Big Step

Middle Sojourner went this whole passed school year with only one single word (accidentally) spoken at school.  This summer we have been having some of her friends from school over to work on seeing some progress.  On Thursday we had one of the little girls from her class over to play for the day. 

They played, and played, and played!

They even got to play some Wii.

They had lunch on the patio with some of our neighbor kids too.

And, after lunch I did some exercises with Middle Sojourner and her friend that our counselor taught us.  (Basically, games with one word communication.)  The first couple of the games were without eye contact and Middle Sojourner did well whispering the one word answers.  (A big step!)  The the last couple of games her answers got a little louder and she was having more eye contact.  (An even bigger step!)  After the games I told her to work on answering her friend's yes or no questions (verbally) for the rest of the day and that next week when she came over we would work on more.  To my surprise, by the end of the day Middle Sojourner was talking a mile a minute in her normal voice to her friend just like she does to us!  (A HUGE step!!!)  We are so thankful for this breakthrough and hope that we continue to see progress this summer with her friends so that next year we can hopefully see her talking (or at least whispering) in the classroom.  This week we are greatly encouraged and continue to seek the Lord's

guidance in how best to help Middle Sojourner overcome this fear.

To celebrate this big victory Middle Sojourner was aloud to plan a day of festivities.

She wanted a big breakfast so we had a feast.  She wanted Asian Noodles

(one of our favorites, I'll have to share that next time I make it) for lunch so that's what we had. 

She wanted to play Clue so we all spent an afternoon trying to solve a mystery.

Who did it?  In what room?  With what weapon, Middle Sojourner?

Little Sojourner may have figured it out.

Mr. Sojourner makes an accusation.  He was wrong.  I made an accusation.  I was wrong.  Ms. Sojourner made and accusation.  She was wrong too.  Middle Sojourner makes an accusation and she got it correct!  We finished off the day with one of her favorite dinners: hamburger and gravy over mashed potatoes.

It was a great day of fun and celebration!

*You can read more about Selective Mutism, Middle Sojourner's story, and our journey to help her overcome it by pressing the "Selective Mutism" tab at the top of the blog.