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Summer in China was ridiculously hot with temperatures some days soaring as high as 40 degrees. The high humidity levels also added to the feeling of walking around in a permanent sauna. Carrying out Speech & Language Therapy in these conditions as well as having to carry numerous toys and resources between homes was a real challenge!
Life in China is tough, and there are so many things that I’ve realised I take for granted in the UK. In China there are huge problems with pollution and unemployment levels are high. The standard of living in many parts is poor with many people living in extremely basic conditions.
A recent visit to a Chinese friend’s house opened up my eyes to how fortunate materially I am. She had a wooden crate for a table, no fridge or washing machine, a bathroom the size of a cupboard and just one gas ring to cook on. There was no air conditioning or heating and no carpets or rugs on the floor.
China however is a truly fascinating place to live, and I have often been overwhelmed by my Chinese friends’ generosity and kindness. They have been so patient with me speaking my dreadful Chinese and so keen to help me out in any ways that they can.
The children here have continued to make progress within therapy sessions and one of our little girls, Yao Ren Chao, at Ya Tun Cun home has been a great source of joy. She is a tiny little 4 year old that is developmentally more at the 18-month level. She has the most beautiful smile and a lively sense of humour. She has been almost mute until the last year but has made great steps with her language development, especially in the last 4 months. Yao Ren Chao has been one of the children that I’ve done a lot of 1:1 therapy with. She appears to have some signs of having verbal dyspraxia, and tends to grope around with her lips and tongue trying to form words.
She had been working on learning to blow when I first arrived (which she had learnt to do really quite well), unfortunately however this meant that initially all her attempts at speech often ended up with her blowing raspberries! Gradually however she has learnt to use some simple Makaton signs. She has now started to use some symbolic noises and a few single words. The carers have been working with her on saying ‘Mama’ and ‘Baba’ (Daddy) and these words are now becoming really clear. She’s also really enjoying using a Go Talk 9+ machine which is being used in daily language group sessions to help the children use social comments, request materials for activities and comment on whether they like the activity or not.
The children in the older boys' class are now also having some lessons from the assistant manager of the 
home who has been keen to start using the Go Talk 4 machines to help the children learn their colours and numbers.
The children at Hong Xuen have also been using their new communication aids. They are just back from summer camp and can frequently be heard singing the songs they learnt there, so I’ve been encouraging the therapists to use the BIGmacks and the iTalk2 machine to record sections of these songs so that the non-verbal children such as Liu Kuang and Du Yi can join in at the appropriate times.
Liu Kuang has a very significant learning difficulty but he has really started to get the idea of using the BIGmack and Du Yi in particular loves to hear his own attempts at vocalisations recorded and then played back to him.
I have started to look at using some Chinese sign language with some of the children, as our cleaner is deaf and some of the carers already know a little bit of sign language to communicate with her. I have tried to choose some of the simpler formed signs and I am gradually developing some symbol/photo and signing charts for each home to have. I am hoping that use of Chinese sign language may also enable some of the cognitively more able children to perhaps one day socially mix with some of the deaf community.
I have tried to laminate all the symbols and photos and fasten them on to the charts so that all the children can have access to them in the homes. It’s a long and laborious task but hopefully these communication boards will last, although it’s difficult for materials to survive being used and played with by so many hands!
Melissa Potter
We are delighted to be sponsoring Melissa Potter's work in China.
Read Melissa's first report here.