Marion

I am a second-year student "Sociaal Pedagogische Hulpverlening" at the "Hogeschool van Amsterdam". For this study I have to do an 8-hour per week internship. Dejana is doing an intensive homeprogram. Every half year this program is evaluated by the British Institute for Brain Injured Children [BIBIC]. I had the opportunity to be present at such an evaluation. I would like to share my experiences of that day here.Friday 10th March 2006, finally we could show once more what tremendous progress Dejana has made in these past sic months. Dejana, her parents and myself travelled early in the morning to the beautifull "Park Spelderholt" near Beekbergen. We were lucky there was not much traffic that morning, so all went smoothly.

When we arrived at the building BIBIC uses for their evaluation sessions, we found out there were dedicated rooms for each family. These rooms were located at the first floor of the building. Ofcourse one can do it the easy way and take the elevator, but that is not our style. So we went by stairs, unknown stairs as far as Dejana was concerned, there were big openings between the steps, this makes it a little more difficult for Dejana because her depth vision is not optimal. With a little help from her mother and maybe a little slower than usual Dejana climbed the stairs all the way up, good girl!!. We first talked about the day to day experiences with Dejana, very rewarding that Dejana shows progress in almost all areas. Then Deja showed her abilities in doing the exercises. Deja gave an excellent performance with both hands when she sticked rings on to a pole, the persistent efforts of Mum really paid off here. She liked the frog book and pushed the button to hear the frog sound, besides she turned the pages herself. She imitated!!! the BIBIC teacher and joined her in de clapping hands game as you cas see she enjoyed it and rewarded us with a very big smile.

At a given moment you can see that the energy flow gets rather low, time for a drink and a banana. On we went with the exercises some of which we did not practise at all at home, no problem for Dejana, when asked she picked the right colour and also many shapes,ofcourse there were some mistakes. In between the exercises Deja showed her ability to stand up from a kneeling position, that means the specific exercises in her program that helped her to this can be left out. During lunchtime we went for a walk, alas rain was pouring down so we quickly went back. We noticed there is also a small warm swimming pool, lets not forget to take our swimming things next time, ideal when it rains outside. After the break we carried on with sensory exercises, Deja feels much better but the chalenge remains, maybe it is a good idea to stimulate her licking with the tong by letting her lick as many (sugarfree) icecreams this summer, if we get a summer that is! At the end of a long day in a relative strange surrounding it became a little to much for Dejana, fortunately we finished quickly, in the car on our way back she recovered again. Deja much success with the new chalenges and exercises, I hope you will like them all. A big hug from Marion!!

Amsterdam, september 2004