Preparation + First Visit (June)
Before the visit to the SPARK, there were many preparations we done before hand so that we can actually expand upon their social and life skills and hopefully keep them engaged. The preparation process was quite tedious and we racked our brains for activities that we believe will be able to benefit them. We acted according to some of the suggestions by SPARK like some art and craft and magic tricks so as to keep them occupied and interested. Following this train of thoughts, we went to find out some magic tricks performance and practiced them before we went over. Besides, we also managed to find out some of the more popular indoor games, so as to engage them. In addition, we brought along an origami book, in hope to guide them with some paper- folding.
Despite our efforts in the preparation process, things did not manage to turn out as well as expected. Some of the activities that we planned out were deemed as “boring” by them and despite the variety of items that we planned for them, they could not sit long for any of these activities. Their hyperactivity rendered them to prefer activities that involved “running” to the more hands on and practical items that we had planned. As such, we in fact abandoned some of the ideas that we initially had, like conducting some simple experiments, and played along with some of the games that they wanted to play like the common childhood game, “Police and Thief” and “Hide-and-Seek”. Besides their “rejection” of our ideas, one of them suggested that we play “monopoly” which came very unprecedented and therefore we could only promise them we bring the following session.
From this, I realized that adaptability to situations is very critical in this case; as there were times we actually tried to persuade and convince them to sit along our planned activity as we were kind of ignored by them. (in the sense that they ran off as they were starting on the activity) I understood that patience was also very important when “dealing with” these kids as their mentalities and thinking change very rapidly such that an ordered and structured “timetable” to follow will not exactly help in these cases. Besides, I found out that their attention span is really very low and we had to be patient when communicating with them.
This visit opened my view on ADHD kids as physically they look just like any other kid. There are actually two categories of kids, one of which is the hyperactive ones while the other group consists of mainly introverts who rarely talks. For both groups, we had difficulties when communicating with them. For the hyperactive group, we had some problems to keep them seated and stuff as they are mostly running around and jumping here but communication wise was still pretty alright. Thus, we could actually mix with and get along quite well with this group. However, the introvert group as they do not speak up and stuff, there was limited communication and engagement with them as they will normally sit in a particular corner and do their own things. (something like isolating themselves from the rest) Despite so, we could get them to follow our instructions and carry out some of the activities quite successfully. There was an incident in which there was one kid who knew the steps to folding a “paper hat” but still went through the whole process with me, which impressed me a lot. It is interesting to note that in the process of leading the “introverts” in origami and some other activities, the “bubbly” and hyperactive kids actually came over and sat down with them to engage in the activities that are on-going.
Jun Xin
Despite our efforts in the preparation process, things did not manage to turn out as well as expected. Some of the activities that we planned out were deemed as “boring” by them and despite the variety of items that we planned for them, they could not sit long for any of these activities. Their hyperactivity rendered them to prefer activities that involved “running” to the more hands on and practical items that we had planned. As such, we in fact abandoned some of the ideas that we initially had, like conducting some simple experiments, and played along with some of the games that they wanted to play like the common childhood game, “Police and Thief” and “Hide-and-Seek”. Besides their “rejection” of our ideas, one of them suggested that we play “monopoly” which came very unprecedented and therefore we could only promise them we bring the following session.
From this, I realized that adaptability to situations is very critical in this case; as there were times we actually tried to persuade and convince them to sit along our planned activity as we were kind of ignored by them. (in the sense that they ran off as they were starting on the activity) I understood that patience was also very important when “dealing with” these kids as their mentalities and thinking change very rapidly such that an ordered and structured “timetable” to follow will not exactly help in these cases. Besides, I found out that their attention span is really very low and we had to be patient when communicating with them.
This visit opened my view on ADHD kids as physically they look just like any other kid. There are actually two categories of kids, one of which is the hyperactive ones while the other group consists of mainly introverts who rarely talks. For both groups, we had difficulties when communicating with them. For the hyperactive group, we had some problems to keep them seated and stuff as they are mostly running around and jumping here but communication wise was still pretty alright. Thus, we could actually mix with and get along quite well with this group. However, the introvert group as they do not speak up and stuff, there was limited communication and engagement with them as they will normally sit in a particular corner and do their own things. (something like isolating themselves from the rest) Despite so, we could get them to follow our instructions and carry out some of the activities quite successfully. There was an incident in which there was one kid who knew the steps to folding a “paper hat” but still went through the whole process with me, which impressed me a lot. It is interesting to note that in the process of leading the “introverts” in origami and some other activities, the “bubbly” and hyperactive kids actually came over and sat down with them to engage in the activities that are on-going.
Jun Xin
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