Minaa’s Story

When Minaa came to STaR at 4 years old, she was a delightful, social little girl who seemed physically frail and passive. A diagnosed developmental delay, possible visual impairment and physical challenges may have limited her experience in playing with other children. Her parents knew Minaa needed support, to assist her development and also to enable her radiant personality to shine through.

Walking, without adult assistance, is one of the many great outcomes Minaa achieved in a few months. This was facilitated by the steady support of ‘Team Minaa’ at her early learning centre, First Grammar Westleigh. Also on the team were STaR educator (Philippa) and Minaa’s speech therapist, physiotherapist and occupational therapist, all of whom were guided by her parents’ priorities.

Minaa remained that delightful, social little girl but became strong, robust and confident to learn new things. Minaa loved going to First Grammar three times a week, where she happily played with many other children. She learned to take turns in games (her favourite interest), use sentences to talk about pictures in books, write her name and say letter sounds. These were some of the skills, along with cutting and drawing, that helped Minaa to get ready for school the following year. Being the quick learner that she was, Minaa was likely to shine brightly at big school!