[ Thursday, September 21, 2006 ]
In love with my internship!Today was my first day interning at a therapeutic nursery school in Richmond. There are nine students at this school, though there were only seven children there today. The school is for two and a half to five year olds, but most of the children seem to be around four or five years old. Although I knew that this is a special nursery school for children coming from traumatic pasts and dealing with emotional and behavioral issues, I was not told about each child's background history before meeting and spending the day with them. It was only after the children had left that one of the three therapists/psychologist "caregivers" (teachers) there gave me a brief description of each child's history and answered my questions.
My primary tasks are to play with the children and help with set up and clean up. At times it seemed like I was in any other nursery school. Many of the activities seemed normal enough for a nursery school: playing outside, biking, coloring, reading, snack time, singing, etc. However, every now and then the children said things that reminded me that they're coming from emotionally disturbed backgrounds:
- One girl who has been in out of seven foster homes, for example, kept asking if the judge had said certain things, no doubt recounting the many times she must have been told by foster parents that a judge had ordered her to be placed in yet another foster home. And yet, this same girl pretended to give me a manicure, loves to wear what she calls "fancy" clothes, and "drove" me to the store to go grocery shopping.
- One boy can't seem to stop cursing, fidgeting and inciting the other children into fights—I now know that he has a severe case of ADHD. Many times, the caregivers had to physically restrain him and some of the other students until they were calm enough to socialize with the other children. And yet, he can also be polite and funny. He calls himself Spiderman and jumps and swings around the outdoor play area just as easily.
- Another girl—who I spent half the day mistaking as a boy—refuses to wear girls' clothing and doesn't like being physically touched. She frequently has to be isolated with a caregiver for her outbursts and has a fear of restrooms. She was sexually abused as a child and believes her grandmother is in fact her mother. Today was a big day for her because she actually went to the restroom with a caregiver and flushed a toilet. When I think of her wheeling around the outdoor play area on her red tricycle, grinning so big that her dimples show, it's heartbreaking.
- There's another boy who I was surprised to hear was born with a drug addiction (as were his three other siblings) because his mother was using when she was pregnant. He was taken care of by his older brother, who was only four years his senior, until they were placed in foster care. Alhamdulillah, he has now been adopted by his foster parents.
- Then there's my favorite (I know I shouldn't have favorites, but I can't help it): He's a small, shy Pakistani boy who is very quiet and takes time to warm up to the caregivers. I knew he was ready to play when he clung to my legs from behind and wouldn't let me go. He has behavioral issues and OCD tendencies. He has learned to communicate more verbally rather than lashing out physically. From spending time with him today, I find it hard to believe that he could even act violently. We drew fish, sharks, Spongebob, and Patrick (apparently he's a starfish—I had to ask since I don't know much about Spongebob) with chalk on the sidewalk. His favorite colors are red and black. He also loves reading so I went through the poop book, the farting book, the Old MacDonald Had a Farm book, and Where the Wild Things Are with him. He loves to talk about dinosaurs who he calls "kitosaurs."
At times, I didn’t know how to respond to the children—like when they would start cursing or lashing out physically—since I'm not allowed to restrain or set the limits for the children. But I'm learning a lot about socio-behavioral development. These children need consistency in their lives. They need constant attention and reassurance that they will not be kicked out of the school or that we will not abandon them. It takes time to build a healthy, trusting relationship with them. And although it may seem depressing listening to their histories and thinking about the injustice of it all, I know that insha Allah I am helping these children and their families to become well-adjusted, independent individuals who can one day function well in the general society without as much supervision and guidance.
1 comments
1 Comments:
Beanay! So good to have you back :)
Your experience reminds me of my stint at a Ministry job in which all I did was read reports from group homes, and that was an experience in and of itself - though, at one point, I did actually visit a group home.
It's so hard to believe sometimes that stories like the ones that these children live are real. And it's definitely important that people work with them, not just for the children's sakes, but for our own as well.
Hope you have both a fulfilling internship and a beautiful Ramadan.
By 
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3:38 PM
