I am EXCITED to introduce you all to my new therapy assistant Nicholson. As many of you know I have been praying for months that God would help me find a Haitian that I could train to be my therapy assistant. I did have the stipulation that he must speak English, enjoy and interact well with the kids, and be interested in learning therapy. It took over 3 months to find Nicholson. He is currently trialing the position but is doing a great job. He started in November and has been eager to learn and a quick learner. He has built relationships with the kids and the kids look forward to working with him, seeing him and just hanging out with him. He is eager to learn and asks lots of good questions, takes resources home and has gone through a few training Saturday's to learn more skills.
I had the opportunity to spend a month beginning to train him on the basics of therapy and developing a daily schedule for him so that the kids would continue to get needed therapy while I was back home for Christmas Break.
He starts everyday at 8. From 8-10 he rotates children through the stander for 10 minutes each putting their braces and shoes on
From 10-11 in the mornings he works 1:1 with 3 different children from the severe & profound preschool each day on specific skills they need to work on. Often he uses the therapy ball while he works with them. Everyday he works with Kenderson to give him the needed therapy input he seeks. He also helps make sure the Mom's working in the Severe & Profound Preschool have what they need and daily puts Lovejinnnie and Gildine's shoes/braces on and places them in standing to work on standing.
From 11-12 he works with 2 of the children 1:1 from the Sensory/Autism Classroom on specific skills they need to work on following a treatment plan.
From 1-3 he helps with For Jonathan Sake Outreach Program learning to do therapy with each of the children and families. I wrote up specific treatment plans for each of the outreach children before I left to ensure Presidue and Nicholson felt empowered to run outreach and provide therapy for the families. Since 6 of the outreach children had surgery and just as I was leaving was when they needed intensive therapy I spend time training Presidue and Nicholson on treatment plans for each of the surgery children and left them picture handouts of exercises to do.
After outreach he sets the hand braces and foot braces out in the birdcage for the mom's to put on the kids for afternoon birdcage time and put Mary-Julie and Steven in their walkers to work on walking.
He is doing a really good job. The first few weeks were a real challenge for him as he learned new skills, learned time management and learned about disabilities. He was persistent and worked hard and his hard and his hard work paid off as each day got easier and the multi-tasking and time management started to become second nature.
I also realized that Nicholson would need a temporary Therapy space till the new Therapy Clinic was finished. Since we had cleared out the therapy/toy depot in the kitchen to tile
We Decided to turn it into a littler Therapy Closet where he would have all the supplies he needed to do therapy with the children on his schedule
Nicholson, Solandue, and Alcana together built a therapy ball Rack
We put the stander Inside so it would e safe as the children liked playing on it as a toy
He had a drawer unit with therapy supplies & toys
View looking into his little Therapy Space
I am EXCITED to continue working with Nicholson...to continue training him and helping him grow in his skills. I am excited that when I am not in Haiti there can be someone to continue providing the needed therapy for the children. I look forward to see what God has in store for Nicholson.
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