SUCCESS AT SHERWOOD
Sherwood Community Services provides innovative, inclusive services to children and adults with disabilities in their communities.
Here are two short stories that illustrate Sherwood’s goal of helping people, of all ages, live with their disabilities.
Noah, Parker, and Charley
Noah, Parker, and Charley were born 12 weeks early (at 28 weeks gestation) and faced multiple premature birth related health issues. Infants born this
early often need assistance breathing, regulating their body temperature and require nutrition through a feeding tube until they grow bigger and stronger.
The triplets development was closely followed after they came home from the NICU and they received specialized education through the Snohomish School
District. When speech development for all three started to lag they were referred to Sherwood.
They entered services just shy of turning a year-and-a-half and have been expanding their speech with Sherwood’s Speech Language Pathologist, Laura Crandall.
When they entered services the triplets struggled with both receptive (following directions) and verbal language. Laura coached mom to use a variety
of strategies including simplifying sounds and to use animal sounds and songs to motivate them. With songs they found success!
All three love to sing and have found forming different sounds easier, particularly Noah. Laura Says that all three children are very different, and each
have their own gifts. “Noah is a delightful fun dude, who is working hard to catch up to his siblings. Charley’s language skills are exploding, she
now has around 200 words and is starting to use phrases. Parker has around 100 words and loves to sing especially the ABC’s.”
The triplets have made great progress towards catching up on their speech milestones. And we can’t wait to see where they go in the future!
Karlene
About a year ago Karlene learned that Sherwood’s Workshop would be closing. Karlene worked at the Workshop for several years and was nervous about what
that would mean for her. She decided it was time to get serious about her job search. Karlene worked hard, started taking better care of herself and
began following her Employment Specialist’s recommendations which landed her a job at the MOD Pizza in Lake Stevens.
When Karlene started at MOD she had a lot of learning to do. Karlene, and her Employment Specialist Katie, practiced opening the complicated napkin holders;
they strategized how to most efficiently refill the cheese and pepper flake shakers and they folded more pizza boxes than they could count. As Karlene
practiced, her confidence grew, and soon could work without the help of Katie, she could do it on her own. But Karlene didn’t stop achieving. She grew
more independent and learned how to do additional tasks, Karlene’s manager at MOD took noticeand added days to her schedule. Karlene recently earned
a bonus check for her hard work. When asked if she likes her job Karlene bashfully says “yes” and that her favorite task is “refilling the shakers.”
For more information about the services provided by Sherwood Community Services, visit their website: www.sherwoodcs.org.
