Walking Wednesday

We have alliterations for all of our days of the week. Today's is walking Wednesday. So we much always walk to the Haven, which equals about 6 miles for the entire day. I will be lookin good when I return.

Q and A time!

Hello to all of my classroom friends! I pray that all of you are as blessed by your experiences and learning as much as all of us here are. To begin I am going to answer questions that everyone has asked, especially since I am in Shanna’s group. The Z vibe is something that is completely new to me. Obviously since we have not really worked with that. So as far as techniques, we use the different sides of the Z vibe depending on if they can handle it. The main thing we have to work on still at this point is having them even tolerating the motion or anything on their faces. Most of them were tactically defensive to any sort of stimulation so we just do what they tolerate. We typically rub it in a line or a circular motion on their cheeks, above their lips, and below their lip.

The pacifier is something that I do not think many of the babies are accustomed to using. I have not seen one in there other than the ones we have brought; so many of them are not sure what to do with the pacifier in their mouth. We stick it in their mouth and try to hold it there and see if they can develop a nonnutritive suck or if they will just spit it out. Honestly that is what we typically do whenever we are trying to have them become accustomed to the pacifier.

Our materials are very limited here. The 2^nd year graduate students compiled a few different themed kits we can use for language stimulation. The few that I have used consisted of animal books, touch items, and fruit. Whenever I was in the toddler group we read a few books that we have here. From those books we talk about different animals or body parts. Singing consists of those themes too.  “Head shoulders knees and toes,” “old McDonald had a farm” or “old McDonald had a zoo,” “Mango tree” (a song taught to us by the aunties), and various bible school songs. So pretty much the random objects we can find. The time that it is the most difficult is with the babies. Trying to use the same books or songs with 9 month olds is difficult but we make it work.

Hayden: I have already talked about using Head, shoulder, knees, and toes. We definitely use that song with everyone. My child with CP named Rita, I loved working with her. We are not sure what her cognitive level is because she is completely unresponsive and nonverbal. That made for interesting sessions because I was not sure where to begin. My typical session consisted of talking about body parts, what she was wearing, the weather, what I liked about Africa, how mad the toddlers made me, and different objects. She does not have any expressive language, in fact the only time I have ever heard her made a sound was when she was crying. Honestly, that was probably the most difficult time for me while here; seeing that she obviously had a problem but having no way to know what I needed to do to change her discomfort. She is spastic in most of her body so the PECS system would not work well with her. We are trying to determine if she has enough cognitive ability to be able to use eye gaze for communication. The only adults I have seen are the workers here. We never really see any adults in the community because we are always at the Havens.

We have the swallow kits we were given; some people have watches, and a few bags of language therapy materials. For swallowing we do not really work on a dry swallow. Most of our children have lower muscle tone and are tactically defensive so we work on those goals in our swallowing class.

How many children we work with really depends on the group at that time. For the swallowing group we each work with one baby each typically. For the toddlers we usually have a few that we watch but we all do the therapy together. We do not work with the same student the entire time we are here. For the swallowing group we work with a different baby each session and day. For the toddlers I typically tried to work with the same child. Every session where we can choose which child we work with I try to work with Wesley. I will discuss him in a moment.

Life. The past two weeks of therapy I have been in the same group as Shanna. Last week I was in the language stimulation/ special needs group. This week I am in the swallowing group. Since Shanna has already discussed this somewhat, I will talk about my favorite child named Wesley. He is about 16 months old and has huge brown eyes. The only word I have heard him say is auntie so I am determined he will say other words. We sing many songs together and sometimes he gets the motions. Many times he does not, but no worries he will. I am determined he will say my name before I leave. The most adorable thing he does is dance with me. We sing mango tree but all we can do under it is dance. Maybe one day he will learn to do more things under the mango tree.

I like playing soccer here. Especially whenever I outplay a Zambian, no matter the age or ability. I hate playing in a skirt. That is one part of the culture that does not bother me except on the soccer field. In case you were wondering it is quite difficult to play soccer wearing a skirt down to my ankles. Typically I pull it up and look like Steve Urkel. I love how this sport can bring all of us together despite any language barrier we might have. Until next time, Tessa