One Week Left
This is crazy! Time has flown by! Like it was just the other day I was meeting my supervisor for the first time and showed up too early, so I waited in my car nervously and texted my mom "Why don't first days ever get any easier?? Anxious!"
And now I drive to people's homes I sometimes have never been to, knock on their doors, go on in, and play with their baby. Like what?
It's been such a privilege doing this internship. I'm super grateful to God for this placement and for my supervisors and the other staff. They are amazing - hearts of gold. Day in and day out, dealing with some pretty heavy situations, seeing progress in some, slow as molasses for others, and they come in fresh with new ideas, with energy, with hope, dedication. It's really something.
I'm sad to say goodbye to these families, and to no longer be a part of their lives. Wow, am I going to miss some of them! Hoping we cross paths again sometime down the road..
Bloopers!
Want to hear some funny stories? So if you can imagine, there are lots of opportunities for mistakes when working with people and their children. Shocker I know - can you believe it? From what you say to what you do. So...
1. Don't drop the kid! Nuff said, right? I mean it's the #1 rule. Safety first! Or I guess I mean to say don't let them have a big crash/fall. Because none of these are actual instances of dropping kids. They don't like fall out of your arms..
But they may be having the time of their life on a small exercise ball and not tuck their chin like you would expect and THUD... head hits floor.. tears.. runs to mama.. this is in your last 5 mins and you were about to leave but now you stay and get the child laughing again so you end on a good note. You leave with your tail between your legs, haha.. Mom is gracious, thank goodness. It was a great session except for that ending..
Baby is a wobbly sitter, so you sit behind them and spot them because they do fall over periodically.. but they've been sitting and playing nicely now for a while and you're becoming impressed with their balance. You're talking to mom and look up at mom for a second. A second! Plop. Baby fell over when your hands weren't out but luckily your leg caught her! Supervisor was paying attention and goes in for the save but is relieved my leg catches her head and says something like "What am I doing? You're on it." Ummm nope, I wasn't! Haha, glad it worked out this way though!
Explaining the importance of what we're doing to a parent.. so I sat back on this for a while and my supervisor would do their thing. The parent has the relationship with them, not me, so it makes sense that they answer these things. But it was time to step up a bit, act confident, answer parent questions.. so in my attempt to explain that it's important the child uses both hands as equally as possible rather than a preferred hand only... "So, at this age we want to see her using both her hands equally, as much as possible. We don't want to see hand dominance until 3 years. Because we want her to be as successful as possible at whatever she's interested in in the future, you know like playing the tuba..." WHAT!??? Caregiver nodded her head and let it go.. probably so confused! I could not stop laughing later when reflecting. What I meant was "you know, like any sports or instruments she wants to play when she's older." LOL!... the tuba..
Practicing rolling - you're helping them turn over and their hands get stuck under them and don't help hold their head up. Bonk.... that'll make you want to roll again..
2. Don't forget the child's name!
"Hi cutie!"
"Hi handsome!"
"Wow, look at you!"
"He looks so grown up today!...."
Usually it works itself out - like someone is bound to call the kiddo by name.. I was at an evaluation recently - meaning one person has been out to the house previously to gather some information, but for the rest of the team it's our first time meeting this family. We administer a standardized assessment, and ask the caregiver lots of questions... One of the items was having someone who is out of the child's sight call her name and see if she responds. I'm behind her so they ask me to do this one. "Hi beautiful" "Hello.... hi there pretty girl" No response. Then I'm told - use her name. Well yeah, that'd be ideal, but I'm not sure I have the right name in my head! Mom said the name once while we walked in the door... deep breath... call what I think might be her name... thankfully it's the one.... phew..
That's all for now. :)
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