By Katie Thompson (GECP Class of 2020)
This summer I had the opportunity to go to Belize with an organization called, Therapy Abroad. I chose this program because it offered hands on experience working alongside Speech and Language Pathologists (SLP’s) with students who lacked access to therapy. The country of Belize has only one Speech-Language Pathologist making it extremely difficult for children to receive services. Belize is divided into six districts and each district has many schools but only one of those schools has a special needs classroom. This classroom is often inaccessible for many students who would benefit from special education services.
During our trip we were immersed into the culture in a variety of ways. We ran a camp, Tykes Camp, in Belmopan, for students who needed speech and language services. We also observed the licensed SLP’s on our team perform evaluations and provide therapy sessions to specific students. We performed speech and language screenings, oral mechanism exams, and hearing screenings in schools, as well as, provided in-school and in-home evaluations for children.
Tykes camp consisted of various activities such as fine motor skills, story time, basic concepts, behavior regulation, gross motor skills, snack, play planning, pretend play, and cool down. During these activities the SLP’s would help us to provide therapy within the things we were doing. At camp we set goals, took observations, and wrote SOAP notes for our specific students that we were assigned. We would all take turns creating and running the activities for each of these stations. During camp I got to see the abundant joy these students had for learning, playing, and engaging with each other. I also got to witness the growth that students can have in a short amount of time.
The SLP’s on my team were incredible, they taught us more than any classroom ever could about providing therapy to students, especially while having access to very limited material. They taught deaf students sign language for everyday words, hand-drew communication boards for non-verbal students, and helped each of us out with our students so we could know the best ways to provide therapy. I was also able to learn how to make the most out of limited resources and use the things students already had and incorporate them into our lesson.
Having the opportunity to work with students in Belize allowed me to bring the knowledge I have learned at Michigan State University into real life situations. I was able to understand more about my future career working with students while also building confidence when trying new techniques. Getting to work with a student and provide therapy, in addition to, learning about a different culture, experiencing a different culture, and learning about the dialectal and impacts different cultures can have on communication, has broadened my understanding of working with students from culturally diverse backgrounds.
Learn more about the GECP Global Experience Requirement in the Global Educators Cohort Program D2L Community.