For anyone who suffers from social anxiety the utterly worst part is oral presentations. For some children like Sydney the signs are not only inside of her little body, “I don’t think I can do this”, “what if someone asks me a question I can’t answer”, “I don’t want to do this!” they are also very clearly visible. When she begins to speak in front of her teacher and present the information to her Sydney’s body shakes, she gets very tongue tied, she cries and she begins to hyperventalate. I know exactly how she feels.

With a lot of encouragement and support and understanding the teacher has decided to let Sydney present to her and eventually move up to presenting to the teacher and a peer. It would be a friend with whom Sydney trusts and has a relationship with. It’s all about stepping stones right. Well, we are working up those steps and yesterday she had a magnificent milestone.

Her presentation was to research a country and be able to answer questions about their culture, the food, the clothing, the most interesting places to visit. We chose Poland as that is where my family is from and there are lots of things that Sydney is more than familar with such as “pierogi”, “Kiebasa” and how to say “hello”. I was pretty sure that she would be confident in all the information which would help her feel more comfortable to present. Well, did you that not only did she present to her teacher and a peer but she as well answered some questions. On her sheet that she brought home she got a combination of 2, 3 and 4. More imporatantly, it shows that those people who are willing to understand the challenges that children with social anxiety face reap the rewards of seeing these children flourish. If you are willing to let the little things matter you will surely be cheering on the accomplishments.

We got a phone call from the teacher yesterday as she was so excited to share with us the wonderful news. We opened the subject to her by asking how she did on the presentation and Sydney took it from there. We were able to compliment her and tell her how very proud we are of her efforts. I asked her how she felt and she smiled and said, “Good. I felt good and I didn’t even cry.”

I am so proud of Sydney. I am also very appreciate for Sydney to have such glorious opportunities available to her. She is able to understand that she can do things one step at a time.

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