Day 3

Today was really productive. I started the morning off by working in the pre-school classroom. There are five kids in this room: Victor, Jose Andres, Francisco, Josuan, and Ever, who are just about the cutest things in the entire world. Victor didn't leave my side almost the whole time, which was adorable. We colored together, and I tried to teach him the names of the colors in Spanish. I also worked with Ever (who is incredibly smart even with his autism) on numbers and the alphabet. When he was able to say all of the numbers up to ten, we started working on letters. They were a lot more challenging for him. I figured out that he would only say the letter when I wrote it with the crayon that he gave to me. I’d write the letters several times and then say them so that he could imitate me, and eventually he would say "A" and "B"! He disengaged after "B", but it was unbelievably rewarding to continuously try to get him to say something and then finally get him to say it.

I payed a lot of attention to Josuan, who has cerebral palsy and needs to strengthen the muscles in his hands and arms. I gave him some clay at first, but he wouldn't hold on to it, so I tried holding his hand and prompting him to squeeze back. This was also one of those situations when you have to repeatedly try to get the child to do what you ask them to, but I eventually got one definite squeeze from him before we switched classrooms, which warmed my heart because it mean progress.

After lunch, I worked with a boy (appropriately) named Darwin. Darwin also has cerebral palsy, but he is incredibly smart. In class, he is currently doing what the rest of his classmates can do, but if his teacher pushed him and he had more resources, he could do so much more. Today I worked on addition and subtraction with him. His teacher said that he didn't know how to do either form of math, but Sarah told me that he's done it with her before, and I decided to try it. Through our translator, Zach, I did simple addition and subtraction with him and he picked it up straight away. The huge smile that spread across his face when we congratulated him was easily my favorite part of the day. 

Darwin is an example of most of the kids at Escuela Especial. They all have so much potential, and only lack resources and the individual tutoring that we have in the states. I see in Darwin what I saw in Tanya, Ever, and all the other children at this school. I am honored to be able to be teaching and interacting with these kids, and it makes me so excited to think about what they could be in the world if we give them enough help and love.

Tomorrow is another day, and I intend to do all that I can to help these kids!