May 27, 2019

Hola amigos y familia!

Today was our first day at Daryl's, a home for children with developmental disabilities. We learned that the children are placed here by the government and Daryl and his family are trying to provide them with a family and a home not just services and a house. Daryl's daughter also has a home across the street with children that we got to visit. We worked with the therapists to provide OT and PT to the children at each home and teach the caregivers at each house how to best work with the children. This included learning transfers, positioning, and feeding/eating techniques. We also got creative by using foam from another toy to make an adaptive fork. We are excited to see what challenges and fun are to come this week!

The other group of therapists and students traveled to Missionaries to work with children living in their residential home. We worked with 14 individuals, addressing challenges such as feeding, self-regulation, tooth brushing, balance and coordination, executive functioning, fine motor skills and more! We educated caregivers on individual care plans to carry over the skills and recommendations we provided. The therapists and students worked together to come up with ideas and activities to best address the caregiver concerns! We left each individual with donations along with their care plans to support their needs. We are looking forward to visiting a new site tomorrow and enjoyed our time today with the children and caregivers at Missionaries. We are grateful for our in country hosts helping us interpret and translate throughout this trip. Talk soon!

-Gaby, Alli, and Steffany