Elementary Client who Experienced a Stroke In Utero
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Last summer a father drove his children from College Station for summer camp. The daughter was a very bright, verbal first grader, Francis, who was struggling with reading. His 9-year-old son, John, had a stroke minutes before birth that affected the left side of the brain, the language center of the brain. John’s right side of the body was atrophied, but he could do anything physically that his peers could do. He only spoke in 3 word sentences and his mother said that most of the time he could not “spit” out that third word to make himself understood.
After only three days of summer camp utilizing The Listening Program for 30 minutes each day, his mother brought him in for his fourth day session. She said, “Pat, John talked back to me last night. He has never talked back to me!”
I said, “Sorry, but that is what nine year old boys do…talk back.” Astonishingly, John was verbalizing how he felt. Previously John was “thinking” about talking back but he could not spit out the words.
Later during the summer, John’s father said John went outside with him to get something from the car and John spoke the entire time they were outside. Dad lovingly referred to John as a “regular Chatty Cathy.”
And the changes remained. After the first day of school, John’s mom picked up both children and asked the proverbial, “What did you learn in school today?” expecting the usual “Nothin’.” This time John went into a five minute dissertation on whom he saw and what he did. After a while, the mother heard a tiny voice from the backseat. It was John’s little sister. She said, “Momma, tell John to shut up. I wanna tell you about my day!”