I hope that ya’ll are having fun at your off sites this summer and can’t wait to hear your stories. As for us, there has been some exciting stuff happen with some great kids. Last week, I was on Triple D’s team and we started the day with language enrichment at Haven 2 with the toddlers. We did a lot of body awareness songs and activities that made the children use their body parts to increase language and strengthen their muscles as well. We then went to Haven 1 and did language enrichment with the young ones who were around 9-12 months. We did a lot of the same activities for the same reasons but we added tummy time for these children. Some of the children needed to work on sitting, crawling, rolling over, and/or lifting head. We had one of my favorite kids during this time. His name is Quityn. He is 9 months old and can only hold his head up for short time before he has to put it down to rest. Yesterday, I saw him sleeping in his little bed and he had pulled one arm over and was sleeping a little on his side which is the first time I hadn’t seen him sleeping completely on his back with his hand to his side. After lunch, we worked with a special needs group. Tessa worked with Rita who has CP, Jill worked with Kritz who is most likely on the autism spectrum (high functioning), and I worked with Jonathan who is most likely on the autism spectrum along with a cognitive delay of some kind. Jonathan is high energy all the time and is at 3 years old and does not communicate with words. One day I was singing to Jonathan while showing him a picture of an apple and a picture of a banana and then asked him which one was the apple and he looked closely at the banana and then the apple and clapped under the apple. We then sang the song several more times and I switched the apple and banana and asked again which one was the apple and he did same thing as before. I was proud of him. Also, during this time one day last week, there is man that walks around who used to a preacher but had a stroke and now has some kind of fluent aphasia and preaches loudly everywhere he goes, he came up on our therapy time. He stood there silently for 45 minutes and only watched us. As we left, he said something to us and even if we understood Tongan, we still would not have know what he said. I did not think much of it at the time, but Dr. Tullos said that he believes that the man gave us a blessing as we walked by because of our work with the special needs children. After special needs time, we went and did individual language enrichment on any child in any Haven that needs language stimulation, which is all of them.
This week, I am on BWeave’s team and we are working on pediatric swallowing. I have only been doing this for 2 days so far but I have seen improvements already. We have an extremely floppy 8 month old named Heath who was reaching for objects today with both hands. Lincoln, an 8 month old, rolled over today for the first time, and Joel, I can’t remember his age at the moment, almost rolled over. After lunch, I worked in Nichole who is a precious little 1 ½ month old. She worked really hard and fell asleep sucking the pacifier. We are using the tools that we got when Caroline came to speak to us. We start by singing to the kids and using their arms and legs for the motions and we rub their arms, legs, back, and stomach to stimulates the muscles, and then put them on their stomach for tummy time to increase head control and muscle tone. We use the Nuk brush and the Z-Vibe on their cheeks and lips and then follow with Buccal stretches, upper lip stretches, lower lip stretches, and C-stretches inside their mouths. We also try to get the kids to suck on a pacifier to work on sucking. If they have a bottle, we then feed them as well. In the TB room, we have to make sure there is air flow through the room. The kids are on medications so hopefully we won’t be exposed to TB but when we get back and have our TB tests, we then will know. J
We need to make some activity sets for 9-12 month olds because they do not have much activities or toys for children this age so I think we should that for the next group of HIZ-Path participants.
Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of God. Blessed are those who mourn, for they will be comforted. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the earth. Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled. Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy. Blessed are those who are pure in heart, for they will see God. Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God. Blessed are those who are persecuted because of righteousness, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5:3-10
Much Love,
Shanna
Hola Shanna! Just curious to know what techniques you guys are using with the Z-Vibe? Are yall using a particular motion and if so where on the face/mouth? Much love, be safe!
ReplyDeleteThat is really cool, I never would have thought about rubbing the muscles! How do you encourage the kids to suck on a pacifier! I hope you are doing well!
ReplyDeleteHey Shanna! So good to hear from you! I was really interested to read about the special needs group you guys are working with. I really liked reading about your experience with Johnathan. What sorts of materials and activities do you guys use on a regular basis when doing therapy? I bet you have to be very creative given that you couldn't bring a lot of materials with you.
ReplyDeleteSo excited to hear from you Shanna!! I love hearing about the tiny (but huge) improvements, like Quityn sleeping on his side! As I was reading about your therapy involving body parts, it reminded me of a technique we use at my offsite. I don't know if you have any with you, but sometimes we use stickers to place on body parts like nose, mouth, hand, etc. to make the child aware of his own body parts. Also we frequently use "Head, Shoulders, Knees, and Toes" to target the same objective. (I have one little boy who is in love with the Wiggles version of the song.)
ReplyDeleteI was wondering what Tessa was doing with her kiddo with CP? As far as your kiddo, does he have any form of expressive language? One therapy technique I've been learning to conduct with kids who do not use words for communication is PECS (picture exchange communication system). It is a really neat like 8 step system that teaches kids to exchange pictures for what they want. If you want more info on the steps let me know, but I was curious if y'all have taught the nonverbal kids any coping strategies.
Finally (sorry I know I've written a lot), have you noticed any other geriatric disorders, and has anyone thought of working with the adults in the community?
I am excited to see what other good works y'all are doing while there!!
I am curious along with Hayden about the need for therapy in the geriatric population. Do you think given a translator that you could work with the man who is exhibiting a fluent aphasia? What kind of oral stimulation are you using with the babies? We use these frozen lemon swabs to elicit a dry swallow...do you have anything similar? At my offsite we have a geriatric patient who is completely non-responsive during most times of the day as well as displaying a total lack of alertness when given oral stimulation whether it be warm, cold, or sour. Your blog reminded me of this certain patient because sometimes when I find myself conducting therapy I forget that any small amount of progress is a "huge" improvement for the patient. The other day our patient responded with head nods to both yes and no questions as well as formulated three sentences containing three-four words. The patient even spoke my name. These were all firsts for our patient and although each day is never the same as the last.... It is in moments like these and catching little Quityn lying partially on his side that remind us of the good our profession is giving to those we serve. Keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteI love everything you guys are doing!! It all sounds so interesting and fun!
ReplyDeleteHow many kids do you each have? Do you see the same kid everyday for so long and then rotate? I was just curious if the same clinician worked with the same client for the whole 6 weeks. If not do you think it effects the client's outcome to get re-acclimated with each clinician?
I was just curious as to what kind of attachment these children might form. Living in a haven are they even able to form attachments to anyone for a long period of time?
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ReplyDeleteWow. Your blog was full of such neat stories!! When working with these babies, are there things that you wish you had brought with you that you didn't? Do you feel that our classes have done a good job at preparing you for this unique offsite? The man with fluent aphasia, can people who speak tongan understand what he is saying or does he have a hard time communicating in general? I miss you bunches!!! Sounds like you are learning a ton
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