By Shoshana Kordova, The New York Times, September 28, 2020
When my youngest daughter was 3, her preschool teacher called me a few months into the school year to tell me she still had no idea what my daughter’s voice sounded like.
This was not hyperbole: My daughter, now 7, had not said a single word to any of the teachers or children. She didn’t sing with the other kids or even speak in their presence, although she chattered, shouted, whined and laughed freely at home — at least when no one outside our immediate family was around.
None of her love of being silly and making funny faces or singing nonsense lyrics could be glimpsed through the wall of frozen silence she erected in public. On the way to or from preschool she would sometimes stop talking midsentence as soon as she sensed someone approaching; it was as if the plug controlling her voice had been yanked out of its socket.
Comments (0)