Neal- Guidance Center- Day One

On the first day of volunteering at the guidance center, we started the day by preparing our own lunches. Yet, once we got to the guidance center which was 3 minutes away, they had breakfast ready for us. One recurring theme that I noticed through out the trip was how people were so generous to feed us for our good service. We were met in a office board-room by two of the directors of the program and our event coordinator (Jillian).  They explained that the organization has been around for 50 years and that it has been helping children in the suburbs of Detroit in a multitude of ways through various programs. Through the course of the break, we were able to see several of these programs in action. The first program we took part in the developmental disabilities program. We were given three options for tasks which were cleaning a play room, photocopying and filing. I chose cleaning because I believe it had the best direct impact for the children using the center.  When we started the task we were told to clean every toy individually because some of the children drool on the toys and put them in their mouths. I cleaned through several boxes of toys. I also cleaned a book shelf and moved the books out of the play room and into the waiting room because some of the children would damage the books. Over the course of the day, I got to sit in on three different therapy sessions. The first session was a occupational therapy session for this young autistic child named Lucas. He had a 1 on 1 session with a occupational therapist, I saw her help him learn how to tie his shoes, brush his teeth, and spread nutella on his cracker. She also had him do stretches, and core building activities. I noticed that Lucas had a mario shit and talked to him about some games, I played as a kid. His therapist told me that she doesn't like encouraging him with video games because he needs to focus on more outside play with others. It reminded me of my childhood where I used to play video games a lot, but I think that he shouldn't be discouraged with video games like Mario that have actually been proven to improve spatial reasoning and problem solving skills. Yet, I understand her stance that he does need to experience more physical activity. I also got to experience a speech therapy session which was a one on one session, between a 3 or 4 year old named Matteo and his Speech therapist, Alex. She played games with him and had him play games and have him recognize objects and tell her what they were. One of the games was where we would fill up balloons and he would tell us when to stop and then he would tell us to let it go and we would let the air out of the balloon which would make him really happy. Alex said she would play games like that to teach him how to interact with others, as he had some social issues like not being able to differentiate between he and she. I spent a while discussing with alex my career plans and she told me I should sit in on a session that was going in the other room, where they had a 12 year old kid run a obstacle course to improve his coordination. I wish i had more time to talk to him because I am planning on being a psychologist who would focus on working with teens and young adults. We had to leave shortly after that I wish we had more time because there still was a lot more to clean. I enjoyed the day and greatly appreciated that I was able to sit on actual therapy sessions. It was a good start to the week.