What was missing in all these long medical words and piles of paper was any hint that here was a unique human being who deserved our interest and time so she could develop relationships and learn about herself and others.
The children, of course, had none of our fear. They took to Kate as they would to any child, asking questions, making their own relationships with her and filling her day with noise, talk and touch. This helped us relax into incorporating a schedule for Kate into our day.
We had to work out how to tell her moods and her key worker soon tuned into her happy, angry and sad noises, facial expressions and body language. Kate loved doing what all young children love doing - getting wet and dirty and making a mess. Every day we would cover her with a plastic apron and put a tray on her chair filled with paint, water, cornflour mixture, sand, tissue paper and so on. Some she liked, some she didn't and she was able to learn to communicate some basic feelings to us so we were able to plan with this knowledge.
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