My Supports

Emotional, practical, and physical supports are important to everyone.  They provide encouragement and social connections for us.  My daily supports consists of my fiance, my family, and my extended family and close friends.  These people provide emotional support and comfort.  Without having anyone to talk to, share thoughts and feelings with, and to build relationships with my life would be very lonely and isolated.  Practical supports include my coworkers and financial support from my job.  My coworkers provide practical support within my position and within our field.  The money I earn from my job provides financial support, which allows me to provide and contribute to my family.  Physical supports include assistance from my family in completing household chores and other household tasks.  Without these supports I would not be able to spend time with my family and children, nor would I be able to go to school.

I rely on my family for all types of support.  Without my family there are many things I would not be able to do such as attend school and complete my degree.  Even working within my field of early childhood would be impossible with three small children without the support of my extended family and my fiance.  When I feel stressed or overwhelmed they are always there for support and encouragement.

A challenge I can imagine having is having a speech impediment.  I can imagine this because growing up I did have a speech impediment.  One that took me many years to overcome.  Growing up I had support from my family who assisted me in communicating with others and helped in correcting my speech.  I also had support within my school from my teachers and speech therapists.  Prior to going to school I would also attend speech therapy at the hospital.  My parents, siblings, teachers, and therapists all encouraged and supported me in my communication and language skills.  Part of my speech impediment was being tongue tied so I not only had to learn to overcome my speech impediment I also had to learn to move my tongue specific ways to be able to make specific sounds.  My therapists and teachers provided me with strategies for being able to make specific sounds and worked with me daily.  I had a lot of emotional support from family and friends so I never felt different or isolated.

Without the emotional, practical, and physical supports I received from my parents, siblings, teachers and therapists I would not have been able to overcome my speech impediment.  If I had not overcome my speech impediment I am certain it would have affected my academic success as well as my social-emotional development.  I believe I would have felt different, lonely, isolated, and would have had difficulty in making friends and creating relationships with others.