Andryce Andres / March 2026
Each spring brings a quiet sense of beginnings – buds on trees, sprouts pushing towards the light from beneath the soil, life unfolding gently. My family and I plant seeds together, and I often reflect on what this teaches me about supporting children who use AAC.
What is my role – as a parent, a speech-language pathologist, a community member in supporting a child’s language journey?
I am not responsible for making the seed grow. I am responsible for the environment.
I tend the soil. I offer sunlight, water, and care. I show up with presence and attention. But the seed carries its own wisdom – its own timing, its own unfolding, its own becoming.
Similarly I tend the environment of the language learner. I provide loads of language through my pointing, facial expressions, gestures and signs, speaking words, symbol words, printed words, storybooks, songs. I provide language learning opportunities with others, especially other kids.
The child, like the seed, has everything it needs within: a quiet readiness to emerge, to express, to share itself with the world.
I do not force it open or fill it with the words I think it should say. I do not rush its growth. Instead, I stay near. I witness, I listen.
And in that space, I give my presence and my wonder. If we are to utter anything to children may it be these words: “I wonder…” This is an incredibly powerful statement to replace all the questions, all the quizzing, and all the “say ____” that many of us grown-ups resort to with children. “I wonder if you have a favorite. I wonder what happened. I wonder what happens next. I wonder…”
In the growth of the seed, I am responsible for the tending. The seed is responsible for its becoming. In the growth of a child’s language, I am responsible for tending the language immersion. The child is responsible for their becoming, for their expression, for choosing the words they want to share with the world around them. I wonder what they will say…
