Ukraine Day 1

Today was TEAMworks Ukraine’s first day at the orphanage we have been working with for several years.  This week our TEAM consists of Amy Smith (speech and language pathologist), Abby Snyder (occupational therapist), and Matt and Ginny Mooney, directors of 99Balloons.  The orphanage’s director and the orphanage physicians gave a warm welcome and provided a thorough tour of their facilities.

This was a very significant day for Matt and Ginny, as they met their little girl, Lena, for the first time.  In a noisy room, surrounded by caregivers, children, translators, and therapists, Matt and Ginny were oblivious to it all as they shared a beautiful moment and held Lena for the first time.  Lena brightened and laughed with absolute joy as her parents held her and played with her, perceptively adapting their American parenting style to meet her individual likes and needs.

The TEAM was able to meet all of the children with special needs and complete basic evaluations for most of these children.   In preparation for this trip, Amy practiced speaking Russian for about three months.  Amy instructed the children to use communication to request and indicate choices and taught caregivers how to facilitate this kind of communication. After demonstrations, many of the children were able to imitate Amy’s gestures, especially pointing to request items, and simple Russian words (if there is such a thing). It was a group effort between everyone in the room to help Amy pronounce the words in turn to help the children practice saying the words to request toys.  The quick learning by the children surprised the caregivers and motivated them to practice the techniques.

Abby helped educate caregivers on general sensory information and how to better position the children to facilitate improved body alignment, improved visual attention, and improved engagement with caregivers.  This included better sitting positions, hands and knees, and placement in standers.  Her focus was on getting the children in the most optimal position to engage and play with their peers and caregivers.  All of her work and suggestions were given in the hopes that the caregivers will want to play with the children after they see how quickly they learn and their desire to engage.  Abby was able to show caregivers how to facilitate crawling and one caregiver even joined Abby in the floor to practice positioning the child to facilitate crawling.

The therapists collaborated well today.  It has really been a blessing to have a speech therapist and an occupational therapist working together to treat the children holistically.  Abby was able to help physically prompt children while Amy held up objects to choose or name for improved communication, and Amy was able to help children stack and grasp objects while Abby positioned the children.

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