America's Future Artist

Here is the drawing "D" made while we were together. Didn’t he do a great job? That is a butterfly, a dog’s face, an airplane, a cool looking car, and some stacking toys. Of course, the house has a chimney with smoke coming out from it. I asked him to draw a flower (you can see it behind the car). He drew it with great detail. While he was drawing, our facilitator was reading (verbally translating) his school report, and medical and psychological evaluation. I was told that "D" was a well behaved child at the boarding school, a very good boy. He is polite, kind and honest. Even if he has done wrong and did not get caught, he comes forward to say he has done something wrong. He was described as a follower instead of a leader. He never picks a fight and doesn't fight with others. He is doing well in school, and reading after starting only four months ago. "D" was described as "creative", and that his drawings are not typical of other first graders........they are much more detailed. The psychological evaluation stated only that he was not confident in his own abilities and that he needed a lot of praise. It makes good sense that his self-esteem would be low and that he would thrive on praise. I am a big believer in positive reinforcement, and trying to focus on the positive aspects in a person. Hey.....who doesn't like praise?? I am all for that approach!! The medical history was not too bad, considering his past abuse. When he came to the boarding school he initially had a problem with enuresis (bed wetting), but that was now resolved. He also had a problem with iron deficiency anemia that is also now resolved. I am thinking it was probably diet related, as the parents obviously did not provide the proper diet ( or maybe much food at all). He also had cryptorchism from birth that was corrected surgically in January of 2006 (undescended testicle). I also tried to get a good look at his teeth (zoo-bee) to see if there were any huge cavities and things looked OK, but we shall see when he goes to the dentist. He has had one baby tooth pulled, for cavities, and his two permanent teeth in the front are just starting to come in. His current height and weight is on the 15th percentile for 8 year olds ( I brought my own charts!!) Now he appears to be in fairly good health and all we need to do is get him home, fatten him up a little, love him a lot, put his mind at ease, and pray for peace and trust to come to his heart. We'll continue the story of the visit tomorrow.