Saturday, June 27, 2009

Say Busta!,

Before I was an in-home speech therapist, I worked in an outpatient clinic at a hospital. One day, I had a new kid on my schedule. He had a long, complicated name but when he arrived, his mother provided 2 pieces of info: He goes by Buster and that's the only word he can say. I sat the kid down in the floor and attempted to elicit some words. Mom again repeated to me "He can say his name", which I noted she pronounced "Busta". Then she began her attempts to elicit the 1 word in his vocabulary, Buster. She began her attempts in an encouraging voice, as in "Say Busta!" As her child ignored her, she became increasingly frustrated and repeatedly said "Say Busta!" Her agitation increased as he continued to ignore her. She had great inflection in her voice, as it moved from encouragement, to frustration, to pleading, to complete "hands on the hips" agitation. My favorite was the "this is ridiculous" tone. I sat back and watched in silence, as I knew from years of experience that a)this child had no ability to talk and b)if he could talk, he wasn't going to do it for her anyway. But for 1 hour, I had to listen to her insist that her son could Say Busta! By the end of the hour, I found myself wanting to blurt out Say Busta!
I never saw Buster again, but his mom's words have stuck in my head. It's not really the words, as it is the variety of inflections she used as her frustration grew. "Say Busta" has become a popular phrase in our house. I can't really say that any specific situation makes us want to yell it out, we just find ourselves occasionally trying to lighten the mood by insisting that someone "Say Busta!
I guess I could tack on a moral of the story...but when it comes down to it, there's no moral.
It was just really funny and I will never be able to control the impulse to yell Say Busta'!

3 comments:

Linda said...

That is too funny! I can totally picture the entire scene and how it went down. I love reading about your adventures.

amyaj said...

I know him! I had him in preschool and had to teach him how to say and spell his actual name! I am proud to say that by the time he went to kindergarted he no longer needed special ed! I LOVED that kid. :)

Anonymous said...

Cute story! Sorry I haven't kept up with the blog muck lately. I did run into Megan and Emily at Culvers some time back and they recognized us. Hope things are going well and the girls are having a good summer!

Becky Wichern