The first time I came to China in 2011, I remember thinking
of myself as a grain of sand that would eventually find my way to Fuling where
I’d help a few orphans in an orphanage. China
was so big! How could one person in the
largest populated country on our planet be anything else? What I didn’t know and could not have
imagined was how that grain of sand, together with others, would create a
ripple effect that would reach well beyond the Chongqing province. And, so it was … just days before leaving
Portland, I received an urgent email from my contact at Nanjing Normal University
of Special Education. Would we be
willing to adjust our plans to visit a school in Suzhou? The principal had heard American experts were
coming and wanted us to visit. The
school was a partner school with the university. I looked up the school on the Internet along
with a Wikipedia entry on Suzhou to decide that this would be worthwhile.
The school and rehabilitation facility was amazing! The director/principal, Dr. Liang Bing (not
sure which is the first name and which is the last – the Chinese write the
family name first followed by the given name and when introducing each other or
referring to each other, say the surname followed by the given name), is a
rehabilitation doctor who worked in orphanages for 18 years. Then she retired with a vision to do
something different and better. Perhaps,
if there were a school for children with disabilities and support for parents,
they would keep their child and not abandon them. She raised the money, built the school, and
put her vision into reality! The last
time I had this kind of goose-bump, teary-eyed reaction to seeing children in a
school, it was 1995 and I was in a reverse integration kindergarten in Slovakia
seeing the most progressive thinking possible at the time. We got a good laugh when in telling us that
she was really old discovered I was older!
Good thing I know my Chinese astrological sign. I’m an ox, she -- a tiger.
One of the innovative
therapies she uses at the school is hippotherapy, that is, equine-assisted
therapy. She researched the best horse
to get and ended up with a Mongolian breed – sturdy, but gentle. The man in charge of the horse is a former
student, now staff – a person with a disability and a job! The horse – a member of her staff as
well!
There was a sand room, where children could play in the sand
or receive some tactile therapy. There
was a pool and several students were in the pool with instructors. Parents and/or grandparents were often with
their children learning how to use the therapeutic techniques at home. We were blown away! We went in one room and ended up doing the
song, Head, shoulder, knees, and toes,
with actions much to the delight of the students. We sang in English, they in Chinese; but the
actions are universal! Evidently, I
haven’t lost my mojo. There’s always a
student who will get close to me. I felt
a light touch from one of the students.
Later, the biggest young man with autism I’ve every seen came up and
gently put his body against mine -- the equivalent of a "hug."
Later, when we met with the staff, I was telling them how
important it is to check in with the family and adjust your instruction to
coincide with what the family does. When
I do this with my students, I use tooth brushing as an example. Turns out the range of tooth brushing
behaviors varies just as much in China as they do in the US. There are those who wet the toothbrush before
putting on the toothpaste, wet after, do both, don’t wet at all, put the
toothbrush under running water, and, unique to China, dunk their toothbrush in
a glass or bottle of safe water.
We had such a wonderful visit. Nanjing sent an interpreter for us who also
escorted us to Nanjing when we were finished.
Liang Bing kept apologizing for her English, which got better as the day
went on! Since my Chinese is limited to
about 20 some words, I thought she was doing an awesome job! Our interpreter is a psychology
professor. Almost all of the current
staff were her former students, so it was a good connection all around.
How in the world in 5 years did I go from one orphanage to
meeting this wonderful lady and seeing this school? Simply amazing!
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