June 19th and 20th

June 19th, 2018

Today was the first day of Tykes camp, and man oh man was it an adventure in itself. The kids were so cute, and I bonded with my little friend Kjonnay right away. It was our first time ever doing something like this so of course not everything went as planned. There were a few (okay maybe a lot) of bumps in the road, but we were able to reflect and change things so tomorrow is more successful. My little friend is a spitfire and she is only four years old! She is so sassy, so I guess that is a good thing she is paired with me. My partner and co-parent Carissa and I noticed that Kjonnay was not producing sentences with more than 2 word utterances. Typically, a child that is four would have at least 4 word utterances/sentences. Another thing we noticed was, she doesn’t really initiate a conversation with Carissa and I or any of her peers. She doesn’t necessarily engage with others unless we asked her a question, then she would respond some of the time. These are definitely the two areas Carissa and I will be targeting when coming up with her treatment plan. Some of the kids have some really difficult behavior problems, so that is a challenge when planning my story time activities. It is hard for these children to sit for extended periods of time (which we learned the hard way today). So tomorrow our main focus is to make the activity as hands on and exciting as possible for the kids.

After camp, we went out to lunch at a local restaurant called Celebrity Bar and Grill. I had a chicken club sandwich (Belize style) and it was so yummy!! What I really enjoyed the most about this lunch was the discussion we had. Dr. Brock came up with the plan to talk about grows and glows from the camp each day. This is a chance for us to reflect on how we did at camp, and tell the group one thing that went well, and another that will plan on changing for the future. I feel like this is such an important thing to do because sometimes nothing goes right, but by doing this we are making a plan to be successful in the future. It is a great tool, and I really enjoy it.

After lunch, we went back to Monkey Bay and met with our supervisors to make a plan about the next day’s activities. That only took about two hours, and then we were released for a free afternoon/evening. I took this time to write in my journal, and read in the hammock. After dinner, we all hung out in the dining hall (mostly because it is the only place with Wi-Fi), played games, talked for hours, and got to know everyone a little better. Then we all pretty much crashed because it is hard work getting up at 6am and not having a break all day.

I know I have said this a million times but, I AM LOVING IT HERE!!! Between the culture, food, experiences, and friends I have already made, I feel so lucky to be given this opportunity. I cannot wait to continue exploring for the rest of my time here!

June 20th, 2018

Hola hola! Today was day two of Tykes camp, and it went so much smoother than yesterday. Speech therapy is kind of like acting, especially when you have a child with behavior problems. We have seen many children shut down or act out because they don’t want to be doing the current activity, so it is our job to make that activity seem like the best thing in the world. It is all about acting and talking it up. Because of this, I feel like everyone was a little nervous yesterday, but since we got all those nerves out today was a lot better. Kjonnay was so funny when her mom dropped her off. She found Carissa and I right away and you could tell, she was in her happy place. Although, as the day went on, she started showing some signs of behavior problems. She would drop to the ground so randomly and then put her hands up to ask for help up, but she would never use her words to ask for help up. We finally caught on and noticed she was doing this to escape doing an activity she didn’t like, or to get attention. Once we figured all this out, we were able to change our treatment plan to target this behavior. Now whenever she drops to the ground we can’t feed into it, and have to show no emotion towards her. We will see how this goes tomorrow…

After camp, we went out to lunch again to a restaurant right on the water. It was beautiful and I got tons of pictures (check below). We did the grows and glows again as we ate, which I still think is such a great idea!

After lunch, it was finally time to do some touristy things. We went to the dock where most cruise boats stop, because that is where the big touristy things are. There is a sign that overlooks the water and spells “Belize,” so of course that was our first stop! We took tons of pictures (again check below) and had a blast looking out into the Caribbean because the water is so blue! Our bus driver Alex, gave us a bus tour of the city after everyone was satisfied with the pictures. We got to see the oldest church in Central America, as well as all the fancy government buildings. One thing I found really interesting is, yes Belize is their own country, but every law they try to pass has to be approved by the “mother country” Great Britain. The government was trying to bring back hanging a few years ago but Britain never approved it, so it didn’t happen.

We made it back to Monkey Bay, ate dinner, and here I am writing from my bed at 8:30pm. I am still on NY time, so I crash really early and then wake up really early. It is a pain, but I also really love it because it is so beautiful here in the morning. It is the best way to wake up. Well that is pretty much all I have to say…for now!

Adios amigos!!