A precious child passed away this morning from the Haven. Please pray for the family, Aunties, and all those who work at the Haven.
On the last day of our first week, we reassessed the babies at each Haven to document progress. We used a milestone chart to track whether the baby was "on track." (I use this loosely due to the fact that Zambia "norms" may or may not be the same as American "norms.") The babies have made progress during the four days of therapy. (See chart in picture below)
Our team was invited to the Merritt's house to sing and worship. It was an uplifting night for everyone to be able to praise our God in English and Tongan.
*To answer your question Erin - The Aunties' sing to them all the time. We teach the children new songs and the Auntie's teach us songs in return.
Amazing to see their progress. How many babies in total do ya'll work with? Are each of you assigned one or a couple babies that you work with the whole time or is it a random selection every time?
ReplyDeleteWow! It's wonderful to see that the babies have dramatically improved most of their gross motor and language skills in such a short period of time! I know you all are working so diligently with them and I'm thrilled that you all are getting to see the positive results so soon! It breaks my heart to hear about the little baby that passed. I am so very sorry and will keep praying for everyone! Miss you all very much!
ReplyDeleteI have to admit that I was stunned when I read your progress chart! Wow! It is both incredible and rewarding to see such improvements in only one short week. Great work! I also would like to know how many babies you work with in a given day. What are your hours like at the Haven? I am so sorry to hear about the sweet baby that passed; I am praying for all of you and their family.
ReplyDeleteIt's great to hear that you're beginning to see the harvest of your hard work. I'm also curious of your therapy schedule and daily routine. Do you do therapy with the kiddos 5 days a week? I'm sorry for the loss of the precious baby; prayers are continuing to go up.
ReplyDeleteI love how this makes it easy to see the progress (and how much good you are able to do here). We have been putting our goals on a spreadsheet like this, and we have a vertical column every day to track completion of goals. When the goals have been met at the set level three days in a row, the difficulty of the goal is increased (or percent accuracy in FIM scores). But it saves you miles of paperwork rummaging!
ReplyDeleteI am so sorry to hear of the loss of a baby...I can't imagine the sadness...
ReplyDeleteOn a lighter note, how fun to be able to come back with Zambian songs!! You must teach me some when y'all get back!!! Songs aren't really big here...I haven't heard one therapist use a song during therapy so far, and the church services only sing two or three. I miss singing in congregational worship terribly. I did try "Old McDonald" with a severely autistic (nonverbal) kiddo who has been a challenge for me and my supervisor, and he tried to sing along for a bit! It was the first joint attention he had ever made without maximum prompting--way cool :-)