(Aerial view of 3 engrossed girls - Gracie, Ana, and our friend, Mercy - coloring [or, in Gracie's case, trying to eat markers].)We've been interested in figuring out Moses and any "delays" he might have (from American standards). It's taken a while and now as he is blossoming before our eyes, we see a fine motor delay and language delay. The school system is very different here - perhaps the topic of a whole separate post in months to come. But they don't learn much in the "nursery" school years, so much of his delay can be attributed to a lack of early-childhood education and stimulation. (This is not a critique of Home of Love nor the school - this is simply how things are done here and we are comparing him to our rather advanced American 4 year old who just tested at a 2nd grade level!)
But as we thought about his speech and comprehension delay, we compared his life to that of life in the family. In the "Children's Home," he spoke with adults very little. No adults read books to him and in a crowd he could easily not pay attention any time there was a gathering. We see the same delay in all of the little ones at Home of Love. They can easily get away with very little adult interaction and they barely speak to each other as peers except to antagonize each other or play, which requires no significant vocabulary.
The staff at Home of Love is very interested in creating a resource room where they can read to the children and play educational games!
Today, I started the beginning of "catch up" education with him - he was confused at first and then forged ahead with abandon, crying when I called it a day! He followed almost no instructions without me putting my hand over his and coaxing him to listen to me, demonstrated no comprehension, and just enjoyed tracing letters. But he had fun and it was a start! Interesting to me that he has no concept of what sound the letters make, that letters spell words, etc. I believe this is a result of rote-education where the children simply repeat back without any comprehension.
Incidentally, family worship is interesting as we get four children with tiny attention spans to sit and listen to Bible readings in Acholi and English and demonstrate some comprehension... fun times!
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