CAMAGÜEY.- The progress of her pupils is the biggest delight and the best recognition for the speech therapist Marcia Montalván Díaz, who every day has on herself the challenge of encouraging in the children the good use of the words and the pronunciation of the sounds.

 Native of the city of Camagüey, this simple woman pushes one of the noblest tasks that stem from the teaching, on having contributed that the children overcome the present difficulties in their language.

 From early ages in the infantile circle Domingo López Loyola and in the Primary school Mario Aróstegui, they enjoy her attentions, and also those with special educational needs that reside in the Popular Advice Edén-Juruquey, in the periphery of the Camagüey´s metropolis.

 Lover of the Psychology, Miss Marcia, as affectionately they say to her, she never imagined that when she finished her studies in the Polytechnic school of Exact Sciences Máximo Gómez Báez, she would be prepared up to turning into the first speech therapist of the territory.

 “In twelfth grade, before the teachers' immense need that existed at that time, I joined to the Detachment Manuel Ascunce Domenech with the intention of choosing for Psycho-pedagogy, but on not having offered her this career, on the I had to decide for Special Education, with specialization in the Speech therapy”, she reports.

 “I gave the first steps of my formation in the High Institute of Pedagogic Sciences Enrique José Varona, of the capital - today University of Pedagogic Sciences - institution of which I keep excellent memories, especially of my teachers, almost all graduates in the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics”.

 In 1984, the first professional goals of Montalván Díaz turned out to be completed when she graduated in the specialty, and later she joined to the labor life, which she faced in once Special school Joaquín de Agüero, of the town La Unión, in the municipality of Jimaguayú.

 For one year, she devoted herself to favor the improving of the mother tongue in the pupils of this remote educational cadre, until she began to work in the primary school Luis Manuel de Varona, bordering to the centers in which she works today. “The innocence of the children is what most connects me to them, in addition to the tenderness and the occurrences that come from their souls”, she confesses after she defines herself as an eternal lover of her profession.

 To face those who surround the child is one of the essential points of the work of the speech therapist - as thinks the same Marcia - and it constitutes a task that she accomplishes beyond the labor properties.

 Precisely with the Program Educa a Tu Hijo (Educate your Son) these actions are materialized through the work with those families, whose new generations are deaf and suffering from hearing loss or suffering from low vision, among other sufferings that reverberate in their expression and interaction with the social environment.

 For it, the community of the surroundings of the above mentioned infantile circle turns out to be another of the fundamental stages of Montalván Díaz, to solve the shortcomings appellants in the mother tongue of the persons younger than six years of age that there reside, from the evaluation and treatment of the disorders of the communication.

 “Before his birth it is essential that both parents talk with the baby who is in the belly - she advises - since the foundations are constructed this way for a more effective exchange along the growth of the child”.

 And, also, she recommends: "The use of the new technologies from early ages is at present one of the biggest limitations and one of the causes of the alteration of the communicative processes, for what to be right in when, how and in what period of time the children must use them, it is a big challenge for the parents”.

 In 2009, Marcia received the Master's degree title in Pedagogic Sciences, after reaching a phase of studies in which it presented a project of thesis related to the formation of values like the solidarity from the work of José Martí, in preschool of fifth year of life.

 On her vocation for giving to others her knowledge, she expressed: "I have always preferred the direct exchange with the children, although I admit that teaching is essential to bequeath to the new generations the notions of the specialty, and said to feel motivated when I share my experiences with the students who realize their pre-professional practices under my tutorship”.

 Still to her 55 years old, Marcia Montalván Díaz makes sure that to perpetuate big part of her time in the community, in the infantile circle or in “Mario Aróstegui“, turns out what she enjoys more, in the same way that does not forget to be a participant of the escapades of her grandchildren, her treasures.

 Although several are the examples of Cuban females who dignify the work of the educational sector, there stand out commendable determinations as those of this Camagüey´s daughter, who multiplies every day her art of preparing or reversing the disorders in the language of the children.

Translated by Linet Acuña Quilez