Janine and I met last night to review the day and go over the children that we saw today. Already having that knowledge, enabled me to know a little bit about the children’s condition and their past, before I even meet them. Both of the two babies that I saw today had a very difficult and sometimes dramatic birth, which might have played a part in their development of the disabilities and delays that they have established. Janine picked me up at nine o’clock to go to our first patient, a little girl that might have autism. It is not yet diagnosed that she definitely has this condition, but she shows very strong signs of it. I already did some research on autism before, which is a condition that comes up in about 1 out of 150 children. It is usually first recognized during infancy and childhood and categorized as a brain development disorder. The little girl showed lots of typical symptoms such as coordination problems, communication problems, social awkwardness, which she showed by not being able to stand eye contact while having to communicate and the need of routine. By playing with her in different ways than she was necessarily used to, Janine interrupted the little girl’s routine and therefore made her really mad. At this point it is very important to establish trust to her for Janine, as she will not let anyone touch herself, unless she planned the motion by taking someone’s hand to put on her. It was very interesting to see how visual she was. Watching the movement of bubbles and other things was calming to her and watching specific TV shows in the morning is very important, as she even knows herself when they are on.
The second patient, was a little boy who was not expected by the doctors to be ever able to move or talk, but has made such big progress, that he is standing and crawling and making sounds by now. Having the comparison of what his prognosis was like and at what stage Janine started off, to seeing him crawl for the first time today was amazing. He suffers from a birth trauma and has motor delays. His left side is weaker than his right side, so that he for example takes up only one hand to reach for an object instead of both, which normal babies would do. Janine also did a lot of work with a mirror with him today and it was very cute to see the little boy’s reaction to his own face in the mirror, even though he probably does not know yet that he is seeing himself.
Another aspect that I learned about today and wanted to share, was a conversation I had with Janine about toys in general. Nowadays, toys for children are often very animated and full of sound, colors and movements as they are running of battery. These toys can be very overwhelming and not learn-enhancing for the children though. Children make up the sound for their stuffed animals and do the talking for them. If the toy already provides this, the child never feels the need to do so. Also the very classical toy, a set of wooden blocks, is proven to be the best and only toy needed if necessary. Through this toy the child gets a better motor control sense and learns to stack items as well as the consequences of kicking it and having the blocks fall over. I thought it was very interesting what big impact toys can have on the development of children. For children the best toy or play partner anyways, is still a person that interacts with them.
I am very happy about my second day, that showed me how good it feels to see the progress and the therapy working and let me experience the permanent and very interesting condition, autism.
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