Have faith, and believe on your abilities...

Ya Allah...That was my reaction when I had this boy as a patient, about 10 years old, didn’t look at me. Actually he turned all his face away from me (and he did this with everyone), on one side, and he had one of the strangest speech problems I’ve ever encountered, oh and at that time I had just graduated for less than a year.
He didn’t have any problems with his oral/speech apparatus. But his fricative phonemes (sounds) (s,sh,f….) and many others were nasalised, meaning they were produced from his nasal cavity (nose)? They sounded very distorted, he has had this problem since he started speaking? He had very low self esteem, was introvert and I don’t think he ever made any friends, at all. I thought to myself, will this child’s speech improve?

I knew I had to do my best to help him. It affected all his life. I have seen him for a number of sessions. His dad wasn’t very cooperative, was annoyed as they came from one of the regions far from the capital.

The boy followed my instructions, and was keen to cooperate as I assured him he’d improve his speech if he practiced whatever I gave him to do at home. He was one of the few children who showed devotion to the sessions.

After around 4 sessions, his sounds were near to normal, I was amazed. I thought to myself, we made it. He started turning his head to me, with some eye contact. He’d raise his head when I asked him to. He had a tiny smile appearing on his face whenever I said I am proud of his achievement.

We started talking about his dreams, which he had none. He made it thanks to Allah. I had to discharge him, but he taught me many lessons. May Allah grant him success…