Workshop Week - Part Two



(Most of) Our Group

 February 8-11 - this is it - the 4-day training on Augmentative and Alternative Communication for people who don't speak, with little bit of assistive "technology" thrown in to boot. The training was held at APDK (Association for the Physically Disabled in Kenya) Bombolulu. The site is lovely - a cultural center, craft workshops, day care, classrooms, housing, open restaurant, large, very reasonably priced gift shop - really a small "village."

Dorothy and Wellington, an Assessment Teacher* from Vihiga district (a 15+hour bus ride west) picked me up in a tuk-tuk at 7:30 that first morning and after 8 for the rest of the week. Wellington and the OT from Vihiga Hospital couldn't claim the longest ride, though. That distinction belongs to Martin, OT, and Simeon, Assessment Teacher, from Mumias, often a 20 hour bus ride.

It was really a mixed group of people -  classroom teachers (the largest group), Assessment Teachers, Occupational Therapists, a Physical Therapist, some CBR (Community Based Rehab) workers, several Speech Therapists (2 are long-term volunteers) and a student who would like to train to become a Speech Therapy Assistant.

People were so eager to learn and it was wonderful watching the light bulbs go off for some of them - some by the first afternoon, others not till the third day - you could see and hear it happening. Some people had such perceptive observations, although because of the size of the group most of those had to be encouraged to share them. They were most animated when they were in groups planning and evaluating solutions for different scenarios, and or their particular child (they had been asked to have a case study in mind).  They would argue passionately for (and sometimes against) selecting certain messages or visuals, trying to balance their desire for quantity with picture size, space available and the needs and abilities of the child.


What could we do to make this picture display better?


Everyone created a communication visual or board using materials I had brought to take for their particular child. That seemed to be one of the favorite activities, although they were also very engaged when I gave each group a child with a specific disability, a prepared set of visuals and asked them to come up with reasons the visual display would not be good match for the child and what could be done to "fix" it, to make it work for that child.


Selecting images for their projects was a big hit.



Through the magic of pulling names out of an empty backpack (no hats were available), some people were fortunate enough to take home a low-tech voice output device (Thanks again to Central Coast Children's Foundation, Sydspeak, and Ablenet!). Everyone got an assortment of handouts; most were guidelines/checklists for when they are ready to plan their next visual display. Judging from the evaluation comments, people felt they had learned a great deal of helpful information and would like to see follow-up presentations on AAC. 



*Assessment teachers are first trained as teachers, then get training in special education, then go back for additional training in assessment of various types of disabilities. The country is divided into districts, with each district operating its own Educational Assessment Resource Center (EARC).