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Eden Social Welfare Foundation
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2020-04-17

The Rehabilitation Journey of Lu (Part I)

The term Slow-Flying Angel is used to describe children who need support of early intervention. Just like every other kid, they study and play. The only difference is that they learn and grow just a little bit slower than others.

 

Lu was a Slow-Flying Angels. She was only 3 years old when she received early intervention service from Eden Social Welfare Foundation. She used to be a shy little girl who was physically weak and had to wear vision correction glasses. After 17 years, Lu has now turned into a graceful girl.

 

A photo of Lu and the Lu Family with social worker Chih-Yu Chang

(Lu, Mother Lu, and Director Chi-yu)

 

 As Small as a Melon

Although Lu was born at full term, she weighed only 2,000 grams, which almost hit the incubator care requirement. During her infancy, she had feeding disorder and inadequate locking of the cardia that she would spit out whatever she was fed. Her growth curve stalled due to poor absorption and malnutrition. Compared to her older sister, who has been learning rhetoric for since 6 months old, Lu, who was 8 months old at that time, was noticeably late in her development. Luckily, after transferring to a larger hospital, Lu no longer vomited what she was fed. However, the previous delay has caused significant impact on Lu’s growth. She started walking at the age of 19 months old, and began to develop oral expression ability at the age of 3 after receiving early intervention service.

 

A Turning Point with Early Intervention Service

When Lu was 3 years old, her mother started to look for some early intervention support, which led to the connection between Lu and Eden. "When I met Chih-Yu at the time, I really felt like I caught a driftwood in the ocean. I originally thought my child and I were at no hope. She is the one who gave me a glimmer of dawn." Mother Lu said thankfully.

 

Chih-Yu Chang, current director of the Miaoli Service Centerof Eden Social Welfare Foundation, was a social worker at Taichung Tun District Case Management Centerin Taichung County when she and the Lu family crossed path. After graduating from university, she joined Eden and took care of Lu’s case. Chih-Yu always do her best to support her service receivers. She helped Lu in arranging classes, organizing professional consulting services at home, and helping family to apply for intervention subsidies.

 

Apart from Chih-Yu, Lu’s parents also received other professional supports – from Eden’s early intervention classes, to her speech, physical, and occupational therapies.Lu’s parents seized every opportunity as long as it is good for Lu. Furthermore, mother Lu consistently accompanied Lu to every class to learn the skills so that she could continue helping Lu at home. As a result, with the assistance of early intervention, Lu started to speak. Although the sentence was short and simple, she had already made a huge progress.

 

 The Support-Needed Learning Journey

The friendship between the Lu’s family and Chih-Yuhas been a great support for Lu’s family. Even though Chih-Yuhas transferred to Miaoli Service Center and Lu has finished her early intervention program, whenever facing very important decisions regarding to Lu’s education, Mother Lu always called Chih-Yufor discussion and advice.  

 

Entering the general education system is a huge challenge for Slow Flying-Angels as well as the family. Out of gratitude, mother Lu would like to contribute to the community so she became a volunteer at Lu’s elementary school. However, in her volunteer’s time, she saw Lu being labeled or unfairly treated at school, which was very difficult for her as a parent to accept. Fortunately, the situation has gotten changed when Lu entered the Junior High school. The teachers and the school staffs were with more understanding and have more experience in special education. With their helps, Lu was able to enjoy her school life and to start a new chapter of her life.