Although this was our second week at our sites and in our Spanish class, we felt so at home; almost as if we had been here for much longer. This week we had the amazing opportunity to work with the professionals at Ándale para Oír to begin their assessments for the new year. We participated in a motor assessment in which the children had to demonstrate various skills such as hopping on one foot, somersaults, jumping and running. Many of the assessments are comprised of criterion referenced checklists or questionnaires for skills that are present, emerging or not present. Even though this was a motor assessment, we were able to informally evaluate language skills while giving directions to the kids.
In addition, during our time at Ándale para Oír, the master teacher in our initial education class (educación inicial) explained the importance of adopting a whole child approach to education of children who are deaf and hard of hearing. Not only do the children attend individualized aural rehabilitation therapy sessions, but during their time in the initial education class, or preschool, they are exposed to stories, sensory experiences, math concepts, language and physical movement.
The teacher also promotes certain themes across weeks and finds many creative and engaging ways to incorporate and teach themes to the students. For instance, this week she introduced a book in which a family is hunting for a bear and encounters many obstacles. Later this week, she had the children act out the story with items representing the obstacles from the book. Little toys represented the characters and they had to travel through mud (represented by pudding), water (represented by a bucket of water), and a tall field (represented with pipe cleaners.) We have been able to participate in all of the activities and have been providing support with the very specific needs of each child so they can access the richness the class. It has been a wonderful experience to share the joy of the classroom with the children and the amazing team at Ándale para Oír.
At Gigi’s Playhouse, we are continuing to provide individual therapy and are collaborating with other therapists. We have had the opportunity to learn about Gigi’s fundraising efforts as they are a non-profit organization. Individuals and groups who make donations can be assured that the funds go to programs such as cooking classes, individual and group therapy, and social events for families. Included here is the website for Gigi’s Playhouse Mexico. It’s very inspiring to learn more about the families who attend both Gigi’s and Andale’s for services. Some travel several hours one way by bus each day.
While staying in Querétaro , we have had the pleasure to enjoy many cultural activities in the city and in the surrounding areas. This past week we took afternoon trips to visit the town of San Miguel de Allende and to Bernal. Located in Bernal is a large monolith known as “La peña de Bernal,” which is ranked as the third largest monolith in the world. Many of these towns are known as pueblos mágicos (“magical towns”). The secretary of tourism of Mexico has recognized these towns as places of cultural significance and they are valued for their maintenance and restoration of historical sites.
In our Spanish language class this week, we have continued to be challenged and be exposed to a wide variety of terminology, grammatical structures, phrases, and clinically relevant discourse exercises. We have have been learning to adjust our own language depending on our goal for communication and for our audience. For example, our teachers set up a practice case history interview with student volunteers who had prepared a mock child language case. We then practiced conducting a case history using parent-friendly language. We also completed a therapy plan for a hypothetical client in many different areas. This class provided us the opportunity to learn and apply many new technical terms such as “base y techo” for basal and ceiling of a standardized assessment. Our last class consisted of learning connector phrases to use when writing clinical reports. We went back to our therapy plans and wrote a report using these connector phrases. We all felt that this exercise was valuable for creating professional clinical reports.
At the end of this week, one of our site supervisors was generous enough to take us on a walking tour of the center of the city. She took us to a colonial-era house called “La casa de la Zacatecana.” In Querétaro there are many legends (“leyendas”) that came from this era. The legends are entertaining but they help visitors connect to the city’s rich colonial history. “La casa de la Zacatecana” had many beautiful antiques, pieces of art and incredible views of the city.
http://www.museolazacatecana.com
We look forward to our last week in this beautiful city. Our first two weeks here have been life-changing and we all feel that Querétaro is our second home. Tomorrow we plan to visit Guanajuato, which is another pueblo mágico.
Saludos,
Sara y Datie <3
