1 Down, 15 To Go

Is it May yet? 

Okay, so it's not that bad:)  But one week in and I'm already pretty swamped.  I guess since we all know each other already, we know the teachers already, we know how things work in the program, there's no need to ease into things this time!

One exciting thing about this semester- we start clinicals!  It's only level 1 fieldwork so it's just four hours one time a week.  But still, it's something.  The first eight weeks of the semester I'm in a school district, which, unless things change, is where I would like to work one day.  I do still love kiddos:)  I was a little apprehensive going into it but the therapist I'm with is real easy going and encouraging.  I'm nervous about when I'll have to actually plan a session though in a few weeks.  Yikes!  Lots of feelings of inadequacy creeping up on me:(  But the kids at the school I'm at- SO CUTE!!! 

Most of the things we did were for kiddos with fine motor needs.  But one had sensory needs- which I'm not going to bother to explain.  If you really want to know that bad, google sensory integration.  Anyway.  When we went to get him from his classroom, the teacher was sitting behind him with her around him, her hand on his hand, helping him cut a mitten out of construction paper.  He was a little clueless- completely unfocused and looking anywhere but the paper and scissors in front of him.  At the very beginning of his session, the therapist brushed him.  She used something that looked kind of like a nail brush and brushed his arms, legs, and back.  She then did joint compressions on his arms and legs.  This was all to "wake up" his senses so to speak.  Then she did the exact same thing the teacher had been doing, only this time he was completely focused on the paper and worked to finish cutting out the mitten before moving on to the next activity! 

I know- it's kind of hard to explain that without seeing it, and chances are most people reading this really couldn't care less.  Don't worry- I probably won't talk about everything I see in my clinical:)  But that was something I had learned about it class and it was really cool to see it in action.  I was impressed!

I'll be spending most of my time at that school, which is all early childhood and pre-K classes.  Right up my alley!  And now I just got really tired and can't think of any smooth way to end this.  So?  The end.