You Need
Apples and Friends!
It has now been 9 weeks since I arrived in Changsha, Central China and I am already a quarter of a way through my stay here, serving as a volunteer SLT in the special needs orphanages run by International China Concern (ICC) (www.intlchinaconcern.org).
Time is flying by and yet I think I have only just started to scratch the surface of addressing the communication needs of the young people here. I’ve been busy getting more oromotor, listening and attention and basic language groups up and running, and I feel like I have become the colouring and laminating queen of China as a large part of this last month has been spent trying to make resources. I have also frequently been found rummaging through the books in Walmart trying to find picture books that I can disassemble and use as games or flash cards. Anything already laminated and I feel like I’ve discovered treasure!
I am learning a great deal of patience here. Anyone who knows me would probably testify that I’m always on the go wanting to get things done. I am still waiting on getting a couple of consignments of shipped communication aids and resources, and there has been a lot of red tape regarding these matters. The computer and laminator also keep breaking and all matters regarding the care givers have to be done through the group home managers. Everything is always subject to last minute change and I don’t think I properly understood the
word ‘flexible’ until I came here.
The children at one of our homes called ‘Hong Xuan’ are continuing to make some great progress with their Makaton signing, use of gesture and PECS. We have just been covering the basic topics and we have been doing lots of signing for ‘I hear’, ‘I like’ and ‘I see’. We’ve done lots of pretend shopping for food and it never fails to amaze me how quickly a child can learn to sign for things like biscuits and bananas! It has been great to have a number of the children starting to spontaneously use some signing. I nearly cried the day that one of our little girls, Zeng Feng came and signed ‘I love you’. She is like my shadow, always wanting to
play! She is very bright but has no verbal language due to cerebral palsy severely affecting her speech muscles.
The therapists that I work with continue to be very keen to learn and I got the chance to do some basic PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) training with them this last month which went well.
I’ve also been on a week long intensive language course which was great and helped a lot. I
can now tell people in Mandarin that I have some lovely ‘friends’ and not ‘some lovely apples’
– I’ve been confusing these two words ever since I got here!
On our recent trip away to a beautiful city called Hang Zhou, I finally got the hang of understanding numbers and I even started to barter. I’ve also learnt how to say “Excuse me, please can I ask you,” however this is always a bit of a scary phrase to try and use as if you use the wrong intonation you can actually ask ‘ Please can I kiss you!’.
I’ve started to work a lot more at Ya Tun Cun, which is the biggest home where the children with Down’s Syndrome are based and also where the kids with the most severe disabilities live. The children with Down’s Syndrome have a teacher and they attend classes for a couple of hours a day. The other children don’t receive any formal education. It has been difficult for ICC to find a teacher willing to work with them; however the children with moderate to profound learning disabilities do have circle times each day. I’ve started to work with the OTs to try and update some of the programmes for this time. The older boys in particular are quite a challenge. They are big and boisterous, with a wide range of disabilities and many of them have really poor listening and attention skills.
I shall leave you with some of the interesting Mandarin to English translations which I’ve recently seen. The ones in the park are always entertaining; the one by the lake says, “Be careful when walking on the water!”, and another says “Don’t disturb the peacefully sleeping grass. No walking. Don’t do it.” Put in such a poetic fashion who could not resist trampling all over it!
Melissa Potter
We are delighted to be sponsoring Melissa Potter's work in China.
Read Melissa's first report here.