What Made My Heart Melt



How A Child Touched My Heart

Early in my career, and still very new to the field of education I had my first experience of how much of an impact I had on a child's life. I was working with 16-20 students ranging from 6-15 years of age at a summer camp program. I had one child in particular that stood out from the other students and one that I would never forget. He was the first student that I experienced with a behavioral disorder. I wasn't educated in Early Childhood Education at the time so I was unfamiliar with behavioral disorders and the effects that it had on children. Still being in my early twenties I just thought that the child was disobedient. I know now that my judgment was wrong. He was a very difficult child to control and sometimes even to talk to. Every day I made it a priority to make sure that whatever it was that we were doing I was right next to him; helping and making sure he understood the activity. At times I became overwhelmed by his behavior. I tried so very hard to figure out why he would act out and how could I possibly help him. He was definitely a run for my money.

I believe that this child was a test of my profession and my career goals. He worked and tested my abilities as a teacher. Many of the other staff members sort of shunned away from him because of his behavior. I on the other hand never backed down. I always made sure that I made him feel special in some sort of way without showing favoritism in the classroom. I would assign him certain jobs in the classroom every day so that he could feel important. To my surprise all my efforts and support helped to change his behavior. This child was born to be a leader so allowing him to be in charge of a certain duty in the classroom helped to curve his actions. At the end of the summer, on the very last day of school, he and his mother gave me a great big hug and said thank you. I had never felt so good to have given a child a chance by supporting and being there for them when no one else would.  This moment made me realize that I could definitely help change a child’s life.