30th September 2009, today, marked Taha’s 8th week at CAS Kindergarten section.
Taha’s routine in the morning is a complete room by room tour of the school, including a handshake with the fire engine and Barney, and a landing at the Library before heading towards his class room where we hand him over to Noreen. Two weeks into the program the school allowed Fawzia to stay back with him and between the lessons and techniques that Aneeka taught us and the commitment and effort put in by all the involved teachers at the kindergarten section, he is finally settling in to the new environment.
If he is not in the class you will find him in the Library, in the music room, in the sandbox or with Amal or Salwa in KG2 and Class 1. Nasreen Bakar and Noreen have been supportive and so open that it feels as if Taha goes to his very own school run by his very own family.
We were very lucky that Nawal and Ammi made sure that we sought early intervention last year. A year of speech therapy with Aneeka Shah at Ma Ayesha Memorial Center has left Taha well prepared academically. Writing and fine motor skills are still lagging, but in numbers, colors, shapes, vocabulary and sounds Taha is ahead of his class. Just this small advantage has allowed us to focus on ensuring that his expression and social skills improve. Going to school in a regular school environment where he is now on first name basis with all the teachers at CAS has also helped. He has grown semi-attached to his four Barney books, eye contact is now very regular, attention span is improving and from spending 3 minutes and thirty seconds in the class in early August Fawzia and Noreen have managed to retain him in KG1-A for all of two and a half hours yesterday.
And if you catch him in a good mood with the letter C, he will tell you that C is for cookie and it’s good enough for me.