J.P.+Thomas

Cerebral Palsy in the Cotting School: Shadowing cotting medical, physical therapy, speech therapy and industrial arts

=Overview of the Cotting School : =

media type="youtube" key="K0YFmkhDMlA" height="349" width="560" toc =Goals:=  My goals were to answer the questions of, "How does the Cotting School care for children with Cerebral Palsy?" and "How does the Cotting School help children with Cerebral Palsy develop skills for independence?"

 ﻿ Specifically, in this project I sent out to learn about the treatments and therapies that help children with Cerebral Palsy participate in to develop skills for independence, for example speech therapy and physical therapy. In this project, I thought I would discover how the Cotting School deals with the always changing mental and physical states of different students. In observing the nursing ward, physical therapy, and speech therapy, I expected to learn how these different professions communicate and help students with Cerebral Palsy.

=Discoveries:= Throughout this experience, I learned how hard daily life can be for someone with Cerebral Palsy. For example, to just go to the bathroom a child with CP need may need a catheter, a lift or a nurse to help them. Another lesson that I learned during this project was how children with CP and other disabilities are not much different than anyone else. They have boyfriends and girlfriends, they play basketball, they get frustrated, they follow the same sports teams and they even joke around. But the most important lesson that I learned during this project was how strong and resilient children with CP are. Even though these students know what may come in the future for them, they never give up in any endeavor and are an inspiration to all. One thing that surprised me is how hard children with CP and other disabilities must work to gain even the smallest amount of progress. Throughout this project, I took away an understanding of how to care for a child with CP. I also took away an understanding of how to communicate with a child with CP or anyone that has difficulty speaking through their mouth.



Two examples of lifts that children with CP must use to go to the bathroom. =Challenges:= The most challenging part of this experience was interacting with the students. This was difficult, because students would try to get across a point to me and I would not comprehend or I would try telling them something and they would not understand. Other challenges included the privacy and confidentiality of the school and the shyness of some of the kids. At the beginning of the project, I thought that my focus should be on individual kids, but when I was told of the strict confidentiality of the school, I had to completely shift the aim of the project. Another difficulty that I had was dealing with some shy students. For example, when I was shadowing the speech therapist a boy was shy and was not focused in his therapy, so I was not able to observe an average day of therapy. =Solutions:= The way that I overcame some of these challenges were by interacting more with individual students to get more acquainted with them. When I became acquainted with specific students, they became less shy and it was easier to converse with them. The other challenges such as the confidentiality and difficulty of speaking to students who had speaking disorders were hard to overcome.

=Looking Back:= One way in which I could improve this experience would be to plan each one of my days better. When I arrived my first day I thought that there would be enough action in the Medical Ward that it could be my whole project, but most kids only come in once they arrive at school. So, after nine o’clock, I would be sitting around not doing much, but the head nurse came up with a great idea to go to other therapies. And this was great being able to go to other therapies, but I was not prepared when I arrived at these therapies. So, while I was there, I felt a little overwhelmed and I had no questions prepared.

=Five Things to know:= 1. You must plan out your project before you go on your shadowing experience, and be ready with important information and questions.  2. Remember to take pictures for your photographic journal, and make sure you understand what is needed in the journal.  3. Make sure you understand everything that must be handed in with the project so you can organize all the papers, binders and photographs to be prepared for the due date. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px;"> 4. Plan your time well. Try to finish most of your project before the weekend or night before, this will make the experience a lot less stressful. <span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman',Times,serif; font-size: 12px;"> 5. Be prepared for your powerpoint presentation, and make it easy for the class to understand.