{a therapist's nightmare}

while i was away a few weeks ago, one of the children had some sort of episode where her foster mom said she "turned blue". she was taken to the hospital for a work-up, but from what i've gathered nothing concrete was determined. the only thing they said was to return to the hospital for "therapy" twice a week.

yesterday i was asked if could take her, as there was a shortage in nannies. sure, i thought; not only do i want to help out whenever i can, but i'm also always up for seeing what "therapy" looks like in this country.

the first 30 minutes involved a "therapist" repeating this set routine of movements (3-4 times thru) to jennifer. it consisted of a lot of quick passive range of motion exercises to arms, legs and neck, pulling and pushing on her extremities, vigorous and firm deep tissue massage(?), putting her in positions (e.g. prone on extended arms) and holding her there for minutes at a time, and doing a few pull-to-sits and facilitating her rolling from back to belly (but done so quickly there was no chance for her to engage her muscles). 

oh, and the last 30 minutes consisted of them putting electrodes on each of her shoulders/upper arms and hooking her up to some form of electrical stimulation while i held her.

UGH! i wanted to scream. and jennifer, she did cry and/or scream for probably all but 1-2 minutes of the entire hour, along with every other child that i observed while i was there. (sometimes kids do cry during therapy, but this was different and wrong on so many levels; i'd actually hypothesize this "therapy" may be detrimental to their development.)

the therapist never once engaged jennifer or even spoke to her for that matter. there were no toys. and probably <5 minutes (giving them the benefit of the doubt) of the hour was spent doing anything remotely related to her learning to use her muscles for something purposeful/playful/developmental.

and the most scary part... jennifer's limitations (she does have delayed motor skills) matched nothing that was addressed during this "therapy" session. for example, her range of motion is perfectly within normal ranges. but this cookie cutter "routine" was performed on every child that came in, regardless of the therapist and regardless of the child's diagnosis. 

needless to say, i tried to dialogue with the therapists but my language skills weren't proficient enough. :(  i'm sure all they're thinking is there is no way this lady is really a physical therapist in america.  

i informed the orphanage yesterday that i would not take her back there. if they wanted to, they could, but this was not something i would do for them. (and i explained why, in my professional opinion, it was less than ideal...but that i'd gladly keep doing physical therapy with her while i'm at the orphanage.)  

  

jennifer gave me this smile during our therapy session today!