One of the things that we learned there was how to start and organize a home based therapy program with a lot of people working in it. The very first weekend after the course we gave a presentation of all we learned to family, friends and neighbours in the local cafe. They were so enthusiastic that 10 people immediately volunteered in working and playing with Dejana in our intensive home based programme. Some of them are still with us now eight years later! Most of them stayed for at least a few years. During the course we were taught how to present our goals to everybody and how to lead dialogs with team members after each play session with Dejana. It worked so good that our contact become very close and friendly. This aspect of the Son-rise program is indeed extraordinary and helpful. In the beginning everybody played during two hours sessions once a week but now some player may spend 3 or even 4 hours each time. If two or three people come each day, Dejana gets a program of 4-6 hours of intensive play. After that I still work with her for another two hours. It is more than any school in the world can offer and it is always based on a one to one situation.
We used to have monthly brainstorm meetings with the team to discuss our therapy strategies. Every team meeting had a special thema with questions and answers on the end. I hope it was a very special experience for all, for me it surely was. Besides the volunteers, friends, neighbours and family we also asked students to come to do their school practice assignment in our home based program. Later on we established a regular agreement with a local high school to get one student each year. It worked surprisingly good and the school was very satisfied with what the students learned with us. Students are often very flexible in learning new things, they are very energetic and good in doing difficult gymnastic excersises with Dejana. Our way of working with Dejana can be interesting model for many parents because it shows that they can build effective home program with people that are not therapeutic profesionals. A phisiotherapist can only evaluate child from time to time and make a new set of excercises. The rest can be doen by enthusiasts who do it with love and pleasure.
We learned much from each other in many aspects but Dejana was the happy one in this story. She enjoys her exercises through the sessions of play. She became very social and people oriented and she learned to like jokes. In the end it's her personal program. We are grateful to all team members who ever worked with us. We learned much from each other by exchanging our views. And we learned that people today can still be united around one special goal even if it seems that modern life is separating us from each other.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
