This service site is a place where parents can drop of their kid(s) who have a disability for as little as 15 minutes or up to 2 weeks (continuously sleeping over). They can also just come during the day while their parents are at work and everything (just like a regular daycare in that sense). They are charged between 60 cents an hour to five dollars an hour depending on their financial standing. The ratio is 2:1 (two kids to each adult) which is FANTASTIC!!! and with volunteers they try to get it down to a 1:1 ratio! It is a great place, and I love volunteering there.
STORY TIME!
So, I have been working at Respite Cares for a few weeks now, and when every Friday when I go, there are the same three kids there. Nick, Nathaneal, and Skylar. They all three are around the age of two (plus or minus a few months), and they are all almost non-verbal. As the weeks have gone by, Nick is starting to try and say things to me, he has Downs Syndrome. Then there is Nathaneal, and that kid is so freaking energetic it is crazy, but he is amazing! He does talk, but it is so hard for me to understand what he is saying, or for any of us to understand what he is saying for that matter, but he doesn't seem to mind, he just keeps talking and as long as you continue to pay attention and play with him, it is alright. The last two times I have gone and it was my time to leave, Nathaneal cried! It was so hard to leave! ah! He was so cute, and it makes leaving even harder, and that just shows that this is what I was meant to do, and they do like having me to play there!
So, now there is Skylar! She is the sweetest thing ever, well, when she wants to be of course! She is totally non-verbal and when I first started volunteering there, she would refuse to do anything but sit in someone's lap, which made me nervous, because when she was sitting in mine and every time I moved, she screamed her head off! It freaked me out so much, but it is alright now. The second time I went there, she wasn't as clingy, and she was sort of doing the walking thing, but it was too hard for her, so she just scooted on her knees or jumped up and down as she went down the hall on her knees. Everytime we moved to a different location, i would stand her up and hold each hand (just as you would when a little one was learning to walk on their own) and she would take like 5 steps and either demand to be held or would scoot her way to the desired location. She has ankle/short leg braces on both her ankles.
Well, week three comes along (last week) and I get to Respite and Nathaneal is playing with another volunteering for the time being and so I begin to read with Skylar as Nick plays with his truck and sort of listens to this story. Well, a little while later, a few of us decided that we should take the kids to the gym to get some energy out with the jumping toys and slide and that stuff, and just as I always do with Skylar, I put her on the ground and stood her up and had her walk the way to the gym and she did the walk without a fuss! It was fabulous! So, right there I could see a lot of progress in one weeks time! It was amazing! The most amazing, and touching thing that happened that day was when Skylar wanted to get on the slide. i grabbed both hands and we began to walk to the slide, at which point she wanted me to let go of one of her hands, and so I did, and she began to walk the rest of the distance with just one hand assisted! It was amazing! As we were walking, two of the staff members asked me when she started doing this, and I told them, that it was the first time today that she was doing it, and they were so excited and stated that the last few days they couldn't even get her to walk the length of the gym, which is only about 15-20 feet or so, and here I was, walking with her with just one hand being used to keep her balanced, i wasn't even really helping her. It was so amazing to be apart of that! These last few weeks have been amazing and I am so glad that I got to be part of Skylar's progression into walking! This was a moment that I will never forget, nor will I ever want to forget! Examples like these are what have made me really stick to Occupational Therapy with a concentration in children especially infants. It is so special to watch the kids that you have been working with on different things, progressing, and being able to grow to an ability that others would never have thought could come about! These kids need as much chance in life, as we have been given and I really want to be apart of that as they continue to grow and be apart of our society!
I also volunteered on Valentine's Day with Respite Cares. They allowed some of the families that are apart of Respite the chance to bring their kids and any siblings for the night for free. They had thirty kids, and with the staff and volunteers there was a one to one ratio, and being on Valentine's Day, i thought that was amazing! I was with a little toddler, who was about a year and a half old, and she was not disabled. Her brother named Jackson has Cerebral Palsy, and he is five years old. I worked with Jackson the first day I was at Respite for about 10 minutes and then his family came to get him. His sister Reese is so cute, and at first she refused to leave her mum and dad, and actually made herself sick by throwing up, so we had to deal with that for a while which really wasn't fun. I am one of the people that cry when others are crying, so it was really hard to see her crying, because all she wanted was her mum, and there was no way we could do that... but just like most kids do, she got over it, and was happy again so we played and made some crafts and then made a strawberry mouse and it was a great night for Jackson, Reese, and everyone else involved.
This is going to be a great service agency and starting this fall, if i want I can apply for an actual job, which could be interesting, but I am still unsure if that is what I want to do. All I know, is that these kids are amazing and they are and always will be the highlight of my week! I love them to death!!
