"2021-07-26T21:07:59","slug":"lets-start-all-over-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/lets-start-all-over-again\/","title":{"rendered":"Let\u2019s Start All Over Again"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sara* was not adjusting. As a special child<\/strong>, her parents had dealt with numerous issues but Orientation Day\u00a0 marked what they hoped would be a new beginning. \u201cEzer Mizion’s Day Care has experience with children like her. Their staff is professional. For sure, they\u2019ll have the key to help her.\u201d With the tremendous burden of #raising a special child<\/strong> now shared, they felt a weight being lifted off their own frail shoulders.<\/p>\n

But it didn\u2019t happen. Sara displayed extreme social anxiety and various other challenges. Her teachers tried but she was not moving forward. Each day Mommy found it harder and harder to send her off to school with a hopeful smile. It was so difficult to face but face it they must. Their precious child was not succeeding. To others she may appear to be a special needs child<\/strong>, doomed to failure. But to her parents, she was everything. A mighty wave of love for this child would overpower them but the daily reports threatened to topple their last hopes.<\/p>\n

Then it came. The dreaded phone call.\u00a0 The school was requesting a meeting. The parents were certain of what they would be hearing.\u00a0 Probably a cold, professional assessment in clipped tones, \u201cWe\u2019re sorry. Your daughter is not adjusting. We suggest that you look for another school\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"
Meeting at Principal’s Office to decide our child’s future<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

They arrived precisely on time for their appointment, trembling in the principal\u2019s office as if they themselves were school children waiting for the principal to issue her dire ruling. But they were wrong. Oh, how wrong they were!<\/p>\n

Several professionals were there at the meeting.\u00a0 Each one was warm and caring and, best of all, hopeful. \u201cSara is a lovely little girl with many strengths. We\u2019re going to work hard to tap into those strengths.\u00a0 But first we have to get her to adjust to a school setting. We\u2019ve discussed many ideas and have come up with one that we think may work. Since the current situation is not succeeding, we\u2019re going to start all over again with a new adjustment period. Sara will be given her own small room with only an assistant in the room with her. As she gradually adjusts to the assistant\u2019s presence, we will move her up, step by step, to a standard school setting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Success. After a few days with only the assistant, Sara was brought into the Gan for a short period. She began to cry but her tears soon stopped when she caught sight of an interesting toy. Day by day, she was able to remain in Gan for longer periods.<\/p>\n

In the course of the year, she received paramedical therapy<\/strong>, with an emphasis on the communication aspect and the DIR method<\/a><\/strong>. Slowly but surely, Sara began making eye contact with the staff and even showing affection during the therapy sessions. In addition, she learned to play functionally with educational games and began producing her first words.<\/p>\n

\"\"
Playing, learning and growing at Ezer Mizion’s Judith Pfeuffer Day Care Network<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

By the end of the year, substantial progress was seen in Sara\u2019s functioning. She came to Gan happily, put words together, expressed requests and feelings, and began forging social connections with the other children. Sara remained in the day nursery for another year, during which she was placed with the higher-functioning group of children. She was successfully toilet-trained and began eating a wide range of foods, after a long period of pickiness, when she\u2019d eat only plain bread, Bamba, Similac, and one specific kind of flavored yogurt.<\/p>\n

Sara completed her second year able to utter sentences and to carry on basic conversation. She had become friends with the other children in Gan. She also showed substantial and significant improvement in her motor and communication skills. Sara went on to another year of a municipal \u201cGan Safah\u201d \u2014 preschool with therapy support\u2014 and we were recently informed that for the coming year, she will be mainstreamed into a regular preschool.<\/p>\n

Sara is one of the many success stories of Ezer Mizion\u2019s Judith Pfeuffer Day Care Network<\/a>, whose goals are the same as those of the students\u2019 parents: to love each child and help them grow and to never, ever give up.<\/p>\n

Ezer Mizion provides services to over 660,000 of Israel\u2019s population annually in addition to its Bone Marrow Registry which saves the lives of Jewish cancer patients the world over.<\/p>\n

\"DONATE-TODAY-BUTTON-3\"<\/a><\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"pinterest\"<\/a>\"linkedin\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sara* was not adjusting. As a special child, her parents had dealt with numerous issues but Orientation Day\u00a0 marked what […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4707","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-special-needs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4707"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6010,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4707\/revisions\/6010"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4707"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4707"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/ezermizion.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4707"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}