My morning starts with a Skype call with Jim and Keara! I love seeing pictures of my very “North American home” in the background. I love chatting with them about the details of our life when I am so far away in South Vietnam. Though the day was spring-like in Gloucester, they are wearing long sleeves. Keara has scarves wrapped around her neck when I first see her. This makes me feel cooler in this 90 F + humid tropical weather.
I love hearing about how well Keara is doing as a middle school math teacher. She’s being creative and challenging her students to think about why math is meaningful and fun. I’m thrilled to hear about the lesson in architecture she attempted. This is an attitude we are trying to awaken in these Vietnamese teachers. A good teacher has to take risks, be ready to make mistakes, and learn from those mistakes. I cherish memories of my teachers who made learning fun. Effective teaching is a balance of focused goals and objectives based on what that student needs to learn and inspiring execution of the lesson.
Cognition is the topic of our first “lecture”. When Judy and I share information with the twelve therapists, it is so interactive, I hesitate to call it “lecture”. We are showing them how we think beyond the activity to challenge the child to think in more creative ways.
As we challenge them to “think outside the box” in planning for more creative teaching, they are hesitant and a bit defensive. Judy points out that it is good to voice defensiveness, but challenges them to put that aside. Be more creative!
We tell them that though we are asking them to be structured with goals and objectives and very organized plans, once they do that, they can extend the language by being imaginative and a little “crazy” like Judy and me! Being organized, allows freedom in the teaching.
We help all the therapists plan and organize an AVT Parent Guidance session for a 3 ½ year old boy who listens with a Cochlear Implant. The therapists think the boy and his mom can come right in, but I say no, we have to take ten or fifteen minutes to think about what he needs and what we want to teach him today, selecting the appropriate toys and games. We write the PLAN on the chalk board with targets in each of the five areas; audition, language, speech, cognition, communication.
Huie and his mom join Sister Sang and me at the oval table. Therapy is dynamic, I hear Huie imitating my English as I prompt Sister Sang how to coach this mother. Right away we can see this cute little guy is ready to take control of the session and be a “nudgie kid” if we let him, but this mother and this therapist do not know the way to provide the necessary behavioral expectations to keep him cooperative.
We know that we will speak on Behavior modification later this afternoon.
He repeats the Ling 6 sounds from 3 meters (being a little nudgie), sings 3 Vietnamese songs with props, and matches pictures to objects while modeling the phrases given. Before I came to Vietnam, I had a lot of photos printed from last year and collected objects that go with them. He loves this, especially the chicken hiding under the basket! Funny! Huie also enjoys a “what’s missing page”, drawing in the parts that are blank as we coach mom to keep talking to him. Another cognitive goal for this child is to tell “what doesn’t belong”. The therapists tell me this is too difficult for Huie. I say, let’s leave that until the end and try it. Well, Huie loves it and easily talked about which one did not belong in that group. High expectation is key to successful teaching.
Sister Sang gives Huie a choice of books. He chooses Jim’s favorite; Freight Train.
He loves it and wants to keep it! Luckily Jim provides a hand-out ready to give the child to take home, coloring pages of the story. He is thrilled. During the lesson, I create a model of an Experience Book, sketching in all we do during the session. I offer this as an example for the therapists and the parent.
Afterwards, the mom thanks us with tears in her eyes. She like mothers all over the world feel that maybe she is too busy and cannot do enough for her child. Judy and I through Sister sang interpreting assure her that she is doing the best she can. What we hope is that she is inspired by what occurred today to spend more time teaching her son.
We hope the teachers see how interesting and creative therapy can be when you follow a developmental plan covering all areas of need. We hope they see how the mom really wants to be more involved. We hope they “catch the idea” of coaching the parents; telling her why they are doing what they are doing and what she needs to do at home.
Huie has great potential. He is listening with the latest technology. He has a mom who wants to do all she can for him Let’s hope that these teachers can coach her well. With the help of the Global Foundation for Children with Hearing Loss workshops, mobile missions, and training maybe they can!
