Mohammad's Story

When I was a young boy in Bangladesh, I had a dream to come to the United States. In June 1997, it was fulfilled. I arrived in New York at 21 years old, and it was very good. I enjoyed the different culture and enrolled at LaGuardia Community College. But I could not continue to study there because I had the burdens on my shoulder of supporting my family in Bangladesh. I stopped going to school and started to work full time.

I now have three children. My daughter is a young adult, and I have two young sons, born in 2019 and 2023.

My first son’s early years were affected by the pandemic. He was home all the time and was late with his speech; he started speaking too late and did not socialize with children his age.

When my younger son, Amir, was born in 2023, I had fears the same thing would happen. I shared this fear with my cousin Jasmine. She told me about The Child Center of NY’s Early Head Start program. She said it would help with my boy’s speech development, and also in socialization and getting him ready for school. I enrolled him because I wanted to give my little boy a chance to grow and learn all he could.

We joined the program when Amir was 11 months old. He will be three years old in October. I saw improvements day by day, and now I see the big picture of how Amir is growing up with all the skills. He is speaking well, talking, playing with me, and socializing. When we first enrolled, he had limited speech and interaction with children his age. He now engages with other children and talks with them without being prompted. The socializations have been very helpful with this. And I like this program, too. I meet families from a lot of different cultures and connect with them. My wife and I were not aware of Early Head Start services with my first son. I wish I had known about it with him, because I am learning so much about child development, knowledge that might have helped prevent some of the challenges he experienced.

After coming to this country, I realized that everything moves at a very fast pace and that there isn’t always a lot of time for family. Visits with Home Visitor Nayrin Muhith opened the door not only for more learning, but also for more family time. I appreciate the opportunity to help my boy’s learning and build our relationship at the same time. I am excited for Amir to begin 3K in the fall.

I love to share with other families how much Early Head Start has helped my boy, just as Jasmine shared with me when Amir was 11 months old. I had so much fear at that time. I don’t have fear now.