Anthony is our only 3rd grader this year. He is the most energetic, enthusiastic, upbeat, involved, interested in everything, easily distracted child I have ever met. Translate that to mean I’m convinced he has ADHD, ADD, and whatever other attention disorder there is out there…. J At first it was very difficult to work with him, but now I absolutely love this kid. He is extremely misunderstood with is EXTREME INABILITY to sit still….for merely 2 minutes…but man is he smart!

Anthony absolutely loves to learn! He occasionally balks at learning something new, but he is always up for a challenge! With his limited language skills, he makes it very clear he would prefer to stay in the Deaf Ed classroom all day instead of in his 3rd grade classroom. Although he absolutely detests being forced to sit still, he is a sponge at memorizing and learning when taught in a very tactile/active way. Once I realized this and adapted my teaching methods, he memorized the entire capital and lower-case alphabet, without flash cards, in a month! He memorizes new signs quickly with flash cards, and we are now working on him memorizing the names of all the things on the flashcards. He knew most of his numbers when I arrived, but has memorized the rest since! He is now learning sequential counting and beginning to learn simple addition using sequential counting. Math is a little harder for him since you have to actually stay kind of still while counting popsicle sticks and writing…

It is a blessing that his mom is more involved, comes to meetings, and actually tries to communicate with her son. When the parents of the deaf kids are involved, it makes our job more productive because the parents can reinforce what the kids are learning.

Please pray for Anthony! He is a bright kid with TONS of potential to learn sooo much more! If we could just keep his attention a little bit longer during teaching time, that would be awesome! Also, I am starting a children’s church class specifically for the Deaf kids at the church here at Refugio during the service, and Anthony’s mom said she would come and bring him! Please pray that she actually does come with Anthony and his siblings!

#Peru #deafministry #missions #provision