By Dr. Tara Hubbard-McCormick, OTD, OTR/L, Trip Participant
All God’s Children Intl. and G.O.T. Orphans teamed up last September to provide occupational therapy services and training to the staff at two orphanages, New Day Foster Care Homes and Harmony House, located just outside of Beijing, China. Both homes care for infants and children with special needs. The staff provides amazing care and love to these children and were an absolute blessing to work with during this week of training. It was clear that they not only provide wonderful care, but are also very dedicated to provide these children with therapeutic activities and environments in which they will continue to grow and develop their motor, cognitive, and emotional skills.
Unlike many orphanages, New Day Foster Care Home had a full therapy room with a suspension system, a few swings, mats, therapy balls, and a climbing ladder. This home was staffed with therapists, doctors, and nurses that were eager to learn new methods and techniques of therapy, as they have limited professional therapy training in China.
Therapists in China receive three years of training in physical therapy, speech therapy, and occupational therapy skills; in the U.S., one typically obtains a degree in just one area of therapy and may focus on these studies for up to four to six years. The staff at New Day had modern equipment, but had not used it regularly because they lacked the training to feel adequate in its use. To see the enthusiasm of the therapist along with the children who were receiving a whole new type of therapy was unbelievable, and words cannot express the gratitude they all showed through their laughter, smiling, and singing.
Harmony House, although more limited in their resources, also provided an abundance of love and care to their children. Due to the lack of funds, they had no therapy equipment, no therapist on staff, and few (if any) splints, braces, and orthotics for these children. However, what they lacked in resources, they made up for in their enthusiasm and excitement with the occupational therapy training that was provided to the “house moms” or nannies.
The therapy training at Harmony House was tailored to the home’s needs, which mainly consisted of teaching positioning, range of motion, and developmental skills (i.e. rolling, sitting, reaching, grasping, crawling, standing, and walking) with the resources and staff they did have. Training in self-care skills (such as adaptive feeding techniques, dressing, toileting strategies and routines) was also provided.
In both these homes, many children had cleft palate and cleft lip deformities. Therefore, training was provided on adaptive feeding techniques for infants, desensitization, stretching, and strengthening exercises of the oral motor cavity for the children after the surgical repair of their cleft palate and/or lip.
On a personal note, having been on several trips now, this country and its people had a profound effect on me and my gratitude for my life, my freedom to choose my husband and have my five children on my own, and my ability to learn and grow in a profession of my choice.
I thank God for having planted this gift to work with children in my colleagues, as well as in myself, because it is such a great gift to hear children’s laughter, see their beautiful smiles, and see their inner personalities shine through.
There is a song by JJ Heller titled, “What Love Really Means.” The beginning lyrics of this song sound a bit sad and lonely, but at the end of this song you hear the lyrics that God speaks to all these children, every day of their lives: “I will love you for you. Not for what you have done or what you will become. I will love you for you. I will give you the love, the love that you never knew.”
I know these kids are loved by their caregivers, and hopefully by the grace of God, these children will all have someone they can call parents again.
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