It is 8 a.m. Anielka, Eva and I are ready to continue our basic training course which runs for seven days 4 hours per day. Today, Friday, is the last morning of the course.
This morning we delve deep into the question as to what we expect from the acompañantes (mentors) regarding the residents of the home and their attitude towards the neighbourhood and neigbours. We also continue discussing ‘the importance of good communication’ and round up with an evaluation of how the participants have experienced the training course.
In the afternoon there is some practical work with the participants of the activities club. Anielka has no experience in working with people with intellectual disabilities.But she does have a five-year old son so she has some practical knowledge in bringing up children (pedagogics). And on Saturdays she studies at the University to become a secondary school teacher, so she has exposure to theoretical education topics. But she is new to having direct contact with people with autism or Down syndrome. Eva, on the other hand, has a lot of experience with children and young adults with intellectual disabilities, but she has never been a group leader which is her big challenge in her new job at our activities centre.
Evaluation
I ask Anielka how she experienced the activities group. She admits she was a bit nervous beforehand and did not quite know what to do and how to respond to the participants at first. But she is happy that she persevered, because her fear has now largely gone. She notices she has got it in her to make contact with the particpants and that she enjoyed the club! Talking about the topics that were discussed this week, she says that the communication topic has taught her that she has to express herself more if she is to avoid problems, while before the course she thought the best way to avoid problems was to not say anything. She also learned that sometimes you have to let go of your own ideas in order to look more objectively at what other people want or intend to say.
Autism
Eva, who just finished her first month as the leader of the activities club under my supervision, learned a lot from the themes. She now understands that in a group with many autistic people there have to be many individual moments of contact besides a few contact moments within a group. She also understands that a fixed structure is needed and that changes to the programme ought to be announced well in advance. These are important because people with intellectual disabilities do not have a a strong hold on their surroundings and are more chaotic. Eva learned to look at herself and how her attitude affects how the participants respond; and that she should not start from the plan in her head, but has to learn to see what are the needs of the particpants before they can start doing the planned activity.
Reflection
And what did I learn? I learned that I have to considerably adjust my teaching methods to the group of students in front of me. They are well-intentioned people, but lacking in specific and equivalent work experience. They are poor readers so they learn through practical exposure; theoretical explanation ought to be short and sweet to get it across. I need to admit that the week was hard and the work intense. I would have liked to have covered more material, but I hope that a good foundation was laid on which we can build in the forthcoming period, that the course contributed to forming a good team to prepare ourselves for providing shelter to new home mates.