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Post for June 6, 2018
Back to Katelemwa and this day we were more familiar with the facility. We picked up the routine of just rotating as desired. I started out in the early education center again with the very interactive child from the previous day. We practiced different routines to try to illustrate simple, useful words for her to use (go, stop, hug). She seemed eager to talk and quickly showed understanding of the word hug. It is possible that she had this word before we came. After many rounds of hugs, she then vocalized the word hug as she hugged me. Then we switched to the words ‘go’ and ‘stop’ while playing with a ball, the activity strongly preferred by the child.
Dr. Brady demonstrated hand-over-hand method, which was her hand over the child’s hand to try to teach a hand gesture for ‘go’. Each time the word was said, the two hands moved together with Dr. Brady’s guidance. The intention with this is that the child will make the connection between the word and the gesture and can then be built on by adding more gestures and words. For that point, a child could potentially be taught to communicate with hand signs.
We then switched to a child, a young boy approximately 4 years old, who was accompanied by his mother for the session. Dr. Brady tried to establish a pattern of having him choose between two objects. First, between two fun and noisy toys. He chose a tambourine. Then the choice was either the tambourine and a boring item, in this case a block. This was done to be more certain that his first preference for the tambourine was an actual decision on his part. Next, switching the objects from the left to right side was added to the activity to weed out a possible dominant hemisphere.
The next activity with this boy was putting blocks into a cup. In the beginning, he would pick it up and put down or throw it with out a discriminate direction or intention. However, each time he did this Dr. Brady would ensure that the cup was there to catch it and she would make very encouraging sounds. After some time, he recognized that the goal was for the block to go into the cup. This was the first step and then, with time, could be built on by adding a word verbally to each block as it went into the cup. The purpose was to try to help him understand the connection between the word and an action. In the future this could potentially be added to by giving him AAC cards with requests that he would choose to demonstrate his preferences.
I then went to the classroom, but it was playtime and I missed any structured learning. The fabulous thing was that I met some great students. One was a young girl who seemed to understand quite a lot but made absolutely no vocalizations. The whole time I sat with her, I thought about an article I had read shortly before leaving about Selective Mutism. Of course, I have no real, deep knowledge of this child or SM. It just left a strong impression on me of how much more I need to learn and how much more I want to learn.
The other child who really stood out was a young girl about 7 years old with hydrocephalus. She showed me her dress and wrote the alphabet for me. And that was about it until the next day. We worked in the workshop for a short time at the end of the day. I got covered in black from sanding recently welded wheelchairs. Then we waited for the rain to go and the bus to come. A very good day.
The Early Education Center
