Justin Begins Speech Class

Justin had his first day of speech class. His pediatrician and even his teacher say that his speech is within the normal development range, but I feel that the classes would only benefit him. He has a teacher who is excellent, along with a grad student who began teaching him today. Today they assessed Justin’s pronunciation by having him look at a picture book and say what the pictures were about. They also asked him questions about what he did before class, what he ate for breakfast, what activities/games he liked to play, etc. He'll be going to 'the big school' once a week.

FLASHBACK – September 11, 2001: Six years ago, a new term was added to the American vocabulary, “nine eleven.” Every one seems to remember what they were doing that day. Me - I was on a plane headed to Chicago for a conference. We passengers boarded the plane early that morning, but ended up sitting for almost two hours. No one knew details, but we knew that there were incidents involving planes crashing into buildings. Eventually the pilot made the announcement for all of us to calmly exit the plane. He said that we were under attack and it was very possible that our airport was a target. That is when ‘fear’ hit - people became very alarmed. They began to push their way and even run to get try and get out of the airport. I couldn’t reach any of my family members (phone network was busy) so I waited - as with hundreds of other stranded people – for an available taxi. While waiting, many of us saw the live coverage of the twin towers in New York on TV. We all gasped with the same reactions when the first tower fell – horror, shock, more fear. After hours of waiting, I was eventually able to get home by sharing a taxi with others. All I wanted was to be with my husband and baby. My heart still goes out to the families who lost a loved one that day.