Day 7

Today was a very busy but productive day! I began the day at the Primary school. I was able to observe the morning assembly/ devotion; the whole school sang Belize's national anthem (which was very long!). Next, I had the opportunity to speak to Ms. Addie, who is the Principal. She provided me with some background of some of the students with disabilities at the school and the types of supports and interventions that have been put into place. She relayed a concern that many of the classroom teachers have had very little or no special education training and therefore have difficulty providing instruction for the students with special needs. She said that teachers who have student concerns and want to refer them have to get parent permission and input and they have been unable to obtain this as many parents are defensive regarding this issue. We then spoke about the professional development that I will be providing tomorrow and she was enthusiastic about everything and said that the teachers (and her) would be grateful and excited for any information and strategies that I can provide. Next, I worked with an Infant I student and her mother; the student has Cerebral Palsy and is nonverbal and mom has reported that she has good receptive skills (can understand others- in both English and Spanish!) but does not have a way to communicate her wants or needs. Her mom brought in her personal iPad and I found an AAC app that has many categories of pictures that she can push and it produces a voice output so that she can tell what she wants/ needs. Following this, I had the opportunity to have a conversation with her mom, which was really enlightening and disheartening. She shared stories about traveling to Mexico (6 hours by bus) to see a pediatric neurologist for her seizures. There is currently no speech therapist in the country but one is supposed to be starting at the Inspiration center in Belize City within the next few weeks. She also shared of some challenges with accessing Physical and Occupational Therapy; she finally was able to receive PT for her daughter and they taught her to walk but there is still no OT offered. Mom also said that her daughter currently has no official educational diagnosis/identification of a disability; someone informally screened her in preschool but that was the last time.

Next, I visited the Ministry of Education office in San Pedro. She shared that at the beginning of every school year, she sends the referral form (for referring students with learning/behavior challenges) to Principals but that some schools use it and many don't. While she did not give me much other information regarding the referral-identification process, she did name many students that she wants me to observe then give recommendations/ strategies to the teachers/Principal. Following this meeting, I had a nice lunch at the beach Dr. Catapano and Dr. Parker, the conch ceviche was delicious! Next, I went to the San Pedro Roman Catholic School (Comprehensive school, government run) where I met with the Principal; they have a set of twins with speech impairments and learning challenges. They have begun the referral process for both of these boys; the family (sister) filled out a personal developmental history form for each of them and the classroom teacher completed an observation. The forms will next be sent to the Ministry of Education; the next steps are supposed to include classroom observations and assessments and I will be very interested to see if or when these steps occur. The principal shared that she has plans to provide professional development/ training to all classroom teachers in special education and that she is looking to create/ fill a position for a special education teacher. She said that while most students with special needs are able to remain in the classroom with support, there are a group of students who would benefit from a smaller, separate classroom, which is what the EC teacher would do. I observed each of the boys in their classrooms- they were very disengaged, fidgeting and did not complete the tasks at hand. When I pulled each one out individually for a few minutes, I found that in addition to being able to understand approximately 60% of their speech, they did exhibit learning challenges- they are 7 and neither could count to 30, identify letters or sounds or recognizing rhymes. They were able to write their names but could not tell me the names of the letters. Both of these boys are in need of speech and educational services.

After the busy day, I journeyed back to the hotel then to the Caribbean Villas nearby where I finally had the chance to enjoy the beach! The water was beautiful and it was great to relax for a while. When I returned, I sat by the pool for a little while talking with the undergrad student teachers and discussing some ideas for the school. Finally, I ventured into town with a grad student, where we found some really great "street food"! We both tried the shrimp burger (basically anything on a roll is considered a burger) with some special sauces, and it was amazing! It has been a long but busy and productive day! Tomorrow I will be providing the professional development to all of the teachers and Principal followed by more observations of students!