Truly an Enigma

My job is probably the most rewarding job out there, but it tends to take time for me to feel accomplished. The work is tough; it often takes a while before goals are met. The length of time, I think, adds to the feeling of accomplishment. It definitely can be frustrating. I’ve had instances where I’d try teaching a child the color blue for two months, but the day that child pointed to blue on command (upon my request), I threw a party.

The entire way home from his house that first day, I thought of Ben. I thought about the smile he put on my face almost immediately. I thought about how genuinely happy he seemed to be. I thought about how different he was from most of my other clients.

After dinner that night, I sat down on my couch and took out Ben’s IFSP and former evaluations. My agency is technically supposed to mail me the child’s records as soon as I inform them I will be taking on a case. Usually though, I was lucky if I received them after I have been seeing a child for a week. In this case, my things came in the mail the same day I met Ben.

Most of the time, the records indicate what I expect to see; lack of speech, tantruming behavior, poor eating habits, and so on. When I began to read Ben’s history, my jaw dropped. Ben was put into foster care five days after he was born. Apparently, his teenage mom had threatened to jump off a building holding her newborn baby. Now there’s something you don’t read every day.

I continued reading and learned that not only had Ben been diagnosed with autism, but he was also deaf in one ear. His left ear canal had not fully developed, and was closed. I thought back to earlier in the day and realized I hadn’t even noticed that.

Immediately, I had a million questions. If Ben’s life truly was the way it had been documented, how was he so happy and jolly? If he was deaf in one ear, had he not heard me? If he had autism, why did he stare me in the eye?