Danielle Connor updates us on her work with kids at Easter Seals.  Read her first blog post.

I had previous notions about special needs and what it takes to communicate with people who are different than me. I think it’s safe to say that I was sheltered in a world of average people knowledge. What I know is pretty standard, but incorporating what you know into what you do and think comes with going out into the world where people are. You acquire resourceful knowledge that helps create your development as a person more so than the exercise the ability to memorize facts.

Special needs children know more than most think they do, and I used to be one of those people. It seemed as if we were all just guiding them through activities that they did modified versions of – crafts, eating, book reading, etc. We’d read a book, and a child with multiple developmental delays might look like they’re staring off into space, having every page come and go with no effect. Correctly asking questions to them afterwards, however, gives them a chance to answer in a way that they can tell you what they’re thinking. For example, give them two responses that they can choose from, and while saying each one, stroke a different side of their face. “Does he have a red (left cheek) or blue (right cheek) ball?” When they lean their head to the correct side and look at you, you begin to realize that all of this isn’t for nothing. I taught a boy how to tell me how he wanted to be pushed on the swing – from the f-f-front or the b-b-back? His absence of language outside of three words makes it difficult to communicate with anyone, but just hopping onto the swing and instantly giving me his “bb-“ sound showed me that he remembered what I taught him. He remembered! And it’s something I taught him by myself!

These subtle signs of improvement touch you in a way that makes you feel like it’s all coming together, but it also makes you think even more about your passion. Are the smallest improvements in one child worth an entire lifetime devoted to this profession? That’s where the difference between passion and profession comes in – one can sustain you and the other can fund you. I decided that even if my clients can only call me D-d-d- because of my hard work, then that’d be the fortune of a passion.