Flinders University Speech Therapy Blog 1

COUNTRY: India
PROGRAM: UniBreak Groups
PROJECT: Speech Therapy
WRITTEN BY: Steff & Emily, Flinders University

Day 4 is complete! What a great week...

Update on the day:

The 1:1 sessions went really well yesterday with the children at Rotary School. We all feel that we are making great contributions to the school, which is really exciting. The school trusts our expertise more and more each day, which is powerful. Today the third years had a discussion with some of the staff around visual schedules, and ways to actively draw the students' attention to them. They were really on board with this feedback, and began thinking of ideas about ways they could incorporate the students in to using the visual schedule. For example, getting the students to organise the visual schedule. They liked the idea of clapping to gain the students attention; the third years will model this and work with the teachers next week during their class time. It has been really valuable to spend time with the teachers each day to incorporate some strategies and techniques in to the classroom to enhance how functional the classroom is, as you can tell we are all so excited for what the classrooms will look like upon our departure. This is our little 'footprint'.

Today we will spend an hour with the students from the hostel, during which we will be doing a big group therapy, with the focus being on turn-taking, enhancing verbal expression and incorporation of all the students into the activities. We will then have the opportunity to begin revamping the classrooms. Each third year student has been assigned a classroom that they are going to revamp. They are doing this with clocks, a chalkboard and posters for the walls. We are also getting water heaters for the school, a TV, cupboards and hopefully a camera. Additionally, we're looking at getting soap for the bathrooms, as well as a hand sanitiser. Next week we are going to provide staff with hand hygiene education. The ball is really in motion! The majority of the school and staff are going to the Paralympics, so it will be a great surprise when they return on Monday! The above photos can give you a bit of an idea of some of the work we are doing here. It is very exciting to see the progress we have made throughout this week, especially as we were feeling so overwhelmed on Monday afternoon.

Tomorrow we are going for an overnight trek and then a paraglide down the mountains on Sunday afternoon. So exciting! I cant believe how fast this week has gone.

Bobby and Amit are amazing, supportive hosts and a true reflection of the Indian culture and way of life. We have felt so accepted and welcomed by some of the locals here. Such a rewarding experience.

Steff and Emily (on behalf of the Rotary Team!) :)