New Beginnings in Negril
There are certain individuals in this world who have an entire universe in their minds. A universe others try to demystify and learn from in awe. Sandy Dorsey, the founder of Smiles for Speech is one of those minds. Her mind is relentless in striving to achieve the goals she has set out for creating a better future. Artist LL Cool J recently interviewed and stated “ You were here to make the world better.” All positive messages resonate with Sandy as she lives by this day in and day out. She is fearless when moving forward to see her dreams come to light.
I had the opportunity to live just a small fraction of this worldwide vision and was quickly reminded of the reward and accomplishment one experiences to be able to provide a helping hand. I was invited to join her venture to Negril, Jamaica to provide insight, from an Occupational Therapist perspective, at a relatively new integrated school. Savanna-La-Mar inclusive Infant Academy (SIIA) was constructed purposefully to service children with special needs in an inclusive environment with the help of the Rockhouse Foundation.
We entered a beautiful and colorful school to children singing guided by their teachers. Several children greeted us with hugs and smiles and the school staff was transparent in their love for the children. There was a strong sense of unity as they had lived the opening of the school together with their hearts fully into creating a safe haven for these students.
The staff was receptive to therapeutic recommendations despite the very little time our team was able to observe, work with, and consult regarding a child’s specific individual needs. The school is blessed with a phenomenal speech-language pathologist- and person, who is unfortunately only able to treat and evaluate two days in the week. She travels 4 hours from Kingston, Jamaica. “I just blink, and the day is over” she states regarding her time at the school. Then she is back on the road home for another 4 hours.
At the very least, time was spent providing a general scope of a sensory integration-based approach and discussing modifications for safe seating. Reference and discussion regarding certain individuals with special needs with this approach assisted to generate realistic examples and techniques to start applying in the classrooms. Further, our team donated several sensory tools and educated staff on various uses for items.
There is a feeling that you need to do more, as you attempt to communicate years of knowledge within a short time frame and insufficient resources. You are hearing the needs of each child from parents and teachers, all of whom are seeking the best for their children. You know that each individual child requires a tailored plan of care. Although we merely scratched the surface, this elicited a great desire to help this school and others to help children with special needs reach their full potential. We are excited that we have started somewhere.
Individuals with cerebral palsy would highly benefit from expert seating and other modified augmentative communication devices. Physically positioning one particular young girl with cerebral palsy at eye level to her peers generated a magnetic approach towards her and excitement from the child who was very clear she wanted to stay standing. This young girl was sassy. She always wanted to engage in playful activities and communicated with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ nodding when asked a question.
It is a pleasure to work with speech-language pathologists from Smiles for Speech that have the right idea and are on the road to helping many children with these challenges. I look forward to more opportunities to come. You are helping to make the world a better place.
