Monday, March 15, 2010

Early Intervention


So it's official...I've accepted a job offer! God has been so gracious to Jeff & I - I feel so blessed to have a job here in New York City starting June 1. For the past year or so I have been constantly stressing about finding a job in NYC. In order to be a speech therapist here for anyone between the ages of 3-21 (that's a HUGE age range!) I need to have my New York State Teaching Certificate. Well, the process of obtaining my teaching certificate is arduous, and although I am still pursuing it, I don't need it for an early intervention position (for infants and toddlers 0-3 years old.) AND I am automatically granted the teaching certificate after my first 9 months as a speech pathologist. God's provision is good. He is constantly reminding me that I DON'T have to be a stress ball about ANYTHING - it is in His hands. I am currently obsessed with learning more about the speech, language and feeding development of 0-3 year old babies.

The position is a 'home-care' position. Not only do I get to work with precious babies, but I also get to work alongside their family in their homes. This is such a great opportunity to love on families (and their children) with the perfect love of Christ. As I learn more about Early Intervention, I am realizing how great New York's program is, and how poor the state of Michigan's services are. A new dream of mine is to bring the skills I am learning (and will continue to learn) in New York City about Early Intervention to the city of Detroit. When I tutored at Hope (my church in Detroit), my heart was broken for the kiddos there - so many of them had speech and language, reading and learning disabilities that were not ever noticed or treated. Many of this issues can be detected at an early age, which can prevent the later development of more serious disabilities.

2 comments:

  1. Congrats on the job Laura! That's awesome! See? No need to stress, He provides for all our needs! This is something I struggle with too. We just bought a house (yay!) and then I got a great job offer out of nowhere. I wasn't sure what to do about it until I sat back and thought about where I am in my life and what's been going on. I literally said out loud "oh ok, I get it!" I knew I shouldn't have been stressing about it!

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  2. Yay!!! God is good!! That's awesome Laura! Your dreams for Detroit sound great to me ;). So happy for you and Jeff.

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