By Lauren Fishbach | U.S. Board President
How does an almost 7- year old child whose native language is Romanian, teach herself to read fluently in English and is now working on acquiring Japanese and Russian? And, by the way, she taught herself to read in Romanian as she does not yet go to school. In this area of the world, there are few teachers who know how to work with special needs kids like 'A" who was diagnosed with being on the autism spectrum.
"A" had a good deal of behavioral issues when she came to us and did not understand how to properly socialize with other children. Our teachers soon realized that her keen intellect and inquiring mind had no outlet or focus. Little by little, with a lot of 1:1 attention, "A" has begun to learn how to interact more positively with others. AND.. the good news is that she will be attending school in the fall for the first, while continuing to attend Delia's Learning Center part-time.
We almost wouldn't have believed "A" 's language skills if we hadn't met her ourselves! And YES, you read that correctly... I got to meet "A" myself.... in person !! Delia Foundation CEO Laura Larkin and I were finally able to travel back to Romania. In June, we spent two weeks in Barlad and the surrounding villages that we serve, spending time with "our" kids and foster families. We got to give hugs to the special children living at the orphanage and meet with the orphanage director to start new plans in helping her build out their first indoor/outdoor play space for so the kids have a place to go dor art, music, free play, etc . (We are fundraising for that now on the GlobalGiving site under a project called Give Disabled Romanian Orphans their !st Playspace)
Still wondering how "A" taught herself to read and speak other languages? When asked, she says "tv, the tablet."
There is no explanation other than that her beautiful mind works differently than others! We are thankful to be able to embrace "A"'s differences and help her and our other kids with autism to grow according to their needs.
Wishing everyone a beautiful summer on behalf of myself and co-founders Laura Larkin and David Conway.
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