TEAMworks China- Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Today was our first day in Changsha! We woke up after a great night's sleep ready to get to work. We loaded up all our toys/equipment and headed to the clinic. We first got a tour...and WOW! Dr. Lin has created an incredible place for clinical assessments. There is a huge waiting room, that we were all a little in awe of, a room for weight/measurements to be taken, a physician assessment room, several therapy rooms, an evaluation room with a two-way mirror, and a large treatment/training area. There is even a standard toilet, just for us (ha), whoo hoo! We assessed two children today. The first kiddo we assessed was a precious 6.5 year old boy that came in with expressive language concerns and after Sophie & Melissa spent 2 hours with him, determined he had sensory processing issues, social deficits, and would be an excellent candidate for PECS. They were both able to educate parents and will recommend therapy options for future interventions. Other than the dreaded "w-sitting" there were no gross motor concerns. The second child we assessed was a 2.5 year old, who was coming back for a follow-up to determine his speech abilities. He has made tremendous progress since his last visit and was determined that he is progressing appropriately. Again, no gross motor concerns...so Amber became our secretary and photographer!

We had a wonderful lunch at the hospital's cafeteria with a dish that we have talked about ALL DAY. CARROTS! The best carrots any of us have ever eaten. It sounds stupid...but if you had them you would understand. In the afternoon we gave presentations to hospital staff/physicians as well as parents of children in the community. Melissa's presentation focused on Improving Behavior in Autistic Children through sensory interventions. She demonstrated cheap, "at-home" interventions. Her presentation was so great that we got 3 new patients. Sophie presented on PECS using videos and demonstration. This seems to be a technique that the hospital staff is extremely interested in performing in the future. Amber did not present...so she retained her title as TEAM photographer.

For the evening, Dr. Lin took us to the east side of the city to see the biggest mall any of us had ever seen, with 50 restaurants on the top floor! We sat on comfy couches while we ate and tried some (very) spicy food! We were able to talk to some friends/family briefly with wifi. On the ride back to our condo we all crashed for naps.

Tomorrow we have at least 4 more kids on the schedule in the morning and Amber & Melissa will present in the afternoon. We are hoping for more CARROTS tomorrow and ready to continue our work!

Pictures below