One of the birthday gifts was a whale watching experience, and it does not matter how old the child, the enjoyment of the whales was there for all of us. And by the way, there was much hilarity as the crew of the catamaran brought out the birthday cake and candles!

However, in a moment of reflection watching their silent forms sliding past our catamaran, I thought about the good sense of these creatures of the deep, as the captain informed us that the mother and calf were usually escorted by an elderly aunt or experienced whale. If only we as humans had that same level of assistance on our journey through the oceans of life – how fortunate it would have been if I had an older aunt to assist me when my children were younger!

The picture is of the baby calf leaping into the air. What you don’t see is mother and aunt immediately swimming up close, to make sure he/she was between them yet again. What utterly sensible creatures the whales are… and what a good time I had with my children. Some things don’t change, despite the age of the child.

In the meantime, after the usual courtesies and chat, Mandy, the mother, came to the point. Her good friend Belinda had a child who was not doing well at school, and was at her wit’s end trying to find the right help for her child. I asked the usual question about what the issues were and what followed was a detailed and highly descriptive learning journey for this child. This was a mother who KNEW her child very well: she had observed her child at work, watched her play, noted her child’s confusion, particularly with making sense of instructions and following through. If a television was playing in the background, it was pretty certain that Belinda’s daughter was unable to complete tasks.

I thought then, as I have thought many times over the years, that parents have such valuable information about their children. With that detailed information, a good speech pathologist would be so far ahead in identifying the issues preventing Belinda’s daughter from learning effectively. I guess the message from today was that Belinda was wise to be concerned, and wise to be asking around for help. That is one of the reasons we started 5energies©: we are a one-stop shop with an experienced speech pathologist, occupational therapist, educational psychologist and educators and a variety of strategies to help children.

That is also why we love parents as astute and observant as Belinda – parents are such clever people.