Elmarie vd Merwe Speech Therapy

Pondering the long term effects of this pandemic and how we'll need to adjust our therapy/parenting to prevent, treat and/or compensate... The very important job of playing (and playing with others) has been diminished to everyone staying in his own 6 foot bubble. Kids are learning that it's safe(r) to avoid interaction with others. Deciphering facial expressions is now limited to looking at a pair of eyes above a mask... For a speech therapist, teaching pronunciation is a nightmare -- even with see-through masks (that keeps fogging up). Teaching new vocabulary is challenging, because experiences in the Real World are being restricted. Hands-on therapy with actual games and touchy-feely objects to turn and twist and shake and push, have been replaced with a therapist on a screen (or nothing at all). After a day of talking with a mask and shield and alcohol-based sanitizer fumes and PPE galore, my TM joint feels stiff and my exhaustion is exhausting. Do we try to remember how to do things for One Day, when we can get back to how things used to be? Do we adjust to the "new normal" that is unrelenting in its fickleness? Do we settle for just surviving this day, because it's a pandemic and we think "this too shall pass"? Regardless of your reaction, THIS is your today. When tomorrow is a mere hope, how will you make Today worthwhile?