Ups and Downs

I know that life, in general, is filled with tragedies and triumphs, but sometimes it just feels like I can barely enjoy one success before my bubble gets burst. This past Sunday we took Shea to Deaf Family Christian Fellowship, which is a local group that meets once a month to share the word of God via ASL.  And there are also many family members of the Deaf, as well as ASL students and interpreters in attendance as well, so someone voices service for those of us who are 'sign-impaired'.  We go to expose Shea to as many positive Deaf role models as possible. And it's a great help to us in learning more sign.  We had a GREAT day!  Shea made the rounds and sat with three different people during bible study.  She was such the little show-off.....she totally knows when she is the center of attention, and she loves every minute of it!
And then....Monday came.  And with Monday came "testing" by our speech therapist.  Testing that was requested by the preschool, which she will be attending beginning in April.  Testing that is NOT designed for Deaf children who use ASL.  I have several issues with this testing.  First, all of the testing objects were new to Shea.  They consist of toys that a required action is to be performed with, such as "the bear is hungry, can you give the bear something to eat?", and books where particular objects or scenes are to be pointed out.  Shea is not even 3 years old yet.  What do you think she wants to do when she sees a new toy or book?  Right!  Play with it!  Her focus was not on what our speech therapist was trying to get her to do, but rather on what these cool new toys and books were all about!  It was so frustrating for me.  And for Shea, who became quite irritable when she was not allowed to simply play however she liked.  Another part of the test consists of asking the child to point to a picture on the page of a particular body part.  Well, in ASL if you want to say 'eye', you point to your eye, so that whole part of the test is thrown out....even though Shea can spell 'E Y E' and 'N O S E' in ASL as well.
I just cannot begin to express my disappointment with the whole testing process for children who are not "normal".  I'll say it again......normal is anything in the main stream or the commonplace, therefore, genius is not normal!  Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Shea is a genius, but I am one of those annoying parents who thinks my child is incredibly amazing!  She teaches me so much every day - I can only hope that one day we can make a difference in areas like this for children whose abilities need to be showcased in a different way than the boring old "normal".
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