Thursday, June 16

“Little Brothers”

Today some sensory team and some wheelchair team therapists and students went to each location. On the way to “Little Brothers” a parade of children passed us on a street. 4 students, 3 therapists and our Spanish Professor went to Little Brothers. This orphanage has about 260 children, of which about 20 were children with special needs. These children were in one “house” with two large rooms, 3 smaller rooms for bedrooms and a bathroom.


Several of the children had severe autism with significant negative attention seeking behaviors (pinching, pulling hair, hitting). We were able to see changes in one boy with a structured behavior program in about 2 hours. He continued to revert to his negative behaviors periodically but was overall less aggressive. We also worked with several children for feeding. The staff was receptive but this location challenged all of us to stay focused.



The two therapists and two students from the wheelchair team focused on the new wheelchair for Fernanda the first half of the day. We transferred her into a brand new chair and made necessary changes. Overall she was much happier in her new chair; she stopped crying, laughed more and even enjoyed the music we had her listening to. We also attended to some of her other sensory needs.

For the second chair we added break extenders for easier access to Leo’s chair, a very happy and smart boy. Our third chair was given to Gloria, a young girl who goes to hippotherapy. The chair will allow her to get to therapy more easily. We also made some adjustments to a walker for a young lady.

Hasta Lugeo,
Joan (faculty) and Gina (student)

"Missions"

Missions of the Highway is a beautiful facility where the children are well taken care of. We spent the day collaborating with local therapists in their outpatient facility. We were impressed with the involvement and the commitment of the parents. For example, some of the parents carried older children on their backs for hours to get to therapy. Half of the group repaired wheelchairs for seven very deserving children. Some of the wheelchairs were very involved and took several hours to repair. Meanwhile, the other group provided feedback and suggestions for the local therapists and parents on new approaches for sensory processing, motor development, and feeding.

Angela (seen below in the photo with her mom and Lauren, student) is a seven year old child with Cerebral Palsy and incomplete Paraplegia. Upon receiving the repairs and updates to her chair, Angela was all smiles. She is a remarkable little girl who can independently get herself in and out of her wheelchair. Mardoqueo began his session in tears, hiding behind his mom’s legs. It took a long time to even get him to interact with us. However, the students worked some miracles on him. By the end of the session he followed Sam around like a lost puppy dog, and he gave us all kisses on his way out the door. It melted each of our hearts. We continue to fall in love with child after child and we are grateful to be able to be here and make whatever difference we can with each child.



Lauren M. Becker, Student and Babette Northrop, Practitioner (Physical Therapist)