This morning felt like true TEAMWorks style, a complete whirlwind. Once again, Kati and Katie were busy in one room while Amy separated and saw kids in another room during the morning.
Kati got to start her morning with the sweet 2 month old baby she assessed yesterday and was able to do a full treatment session today. Since it was her second session with this baby, she got to go into more detail with education and treatment ideas. Kati also got to sit down with the therapist providing OT and PT and go through videos she brought of facilitating development. She also discussed how to adapt activities to meet the needs of the child.
Katie got to work with a little boy with Autism that loved lots of movement. She spent a lot of time providing vestibular input in very creative ways and he began to imitate her words and initiated requesting for more. This was exciting because mom had expressed concerns with his ability to spontaneously request an activity. Katie continues to demonstrate the importance of fulfilling sensory needs so children can adapt best to their environment.
Amy had a busy morning, and was so excited about a successful session based on Floortime techniques with a little boy who had a very difficult morning with OT. Kati came and filled Amy in on his likes and dislikes and their session was located in the waiting room because that was the place he was the happiest and not screaming. We think maybe his screaming was heard all the way in Arkansas. After some time of allowing him to choose activities and decreasing to no demands, he began to demonstrate consistent eye contact and eventually after developing a fun play routine, when Amy would back away, he would come and find her and take her by the hand back to play with him. By the end of the session, he was pulling his mom and Amy by the hand to play with him. It was Amy's favorite moment of the week, so far.
The afternoon continued to be busy with the group working together to best facilitate sensory regulation and communication.
Dr. Lin continues to amaze us with his energy and vision for providing care to children here in China. He has been busy seeing patients, translating, and being very kind about traveling and taking care of 3 southern girls in China. We are thankful for his leadership and taking care of all the details on this trip.
"In all things I have shown you that by working hard in this way we must help the weak and remember the words of the Lord Jesus, how he himself said, 'It is more blessed to give than to receive.'" - Acts 20:35
We had a warm welcome from the staff at Dr Lin's clinic. OT and speech divided for the morning, with Kati and Katie seeing three children and Amy seeing three additional children in another room.
Kati got the chance to work with a 2 month old baby on head control, strengthening, and ways to modify holding prone.
Katie enjoyed talking with parents, who were eager to learn more about sensory activities for their children.
Amy got the chance to demonstrate the "sign to speak" approach with a nearly 4 year old little boy who demonstrated characteristics of apraxia of speech, and currently only says one word. After only a few attempts, he independently signed "music" to request and by the time he left he had signed for music, baby, and car.
We enjoyed a feast for lunch with the directors of the hospital and had a short rest before our afternoon began. Kati got her hands on 3 precious babies and did a lot of educating the parents and staff about the importance of prone... We're bringing tummy time to China, folks.
We wrapped our afternoon up with Katie presenting on Sensory Processing Disorders and had a great discussion about children and sensory needs.
Despite long travels and jet lag we felt productive and pleased with today. We are so thankful for the prayers and support while we are here.
"Not that we are sufficient in ourselves to claim anything as coming from us, but our sufficiency is from God." 2 Corinthians 3:5
Sunday and Monday were travel days. We had a great trip here and enjoyed a little time looking around Seoul, South Korea's airport and celebrating Kati's birthday. Our luggage did not make our connection in Dallas and prayers for that to arrive quickly would be good. Thankful for everyone praying over our trip and this opportunity to share what we love doing here in China. First day with our morning coffee!!
Phew what a crazy day! We started the day at the clinic where we saw more kiddos. Amber spent all morning with one precious girl with CP. She was able to educate on infant massage, positioning, facilitated strengthening in upright positions, and casted for some resting AFOs. Melissa and Sophie helped a family with a 13 year old boy with Autism to problem solve picture schedules, PECS and ADLs as well as tag teamed to help with family recommendations for an adorable little 5 year old with global delays. Sophie also instructed the family of a little girl with CP on feeding and oral motor exercises.
We ate a quick lunch and then headed to the largest Children's Hospital in Hunan province. We got to go visit their NICU, Autism center, and rehabilitation department. It was so interesting! We were a little surprised to see some of the therapy techniques being used, like acupuncture in young babies! Sophie and Amber were approached by a women who began speaking to them in mandarin as if they could understand. They grabbed a translator and found out the woman was asking them of they were Christians. Excitedly she told them about her daughter who was in a coma for 77 days and that when she went to the church to pray her daughter woke up! She said she prays that more people would come to know Jesus. It was a really cool moment.
After finishing up at the hospital we headed out to buy some toys for the clinic. We were able to find everything we thought the clinic still needed with the help of the head nurse's 4 & 6 year old daughters. They were so cute and they spoke to us in English! We ate dinner at a Hong Kong style restaurant and finished the night with gelato! Sugar rushes plus exhaustion sent us into fits of laughter as Dr. Lin became frustrated with the insane traffic to get out of the parking garage. People just drive wherever they want here! We've decided Sophie needs to lay off the sweets! Haha. We got in late again last night. We packed, got our gifts ready for the staff, met about future ideas, and made supply lists for the clinic to purchase and for our next team to bring along! After all of that it was late and we were exhausted! We completely forgot to blog!! Today is our last day in the clinic. We have been able to accomplish so much and are excited about getting to continue to invest in this incredible clinic. It is going to be such a blessing to the families that need it!
In the afternoon we will head to the train station and go to Shanghai on the high speed train...we are so excited to ride the train! We will spend the night in Shanghai, do some shopping and sightseeing then fly home in the evening. Please pray for safe travels and healthy returns to Arkansas!
Day 3- Divide and Conquer
At the clinic we divided up into PT/OT/ST rooms to evaluate kiddos. We each saw 3-4 children with diagnoses of Autism, CP/TBI, Hydrocephalus, and Arthrogryposes. Sophie was able to educate some of the staff on PECS with a one-on-one approach. Melissa helped facilitate ADLs using a picture schedule for a 13 year old. Amber was able to demonstrate and educate a mother on infant massage and positioning strategies for a 2 year old with significant neurological complication from a traumatic brain injury.
We had one of our favorite lunches today with some more life-changing dishes including corn and "sweet" tea! Our southern hearts were happy.
This afternoon Sophie presented on oral motor assessment/treatment while Amber presented on infant massage/positioning. Many in the audience of our talks have been parents of some of kiddos we have seen, who are seeking the best way to care for their children. It is so exciting when they ask questions, and better understand strategies for caring for their children!
Dr. Lin and one of the wonderful girls from the clinic took us to a market in the city to buy some souvenirs and get "Hot Pot" for dinner. Hot pot is very much like fondue and very tasty! We had our first experience smelling "Stinky Tofu" tonight, a staple in the province we are working in. We NEVER want to have another experience with that smell!
Tomorrow we will be seeing more kids in the morning, then touring a rehab hospital in the afternoon. We are done presenting, phew, but will continue to educate the staff in smaller groups so that they can follow through with treatment plans we have developed and educate parents.
The staff is really soaking in everything we teach them and will do well once we leave!
We got a little extra time this morning before breakfast and took advantage of the wifi to chat with family. Heading to breakfast, Amber and Sophie learned a lesson about Chinese traffic...always keep your head up! A car narrowly missed them as they crossed the street, eek! We had the same yummy breakfast of noodle soup and headed to the clinic for our next round of kiddos. We saw 4 different kids this morning.
First, we saw a 9 year old boy with a diagnosis of Autism. He was a very fascinating child with a wide array of difficulties and gifts. He was accompanied by a fantastic mom who was already doing so much for her son, but she was very worried about social skills, interrupting the classroom, and feared that her son would not be allowed to enter middle school due to sensory difficulties. Sophie and Melissa spent extensive time problem solving with mom to create different sensory techniques for the classroom setting. Then the boy surprised us by reading to us and counting English! We also saw a 4 year old boy with Autism. This little spit fire was a whirl wind and immediately began rough-housing with Sophie and Melissa. They again were able to problem solve with this child's dad to create different treatment techniques for home to help decrease negative behaviors and provide the sensory input he was so desperately seeking.
Third, Sophie did a speech evaluation on a 4 year old with expressive language concerns. When she had completed her assessment, demonstrated home exercise program, and educated mom, the child's mother reported concerns of falling/tripping while running. Amber was so excited to do a gait assessment! She was able to determine that he would be a good candidate for ankle strengthening, balance work, and practice walking/running on uneven surfaces. She was able to give mom some pictures/examples of exercises to do with him at home. Finally, Sophie worked with an adorable 3 year old girl with language delays. After assessment, Sophie was able to determine that the girls deficient oral motor skills were largely to blame. Sophie was then able to educate the mom on different oral motor exercises and activities to help with the child's articulation. After a long morning of work, we went to lunch with all the nurses, students, and doctors we are working with. Again, massive quantities of food were ordered and consumed! Dr. Lin is a very funny guy and car ride conversations always have us laughing!
For the afternoon, Amber and Melissa presented to a packed room of staff and caregivers. Amber gave an overview of Physical Therapy clinical assessment and demonstrated/showed a DVD of intervention techniques. Melissa demonstrated information on grasp development. The audience had great questions and were engaged throughout the presentations. We feel like we never stop eating here! Tonight we opted for a later dinner in order to get some of our clinical intake forms/treatment suggestions filled out prior to going out again, in hopes that we get to bed a little earlier. We had dumplings for dinner with gelato for dessert. Apparently the gelato and continued jet lag made us a little loopy which again made for interesting car rides. Amber was a little overly excited to purchase her favorite Chinese toothpaste, she only gets to buy it when she comes back. We also got to experience the Chinese version of "Delilah" on the radio which Sophie loving dubbed "Chililah" sending us back into fits of laughter! Dr. Lin doesn't know what to think of us sometimes. He usually just replies, "Oh my goodness," as we laugh hysterically! We are so enjoying our time here and getting to work along side Dr. Lin! Tomorrow there are several kiddos with gross motor needs coming so Dr. Lin says Amber will be busy! Both Amber and Sophie will present in the afternoon!
Thank you so much for your prayerful support this week. We really feel like we are making a positive difference in the lives of children and their families here in China!