Mambo everyone! Today we went to gede school which is the biggest special needs school. I spent sometime in every class because the teachers went to my workshop and wanted me toi meet their students. There are about 13 classes. 3 CP classes and the rest are hearing impaired although most of th students are deaf. There is a huge deaf population due to infection in utero, during birth or with ear infections. These are preventable with medication that they do not have. Some of these children have other handicaps aswell such a developmental delay or CP. I brought the switches with the connected animal toys that did all kinds of things. The kids were amazed and laughed. Some of them were a little afraid at first.
I brought a little boom box and some music cds that jenny burnt from our preschool teachers. The CP classesloved it and we did the macarena and taught them the YMCA song and then we did a Congo line to the locomotion song. Imagine children with one leg or no legs or different types of CP doing a Congo line. What a beautiful sight! The deaf classes are leveled like a public school although if you are say 15 and just starting school you go to Kindergarten. Many od the deaf students are very bright and will go to secondary deaf school. In one deaf class we had a dance party They love to dance! No music, profoundly deaf they danced up a storm one at atime. They watch michael Jackson and imitate him to a T. They were terrific! I worked a lot with the teachers showing them how to manage many children ( 10 to 20) on many diifferent levels with no resources. They use rocks and bottle caps for counting. Very little paper or chalk although our group brought over quite a bit. Nice day IIm pooped. We get there about 8 and help until 4. As I am writing this there is asmall gecko walking on the ceiling. Luckily I am in the mosquito netting. Also I sleep with my spray bottle of listerine. Kills bugs on contact and freshens your breath. LOL nite
