A Bethany Teacher's Story
My primary responsibility is to provide educational programs and support to children. I facilitate an early learning group here on site at Bethany one morning a week. This is a structured group where the children have the opportunity to learn skills such as following routines, sharing, turn taking and socialising with their peers. During group we have activities which help the children practise and refine their skills.
The children have craft activities such as painting, cutting and pasting. We use manipulative toys such as puzzles and construction to develop fine motor skills. We have a group time when the children come together for music and story, we share "little lunch" and have some time outside to practise gross motor skills.
A Bethany child can also attend a mainstream child care centre. It is my job to visit them in this setting and liaise with the staff so that the child gets the most benefit from being there. Often it is as simple as modifying an activity so the child with additional needs can join in with their friends.
I organise meetings with parents and other therapists and professionals who work with the family to make sure we are all working to get best results for the child. We all find we become "counsellors" of sorts when the parents and sometimes the childcare staff just need someone to talk to or some ideas on how they can help their child improve their skills. Sometimes just saying "your doing a good job," can make such a difference to the parents or child care staff 's day.
As I said no two days are the same!