Week 2: Exhausticated

It's the beginning (and technically, almost the middle) of week two and I am EXHAUSTED. Today Paul and I returned to Mary Harding and found ourselves in a different situation. Instead of working with the teacher, it had been decided that we would work with smaller groups in a craft room in the vocational section of the school. Today we saw two groups of six, from the senior class. It became evident to us that the groups were organized according to cognitive ability.

We continued with our planned directive, a butterfly (outlined, photocopied) that would be filled in with the childrens' dreams and plans for their life later on. After the first group, I realized that the concept of "dreams" and the future is a very fuzzy subject for these children. Perhaps the hardest part about working with this children that I have to overcome is understanding and working with their limited creativity. Usually, in therapy, I use a bunch of open-ended questions to promote discussion that usually tells something about the clients. With these kids, open ended questions are possibly the hardest questions for them to answer. To adjust to this need, I began asking more and more yes/no questions, some gearing toward the feelings of the child and/or the butterfly he/she was coloring. I also often ask questions to the group that can get a number of responses and build group cohesion. I do this because I feel it is important that these kids know that they are not alone and totally different (even though we have been focusing on how special they are). An example of this type of question would be: Who wants to have a family when they are older? The power of suggestion is immense with these children, as whatever you ask them about, suggest, or mention can completely influence what they make. Today, I talked to a kid about what he wanted to do when he is older, if he wanted a family, car, and what he wanted to do as a job. He ended up drawing himself, a house, a car, and a computer. I noticed that the first group we had depicted more conceptual items in their butterflies. Some completed a body with a face, and included patterns inside and outside of the butterfly. The second group primarily focused on coloring in the butterfly using several different techniques. Most of them were able to complete their butterflies and cut them out. The second group was also considerably quieter in nature, most students being non-verbal or primarily Afrikaans-speaking.

Tomorrow we will be working with an even more developmentally delayed group and I think we will be using tissue paper or colored paper cutouts to glue onto the butterfly body. The tactile nature should be appealing for the children and also allow them a sense of mastery over something.

Tonight we went out to dinner at Mama Africa and saw a live band - Abavuki - it was amazing and so much fun! Tomorrow we have more free time, and I can't wait for it. Pictures take a very long time to upload, so I will try to get a few up for reference.

finished caterpmore conceptual first group
second group
band at Mama Africa

-k