A suprise for Chance's swim teacher

Chance started swimming lessons today. In the past, the kids and I have been able to walk in all together and find the teachers on the first day of class. Due to stricter rules on showering before entering the pool, females must enter through the girls bathroom and males must enter through the boys bathroom. So Chance and his brother dashed off to one side of the building and the rest of us headed to the other side of the building. We had to make a potty stop before heading out to the pool, so the boys beat us out by quite a bit and found their teachers by themselves.

I looked all over trying to locate Chance's class in the pool but it took me a while to figure out which wet bobbing head was his. I wondered if Chance's brother had mentioned to Chance's teacher that he was deaf, since Chance had taken his implants off and left them in the van for swimming class.

Finally, I located what I thought to be Chance across the pool and headed over to see how things were going. Chance was swimming along just like the other kids. I bent down and asked the teacher if anyone had mentioned to her that Chance was deaf. Her eyes flew open and she said,"No. I didn't know that!" By now Chance had been in class for as long as 10 minutes. I told her the usual things that I tell Chance's swim teachers. That Chance is very capable and if the teacher will just demonstrate what they want done, look at him when they talk to him and tap him if they need his attention, Chance will do just fine. I figured it was only fair to both Chance and the teacher to let the teacher know that Chance was deaf since he wouldn't hear a single thing she said.

After class, I was asking all of the kids what their teacher's names were and Chance did not know. Neither did I. So I dashed over to where his teacher was standing and asked her her name. She said it was Stephanie. I told her that I would let Chance know. She then told me,"He is so good! He just swims along! I couldn't even tell he was deaf!" She also told me that she had taken sign language for a year but really didn't remember how to sign. I showed her the most important sign she would need to know which is the "I have to go to the bathroom sign", and she laughed and said ok.

I am in the mom and tot class with my youngest child so I am in the water too. This year, my class happens to be right next to Chance's class so I am able to observe him. I see how he watches the teachers and other kids closely so that he can see what they are doing. He laughs and has a good time as he goes along with the other kids. He has learned to focus in on his surroundings and respond to the cues around him and he does really well. He just has to focus harder than most of the other kids at swim class. What a kid!!