Third Day at the Middle School

        As I was ending my last day of observations in the public schools, a lot of things hit me about the job and why I'm looking into being an OT. As days goes by, we, as people, don't think much about helping the elementary aged children out as much as middle school and on because we don't expect them to know as much and we know that they are still learning too. Where the children in middle school and high school, people expect them to know a lot more and my mind changed on that idea when I observed the OT yesterday.
        I started out with the middle school children yesterday and that was really fun. I got to be more  involved and play card games with them and just talk to them more because either they would talk to me first or vice via. The game I got to play was with a 6th grader that just needed help seeing and then letting her hands know what to do with the messages like laying the card down fast before anyone else. I have 2 other kids that I want to talk about from the Middle school.
        I had another 6th grade girl that had problems with her fingers. She could not just use one finger at a time because they all moved plus the muscles were just not strong enough to lift her fingers by herself. Some of the activities that the OT did with her was having her leave her whole hand on the table and left each finger up one at a time by itself. The girl said that it was even hard for her to do it. She also made an origami box because the more you push down on the crease when folding it the more it stay and you need strength for that. She was developing more finger strength with that activity. She worked on it because if you can't move just a few fingers at a time then it will make things harder because things will be slower for you to do. The OT also told her to write her address and phone number but she couldn't remember those two things. The Ot told her that she wanted her to bring them written on a piece of paper next time she sees her so they could try writing and remembering them.
         Then I had a brother, that was in 6th grade, of another boy that I had in the primary and he was the total opposite of his little brother. The OT had to take the work with him just like she did with his little brother. This boy had a caregiver at school during the day. I had to sit far away from him because he could have gotten very violent. He was non-verbal but so happy. Always had a smile on his face. He wrote letters and shapes but they didn't look like letters and shapes at all. He couldn't hold the paper while he was writing. He had a short attention span and colored like a preschooler. He couldn't draw a straight line even when the OT would draw dots to dots. He couldn't go from one dot to the another on either side of the paper. He did love playing with a few strings with wax on them. He kept playing with them. He was suppose to copy and shape but he couldn't do that and the shape was a circle. He still used the full grasp when he picked up everything including a pencil to write with. Didn't use just his fingers at all. He didn't know how to play with little blocks. The tallest tower he could build was 3 blocks high just because he couldn't grab them with just his fingers. He even had a hard time doing that. It took him 3 or 4 times to get it right.
          It was just sad to see that even middle schoolers have those types of disabilities. It is hard to see that they will never grow out of it unless someone tries to help them. This is why I'm so big on education at an early age, which is 5 and below. I knew they were there but it is still hard to see and it makes be realize and more thankful for the disabilities I had while in school because they could have been a lot worse. I could not think about how I would get through life without writing or reading or drawing. I would rather do those 3 things then talk. It is how I express myself the most right now and I always have through life. I would rather write then talk. That is one of the main reason I have a blog. I went to the high school yesterday too but that will have to be another entry either later today or sometime tomorrow.