Helloooo all!! :)
Wednesday, Wednesday, Wednesday! Well to start out I will answer Becca's question about Meagan. Meagan is the medical advocate at the Haven. She is in her late 20's, single female, who has a degree in education. She currently takes lessons in Tongan every morning and has been teaching us some key words to use during therapy with the kiddos. The children do speak English, but at times they respond better to Tongan terms such as "coza" for "come here."
Yes, she is there year round and goes to the states for Christmas, and her family from the states come to visit her during different times of the year as well. She is always checking up on the babies and their status to see if any changes have occurred or if anything needs addressed medically or otherwise. Since we have been here, she has taken babies to the medical center often for different reasons such as testing for HIV, Malaria, etc just as a preventative measure. She updates us on new events or changes that have happened with the babies throughout the night, morning, or while we were in another haven. If we notice anything out of the ordinary, she is who we tell! :)
I have many, many favorite parts to the therapy day here, but one of my favorites is our welcome song at the beginning of each session. We hold a mirror up to each child's face and sing to them "Memo's here today, Memo's here today, we all shout hooray! Memo's here today!" And they are adorable to watch how each child reacts to the mirror. Some who were grumpy or fussy just light up when it is there turn. Others pull the mirror so close to their face you wonder if they can even see themselves!
I have really enjoyed learning different oral motor exercises and techniques to use with the babies as well (which Brittany talked about earlier in the blog).
Tonight we had a wonderful meeting with our supervisors that put what we are all doing here in perspective. We have only had therapy at the Haven for 3 days now and have already become very attached to these sweet babies. It is amazing to see the difference we have made in their lives already as well as the tremendous effect they have had on us. I am excited to continue to hear from all of you and your experiences at your offsite placements! No matter where we may be, we are making a difference! I am eager to hear about the differences you all are making in your patients lives! Love and miss you all!
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ReplyDeleteStaci, great to hear that you're a sunshine in the childrens' lives. They need that, they need to be loved and cared for! So what kind of cool therapy techniques have ya'll learned? What's working really well? What have you learned about pediatric dysphagia? It's great ya'll are getting your feet wet in that area. What have you learned exactly? =) I like specifics.
ReplyDeleteI love the song you sing for them. A great way to let them know your there and it's time do do some work. I'm with Samar, I'd like to hear more about the feeding/swallowing deficits you guys are seeing with these children.
ReplyDeleteStaci! It is wonderful to hear that you all are already making such a huge difference in their lives, after only working with them for a few days!! It has only been three days since I met and began working with my patients and I have already become attached to each and every one of them. I am very curious to find out more about the different oral motor exercises that you are using with the babies. My supervisor and I will begin working on oral motor with our laryngectomy patient tomorrow, wondering if we will use any of the same techniques? Glad all is well down there! :-)
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you all are making a real difference there! How would you compare the motor and language development of an average baby from the Haven and an average baby in America? If they are delayed compared to American babies, by how many months would you say they differ? Keep up the good work, guys!!
ReplyDeleteOMES: At off-site, we do oral motor exercises some with stroke patients. But they are doing them themselves. Do the babies/kids do any through imitation, or do you have to physically move their muscles for them? I have one patient that we do ESTIM with every day while we do OMES. It is amazing; 10 years s/p stroke, and she is still seeing gains after only 2 days.
ReplyDeleteI love hearing your encouraging stories! What a difference you are making! I would also like to know which specific OMEs and techniques you are using with the little ones. I haven't seen a single child at my off-site so I wonder if the OMEs and techniques we use are similar to yours.
ReplyDeleteHmm sounds like I should try some oral motor exercises on the kiddo I mentioned in my first post. I would also like some more details...like maybe a step-by-step I could follow. I vaguely remember Caroline Martin demonstrating some for us...but I can't say that I would know exactly what to do, and in this case, a google search doesn't seem to be much help. I'm very glad to hear the babies started showing gains so quickly!! That is always so satisfying as a therapist. I must say, I had an "aha" moment this past Wednesday...I *finally* felt like hey, I can do this...as in, I'm kinda good at this and I know what I'm doing (for now). It was a really nice thing to realize about myself :-) I wonder if any of you are feeling the same thing during this term?! Love you all!
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