CAPES! Day 1

B was a blast. He is so optimistic and so cheerful and gets so excited about everything that we did. I was perplexed as to what to do with him because his mom asked him not to get out of the wheelchair because he has recently had hip surgery. I was planning on having him get out of is wheelchair and see if he could play with the fine motor skills objects and see how well he could stand (if at all) and how well he could move his  body in general but we were not able to do that very much. So I was challenged to find things to do but honestly B just feeds off excitement from anyone. If I sounded excited about an activity he would get excited. If he sounded excited about an activity and I got excited about it, his excitement would multiply. He was super friendly and outgoing and excited to show me what he was capable of doing in his wheelchair. His mom was super fun and friendly but his dad was a tad on the grumpy side. So I feel a bit of pressure from his dad.
The pool was awesome... B was FEARLESS, maybe a little too  much. He had a hard time following directions in the pool, he just wanted to do his own thing so getting him to focus on skill development will be my other challenge.
Overall the night was great. I LOVE B. He is super adorable and I really enjoyed meeting him and getting to know him. It will be interesting to see what we can work on together.

reflection --!st Gym CAPES

 

K was lovely! Although it was the first time for both of us, I felt our conversations were carried on easily. She told me she played basketball after school, so I thought it might be a comfortable zone to start with. We spent some time at station 5, where the basketball hoop was located. K could dribble the ball nicely with one hand while drive her wheel chair with the other hand. I was impressed by her skill! She also said she has been practicing basketball for a while. I put this information in my note, and thought we might do basketball as our warm-up activity next time.

 She was open and friendly. During our breaks, I asked her about what her favorite subject was at school, and she told me she liked all the classes. She said she enjoyed going to school, and her dream was to go see different places and things. “I am not like some kids who sit in the wheelchair and don’t want to do anything” she said, I was amazed by how openly she talked about the situation she was in.

So, I determined that a more challenging task would be a fun activity for her. In order to see her balance and fine motor skills, I lay down forms, stones, and rocks on the ground to construct a path. In between, I put some stacks of cups for her to manipulate. I asked if she was comfortable to get off her wheelchair and move through the path and finish her task. K got off the wheelchair by herself, and she did a fabulous job. It was not so easy for her, but she showed great strength in finishing her goal.

Practicing balancing skills and sorting out patterns will be our focuses in next CAPES.

CAPES Day 1

Wow! What an experience! I was pretty nervous when I first showed up. Because it was the first night, and we didn't have a lesson plan to go off, I wasn't really sure if I would be able to find enough to do with B. Then we went out to meet the kids and I'm pretty sure I didn't stop smiling because of how awesome all these kids were. I would have been more than thrilled to be paired with any of them.

When I first met B, I knew we would have a great time. He was so energetic and just ready to have some fun. His parents were awesome and all about just letting B and I go out and have fun. After that I felt much more confident and a lot more at ease. We did land-based activities first, so I started by just trying to get to know him a little by asking what grade he's in, what his favorite part of school is and other things. He was pretty easy to talk to and it helped me kind of figure out which things he would like most. I found that he loves to build and run. Then when we went to the pool, I found that he loves going under the water, and diving for the hoops was his favorite part.

Although this first night wasn't very structured, which made me nervous at first, it really helped a lot in finding the areas that should be focused on while hanging out with B. He's very capable in all the physical activities, but I found that I want to focus more on social interactions and following directions. He seems to be a very intelligent child, and I want to try and help him become a little more comfortable interacting with other children as well as help him become better at focusing on instructions.

Tonight was a blast! I look forward to seeing B. and all the other great kids next week!