 |
|
CBF volunteer Suzann Fenton works with a child at Angel House in China. Jay Paul photo
|
ATLANTA – When early interventionist and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship volunteer Suzann Fenton made her fourth trip to China in November 2006, she planned to spend most of her time assessing and encouraging teachers. But once again, Fenton found herself taking part in a miracle moment with a child.
Like many children with developmental delays, Lin, a 3-year-old with cerebral palsy, needed help mastering her gross and fine motor skills. To help Lin work up to the ability to feed herself, her Chinese teachers had begun working with her on techniques to grasp and maneuver a spoon.
One day, as Fenton was observing Lin’s therapy session, she saw that the spoon the teacher was using was too big for little Lin. As Fenton made her way to the small table where Lin was sitting, she called for more spoons to be brought. After choosing a smaller one, she turned her attention to the tin cup filled with porridge. "This cup is too high," said Fenton. "Bring me a shallow bowl."
With the proper tools in place, Fenton then prepared to practice the "hand over hand" technique with Lin, placing her own hand on top of the little girl’s. Before exerting any pressure, however, Fenton felt "the slightest little tug" from Lin.
"She was trying to work real slow, to pull the spoon toward her mouth," said Fenton. "I wanted her teacher to feel [her effort], and her mom. The next thing I knew, Lin could do the process by herself, putting the spoon to her mouth. She did it for 30 minutes. You don’t normally see something that dramatic happen that quickly – I’ve maybe seen that happen 10-15 times in my 19-year career. I got real emotional, real teary-eyed. When a child accomplishes a major outcome, it’s so exciting."
Lin is just one example of a child who has been helped by the Angel House Rehabilitation and Education Center’s Early Intervention Project, started in June 2005 for children with cerebral palsy in Guangxi. Providing teachers to go into the homes of children ages birth to 6 years, the initiative identifies disabilities, educates parents on typical and atypical development and instructs parents on how to stimulate their child’s problem-solving, self-help, emotional, social, language and motor skills early on to help them achieve their fullest potential.
Fenton, who has worked with the "Parents Are Teachers" program of the Christian Appalachian Project in Hagerhill, Lancaster and Mt. Vernon, Ky., since 1989, has played an instrumental role in the development of the Early Intervention project at Angel House. A member of Berea Baptist Church, Berea, Ky., she first felt the call to short term missions a few years ago. After getting in touch with the Fellowship volunteer office, she was introduced to Brenda Lisenby, a CBF representative in China, who knew of Angel House’s need for an early interventionist.
"[Lisenby] prayed for it, and God made it happen," said Fenton. "I never dreamed I’d have this opportunity."
Fenton visited Angel House in May 2005 to lay the groundwork for the project. Return visits in August 2005, February 2006 and November 2006 allowed Fenton to train teachers on conducting home visits, using assessment tools, writing progress reports, educating parents and working with children. According to Lisenby, much progress has been made at Angel House, thanks to Fenton’s efforts.
"The teachers are much more confident in their abilities to relate to parents and to provide the intervention services to the children," Lisenby said. "The children have all made progress: some have made very obvious gains, like being able to walk – for others, the progress has been in cognitive or speech domains.
"The parents are slowly beginning to realize how important they are to their children’s development. In general, the parents want to hand over their child to the experts to ‘cure.’ But they are learning how to be actively and effectively engaged in their children’s development. This is a major milestone for parents."
While Angel House provides parent training and support seminars on an ongoing basis, and has reached approximately 200 people over the past two years in this way, the residential treatment facility can only handle about 15 children at a time. Because there are few opportunities for parents to receive special needs assistance in China, the need is great for additional facilities such as Angel House, as well as for certified speech, occupational, developmental and physical therapists.
"Angel Hou