In the midst of emotions while writing “Lex at a New School, Mum and Dad Cry,” as soon as I posted the blog, I immediately recognized I missed an opportunity to say thank you. That thanks is to an incredible group of people – the team at Excelerate, where Lex has been schooling for the last couple of years.
Pika, Jo, Shermic, Suresh and Teacher Hanam. What a magical, loving, beautiful group of people.
Pika and Jo run the school, but I was always struck by a conversation I had with Pika about why she started the school a decade ago. Beginning her career as a speech therapist, she told me she was completely frustrated by the lack of a holistic approach to kids dealing with various challenges. Some enlightened thinking at last.
If I defined Excelerate from my own experience, I’d say it’s a place with world-class therapists and teachers, who bring no judgment to their students, and instead have one thing in common – a singular focus to help their kids overcome and thrive – addressing whatever needs to be tackled along the way. No unnecessary labels, no exclusion, just hard work and dedication. What they achieved with Lex has been superb and showed us that he is going to be OK!
We found Excelerate accidentally, which was super lucky, because we were running out of options back then. However, from the minute we met them, we knew this was the place, these are the people who can help Lex right now, this was it. And they have – with so much love it’s been incredible. We’ll all miss them.
But more than that, they’ve helped Steve and I. When we went into doubt, they helped us find our hope again. When we felt lost, they gave us strength to find the way back. And most importantly, in the last year when we’ve been trying to find a new school for Lex, they’ve been there to help us through the rejections again and again. Oh those rejections. May we never have to endure that shit again. I don’t think my heart could do another!
When we speak to other parents of children with a need-for-now or a long-term-need, all of them relate to the feelings we go through on a daily basis, because they have those feelings too. All of us understand how it feels to have our child rejected. All of us have dealt with so called professionals with zero compassion and insight. All of us have dealt with people wanting to classify our child so it makes it easier for them – screw whether it’s right or not. All of us have had to deal with the subtle criticism by family and friends. All of us parents with kids outside the “normal” zone – whatever that means – know what it’s like, and we hurt a lot. Pika, Jo, Shermic, Suresh and Teacher Hanam know this too. They live it with the parents every day.
The team at Excelerate got Lex caught up and on track, and we could not have done it without them. I know that many people around the world, who’ve been commenting on my blogs about their own experiences with speech delayed kids, don’t have the benefit of a team like this. But I wish every town and every city had an Excelerate to help them through. Unfortunately many don’t have anything.
But if you are in Singapore and your little one is showing some signs of a struggle, I could not recommend a school more. Check them out. You’ll never look back.
And Team Excelerate – thank you thank you thank you. We can never express our gratitude enough.
With love and without the bollocks
Andrea, Steve, Lex and Jax xxxxx
