Final Reflection

After a few weeks of working with BE I realized his most important skill development was going to be fine motor skills. So, I spent the last 4 weeks working on those. I came up with a lot of different activities and ideas to try to work on them. Then in the pool, my main goal with working with both L and BE was just to be able to get them comfortable to be unassisted in the water. BE was much further ahead of L in that regard because of L fear of water, but I worked really hard just getting BE to be able to float on his own. Not that he might need that skill in a life and death situation, but maybe its a step in the right direction. He made a lot of improvements in his ability to float unassisted. L was a little more difficult, because I had to just get him to get his head under the water. I saw SO MUCH progress in that over the 4-5 weeks I worked with him in the pool. At first he would scream and cling when we would go under. Then he stopped the screaming and just stuck with the clinging. Slowly we worked on him not clinging to me but plugging his nose, and last week I got him away from me and he was no longer clinging, and I got him floating on his back without clinging to me. L made LEAPS AND BOUNDS in the pool. He worked REALLY hard to be brave and do things that made him super anxious. So I am super proud of his progression in the water.

As far as saying goodbye, I knew that I would have more time with each of the children, whether that be next week at the party or next semester as I plan to be here working with them again. But saying goodbye was still tough. Saying goodbye to BE because he might not be there next week was the most difficult. He is just a sweetie and he is so optimistic and has such a great personality. I think that is why it was difficult. He was not my challenge student. He was pretty easy to think of things to do with, and he was so easy going about everything that I didn't have to worry that he wouldn't like something that we had planned. L was definitely my challenge, but I only really worked with him in the pool. And if that would have been goodbye forever it would have been super hard on me, but I already know I will see him again, as he is inviting me to some future events that he has and his parents would like me to keep working with him in the pool over the summer.

CAPES! has been a positive experience and I really love what I am doing. It has confirmed that this is what I want to do with my life.