15. Reflections for Lesson 6

Posted by: ppuppet09 on: July 21, 2009

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20 July 2009:

We reached Fei Yue quite early at 4pm plus today. Ms Tan came to observe today. HL and BJ went to greet her while BX and J went to Fei Yue and prepare first.

We have agreed that J will do the reflections for us, but the rest will give him the points for input. This means that the reflections on the blog are no longer individual reflections, but group reflections. Nevertheless, individual reflections will still be posted whenever necessary, or when one feels like it.

It was the 6th lesson, and we suppose the children are starting to climb over our heads. Ms Tan gave some very very valuable feedback, some of which we will list down below:

Important takeaways + feedback + points to note:

• ** Recognise and acknoledge what they say
  – congratulate on good actions
  – lead the wrong answer to the correct one
• Improve coordination
• Prepare name cards (for turn-taking)
• Etc…

LESSON 6 REFLECTIONS:

Today’s session actually left considerations on how to make sure the children over at the centre follows our instructions. The theme for today’s session was “Waiting for Your Turn”, so at the start we have presented to them a situation where the theme is relevant and hopefully got the message to the children. However, as the children were still fighting for their turns, I recalled the instances where the staff at the centre pointed to cards to get the children to sit down, keep quiet and so on. Hence, I was wondering if the same could be done for future sessions.

The next observation that was of concern to me was actually a boy coughing in our faces and laughing at such an idea. Relating to the current H1N1 pandemic, certainly something has to be done with regards to hygiene, which can also be considered a social skill as most people in a developed society like ours will tend to be conscious about hygiene. At the same time, having good hygiene practices is also a form of politeness which strikes a good impression on others and is helpful in maintaining good relationships.

I could feel the effect of setting a good example to the children. As pointed out by Miss Tan, when I showed the initiative of getting more puppets for the children, it was something that was picked up by the children, as seen when one of the children passed the telephone over to the one next in the queue after his turn was over and also when another of the children passed a puppet to a child who had been left out from the rest from quite some time so that the isolated child could get a chance to enjoy the ongoing activity.

Finally, I was quite glad that some of the children have begun to show signs of ability in considering others’ feelings. When the class was too noisy, children actually pointed out that we may be angry and leave the class. He may not have truly understand the thought processes that may be within us when we are angry, yet his ability to pinpoint what is highly possible at the appropriate situation is already something commendable. Such an occurrence may be reflective of how autistic children can be groomed to be eventually similar to any other ordinary children in their cognitive aspects.