Luis and Gloria Zarate’s voices were laced with gratitude as they spoke in rapid Spanish about the success of their three-year-old son, Romancito, at his gradation from Bellevue’s Kindering Center.
“We have experienced many emotions because there were times when he was close to dying. Now he is walking, dancing, playing and he even tries to sing,” they said while a representative from Kindering translated. “We love you little one. You bring joy to all of us. Thank you for your courage.”
Every year Kindering Center, a nonprofit neurodevelopmental center that works with children with special needs from birth to age three, celebrates the successes of its little graduates at Crossroads Park Pavilion.
This year, the Zarates represented a different kind of success for Kindering: its attempts to reach out to Spanish-speaking families of children with special needs.
Out of the 360 Kindering graduates that were honored this year, 31 were Spanish-speaking children. Juan Panchana, the Spanish teacher at Kindering, said that even the two programs taught entirely in Spanish at Kindering are not enough to fill the need for language support in Bellevue.
“Language can be a really difficult barrier to overcome,” Panchana said. “If families do not speak any English, then they are not going to be able to participate in the programs and get the help that they need for their children.”
According to Alicia Martinez, an Early Intervention Social Worker with Kindering, the outreach is part of the Center’s larger goal of providing a community for families of children with special needs.
“Ultimately our goal is to connect people that have something in common, whether it is culture, language or just the fact that they have a child with special needs,” Martinez said.
For most families with graduates, Spanish-speaking or otherwise, the Kindering graduation was a bittersweet occasion. While many were thrilled to celebrate the progress their children have made over the past couple of years, the graduation also meant a departure from Kindering.
“We are tremendously sad to be leaving. There is no other place like this. They do what they do extraordinarily well,” Nancy Kaplan, a Kindering mother, said.
Kaplan adopted her son Liem from Vietnam just before he turned one. Liem was born with a birth defect called radial club hand.
“He had been lying on his back for 20 hours a day. He didn’t smile, he wasn’t allowed to use his hands and didn’t know how to sit up,” said Kaplan. “He was totally shut down. When he started here he was a totally different person. It is really incredible to see the progress he has made.”
According to Kaplan, Kindering provides more than just programs for the children, but also support and therapy for their families.
“Many families come in and think they are the only people in the world dealing with these issues and their children will never be able to do anything, their life is over,” Kaplan said. “They come here and all of a sudden there is hope.”
Kirsten Smith is an intern with the Bellevue Reporter. She is a student at Northwestern University in Illinois.
