Something Worth Celebrating

Today was a big, big day here at our house.  If you recall, I recently blogged about Selective Mutism.  The Genius has not been speaking to her teacher, or really even inside her classroom.  However, she is talking to everyone else!  All the kids, other teachers, parent volunteers... Her teacher was frustrated with the lack of communication.  She was taking it personally that the Genius was not speaking to her.  She really wants to talk to our daughter.  Since we have seen such HUGE progress with the Genius (meaning, a major, major decrease in anxiety) we felt the time was right to apply some mild pressure.  So for a few days we talked to her about talking to her teacher.  Eventually we gave her three choices.  1. She could  whisper to a friend and have the friend tell her teacher something. 2. She could mouth words to her teacher without actually speaking.  3. She could talk to her teacher.  We told her she could pick a reward and that the reward was equal to the choice.  Choice 3 would get her the biggest reward.  She told us she wanted choice number 2. We said ok and she asked if she could have ice cream.  Of course we agreed and told her if she mouthed 1-2 words we could buy some and all have a small bowl after dinner.  If she did more than that we would all go out and she could even have a double scoop.  Guess what we did tonight? Yep! We ALL went out for ice cream and the Genius had a double scoop!  She mouthed 10 times to her teacher!!!! We did not even tell the teacher we were doing this, but when we opened the Genius' homework folder there was a note from her teacher saying that our daughter had mouthed words to her ALL DAY LONG!  You cannot even imagine how thrilled we are.  Cloud 9? Cannot even compare to how we feel tonight!!!!  This is a HUGE GIGANTIC step for a child struggling with Selective Mutism.  Today was worth celebrating and that was the best ice cream I have ever had.  We are so proud of our girl!