I do, I do love Green Eggs and Ham

My ah-ha moment came when I was sitting behind a window, head-phones over my ears, observing a speech therapy session with a three year old little girl. Sitting on the therapy table was a bunch of colored whistles, flavored tongue depressors, a tub of water, dish soap, a straw and a Dr. Seuss book.

At this point my in life I was a few months away from college graduation and I was patiently awaiting acceptance letter from half a dozen universities. Before this session I was determined that I wanted to be an audiologist who specialized in pediatrics, primarily birth to 3 years of age. I had fallen in love with audiology my first semester in the communicative disorders program at the University of Wisconsin-River Falls. Dr. Cotrell had a lot to do with my fascination with the science behind hearing and language development.

This little girl was working on speech sounds where the puff of air comes out of the mouth rather than the nose (hence the use of whistles and bubble blowing). She was an amazing little girl who so badly wanted to make the whistle toot and create big bubbles. Her reward for attempting was having Green Eggs and Ham read to her at the end of her therapy session.

I watched so many therapy sessions with my face as close as possible to that glass window and I was amazed at how many of the children had a Dr. Seuss book as their reward. The Lorax, The Cat and the Hat, and Green Eggs and Ham, were the three most commonly used reward books. Of course I had heard all of these stories many times when I was growing up, but when I saw how these children who were struggling to speak clearly or at all reacted to these books I knew that I somehow wanted to help them too.

The little girl's name was Megan and she is the reason why I became fascinated with Dr. Seuss. These simple books help children with speech development, speech delays, and auditory conditions learn to speak. It's absolutely amazing how a silly book can bring such big smiles after a tough therapy session and also be a speech development tool without the child ever knowing.

My ah-ha moment made me realize that I needed to find more books that can be used to help children going through speech therapy. Dr. Seuss was an amazing man who has truly left a mark on more than one generation. Now I want to write books that combine rhythm and rhyme for these children and search out other author's who want to do the same thing.

So yes, I will eat green eggs and ham in a box with a fox. I will eat green eggs and ham anywhere!