Yesterday, we spent the morning looking after the center's fourth group. This group is for people who are low functioning. There were four people (two were gone for the day) and their DSP was at a funeral.
Usually we advocate the individuals making their own choices. We get frustrated when people push "teaching/learning." We try only to help when they get stuck.
For example, one of the females (22 years old) is learning to take off her outerwear and place it in the closet. After two verbal prompts, we figured she needed more help. She gave us her hand and she walked the 7-8 steps to the closet with us. We tapped on the door handle and we asked her positively, but firmly to open the door. After about 8 minutes she'd managed to put away her things. We gave her a big hug! She smiled.
The room has one male (23 years old). He is sedentary, but is negotiating a learning process. He's trying to trust a stuffed bird. He picks it up and puts it down in an endless, but consistent pattern. There is another female (23 years old) with trust issues, but she accepted a pencil from us.
The individual who received the most attention is a female who is 36 year old and diapered. She was having a terrible time yesterday. Her verbal abilities include whimpering and crying out. Twice she tried to take our hand and lead us out of the room, but we redirected her.
By the third time, the other Q had gotten in to watch the others, so we let the individual lead us out of the room. It is unusual behavior for her to be interested in things outside the room. We went through one room, down the hall and back up again three times. She wanted to go in other rooms that had groups of people. Usually she stays to her self.
We figured she might be lonely and looking for the three missing people. She's upset with change.
After we tried to leave, she followed us down the hall to our office. I had sat down, but she grabbed our wrists and pulled us up. Then she put our hands on her shoulder and lead us back to her room. I felt very bad when the other Q took it upon herself to pry the individual’s fingers from their tight grasp on our wrist. It is fair to say, this group has an affect on us. Sometimes we cry.
2 comments:
(((ayn))) I have seen individuals who are like those you wrote about. They used to come into my work and one guy always insisted on shaking my hand because he likes people with dark hair, it was always sweet. But it was very apparent of their consistancy, patterns, etc. Like tapping, touching, etc. Just thought i'd share...
Thanks for sharing Tabby! Folks with mental retardation can warm hearts and set fires aglow. In general, their just gosh darn wonderful! Hehe, even the one's with problems are worthy of getting to know. Down hearted good people! They can teach a person many lessons of worth and self-worth! We're very, very grateful of being in their company and to be sharing their worlds.
Our love,
Ann
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