“He definitely has the Southern thing going for him,” Kam’s mom Jasmine fondly describes his extraverted demeanor. He is easygoing, sweet and extremely expressive. No matter what kind of
mood he’s in, you know how Kam is feeling.

 

However, expression and communication haven’t always come easily to Kam. He faced speech delays, and with speech delays came communication struggles. Kam is emotional, but without the tools to express his feelings, he could resort to crying for 30, 60, 90 minutes at a time.

 

After nearly a decade working with people with special needs, Jasmine knew early in Kam’s life he would have speech delays, so when he first needed childcare at age one, his parents made a point to find a center that could address those needs.
 

The center felt like “one big family,” until they came back after the initial pandemic closure. Kam’s new teacher didn’t know how to address his long crying spells, and she didn’t work with him or communicate with Jasmine. With larger ratios and pandemic challenges, it was also difficult to find time to give Kam the individualized care he needed.
 

To make sure his needs were addressed, Jasmine enrolled Kam at the Elaine Clark Center in late 2020. Not only do small classroom ratios help ECC teaching staff give Kam the care he needs, but the social services and  therapy have helped Kam’s communication skills immensely. The staff social worker referred Kam to speech therapy, and both his therapist and the TIP speech therapist have worked with Kam.