MINDS Local Project Reflection by leia leong

Reflection Pointers by Mr Kishan

leiaytleong — 2023-12-22 08:28:03 UTC

1. Was this a success?

2. How did this feel compared to Friendship Village- did you feel that they were more active/comfortable? If so, why? What’re the differences?

3. Were there students who were disengaged? What do we do then?

4. Do they understand instructions? Do they know what a “sash” is? How do convey “DO” and “DO NOT”? How to convey “Do not”?

5. How do you deal with clingy students if you do not enjoy physical touch/value personal space?

6. Caretaker fatigue - you only do this for 2 hours. What about the teachers - 730am to 630pm? What about the parents?

7. Energy level during games can be higher? Is it important?

8. Attention span is a skill - we shouldn’t just let them do what they want because they are distracted

9. Difference in maturity and EQ levels for the kids. One boy doesn’t go all out when chasing cos he know how the game works

Qn 1

leiaytleong — 2023-12-23 12:07:43 UTC

Comparing friendship village and the befriending session on Friday, were there any differences based on the students’ behaviour? How did you handle the situation then?

e.g. clingy, being more active
e.g. reject them politely

Qn 3

leiaytleong — 2023-12-23 12:10:36 UTC

How do you define the befriending session as a success?

their facial expressions/ attitude
understanding instructions (conveying do’s and don’ts)

Qn 4

leiaytleong — 2023-12-23 12:11:37 UTC

Rate your energy level during the games. Do you think it’s important for one’s energy level to be higher?

scale: 1= no energy🥱, 5= super hyped🤪

Qn 5

leiaytleong — 2023-12-23 12:12:09 UTC

Step into the caretakers’ and parents’ shoes. The caregivers take care of the kids for about 11h. The parents patiently put up with their kids’ emotional upheaval. Do you think they face caretaker fatigue?

Qn 2

leiaytleong — 2023-12-24 05:16:46 UTC

Imagine you encounter disengaged/ distracted students at MINDs centre, do you think we should let them do what they want?

jillian 🦄

2023-12-28 08:21:42 UTC

1. I felt that there was an obviously difference in their discipline and how specialised each student was in the activities.
Discipline wise, students in MINDs definitely had their boundaries between us and wasn’t as touch as those in friendship village.
Skills wise, I felt that the students in MINDs were more active and playful (They act like a normal kid) like they enjoy physical games etc. However, those in friendships village are more specialised in the activities they do and is more independent.
I feel that in both places i handled them in similar ways like, I didn’t really set a “boundary” but instead I went in, in both place knowing that I’m here to serve but not just for the sake of it but i genuinely wanted to build a connection with at least 1 student and I wanted them to remember me in any way possible.

2. Like Mr kishan said, we can’t just let them freely do anything because then they’ll have that mindset that “Oh, I can do what I want and it doesn’t matter.” Which i agree that despite them being distract we have to make sure they listen one way or another because in reality despite them being special we can’t just give the that benefit of doing what they want because of their condition. This is because we have to prep are them when they join society. So even these little things will affect how they’ll act in the future

3. I do believe that this session was a success because with the span of 3 day, I felt that my buddy got closer to me. Like the first 2 days he didn’t really talk to me but at the last day he interacted with me more. Not just that, before I felt MINDs I felt connected to them one way or another and I could feel that saying goodbye to them affected them to.

4. I felt that my energy level was a 5! I feel that its not really important to have alot of energy but its more of how you’ll match their energy (your buddy or the students there in general). To a certain extent you do have to hype them up so they don’t find me boring but there are times i have to tone down my energy because they might not like my energy being so high.

5. Of course they do, even for me personality it will take a toll on me if I were to do this everyday. So, I can’t even imagine how the care takers and families feel. Being a caretaker of them, you really need to have a heart to understand them. Yes, parents may not be able to choose their kid but i hope that they’ll still love their kid unconditionally and be patient with them. Also to have hope that they will become better and integrate into society one day.

2023-12-28 11:30:26 UTC

Gek Ling🦒

Qn1. my buddy was shy initially but he kept wanting me to stay next to him. after half an hour in he started to communicate with me more, he wasnt really so vocal but he would point to his ears showing the wants to listen to music, he would also point to his teeth to show that he was hungry and he would point to himself meaning 'me'. i was glad that i was able to understand him quickly! during water break, he kept refusing to drink water no matter how i tried to convince him and instead he wanted to me to drink some water😭

Qn2. i feel like both the people from MINDs and friendship village are the sweetest people. at MINDs there are teachers watching the students and they would step in whenever we needed help with them, but at friendship village, if we needed help there wasnt any teachers feom their village to help us. there was definetely more struggle when we were at the friendship village.

the students at MINDs are more active compared to people from friendship village, like they enjoyed physical activity. at friendship village, they prefered more hands on activities.

Qn3.

there was a handful of students that was disengaged. like my buddy, when everyone were llaying duck, duck, goose he didnt want to participate, instead he wanted to listen to music. when he sat out, i use the oppotunity to get ti know him better, like finding out that he enjoys listening to music. at some point he wanted to join the game after seeing how much fun his friends were having. when he joined the game, he was rather excited to be picked!

Qn4. i feel like they can easily understand "Do" and "Do not" but i would also nod and shake my head at the same time!

Qn5. my buddy tried to tickle me and i was fine with it but there was a few times when his finger had saliva and he was gonna touch me and personally, i cant deal with drools etc otherwise ill vomit. i tried telling him to stop and at first he didnt but eventually he did stop. i knew that i have to repeat to him for him to stop so i would constantly remind him.

Qn6. i feel like it can be really tiring for the teachers especially their parents like it can really take toll on the parents as it it is a full time job. although it can be tiring for the teachers, i can see that they care alot about them and they are so sweet towards them.

Qn7. i feel like the energy level during the games are important. if they can feel the high energy, they will think that it is fun, they would also want to join in and that helps to increase the energy level.

Qn8. although they might have short attention span but that doesnt mean they can they can do what they want just because they are distracted. if we allow them to do what because they are distracted, it can encourage them that it is okay to do that.

2023-12-28 12:45:26 UTC

i think there was clearly a difference between the students behaviour. one of the factors was the age group as the students at MINDS were younger so they tend to see us as older siblings i would say so. further more the MINDS teachers were stricter than and also constantly watching out for the students, correcting their wrong behaviours and also stepping in when needed. one of the main difference i realised is that at the friendship village, they would come to us and interact with us first while at MINDS we would need to go to students and entertain them. so in a way, we would be able to draw our own boundaries at MINDS. at friendship village many situations were also high unexpected so we had to adapt and find a way to “reject them” but i did not encounter this situation at MINDS

2023-12-28 12:49:36 UTC

ofc there is a limit as of how much we can push. when we see a disengaged student, my first instinct would to be to approach the student and say “hello!!” and if the student responds to my approach positively e.g saying hello back or waving or smiling i will further interact with the student and “adopt” HAHA like tag along with him/her. however if the student seem to have no reaction, i will try to interact a little more but if to no avail, ill just leave him alone or at least try to include the student into the activity. but unless they react negatively, i will also have to “nag” or try to understand why they are not participating in a certain activity

2023-12-28 13:00:44 UTC

for me i think the most important factor in defining the success is the smile and joy of the students. for me, my buddy was extra clingy and touchy but i was okay with it. when he was sitting on my lap, i was playing with him but like bobbing his head up and down HAHA and he smiled (since he couldnt rlly speak) but he was giggling= enjoying it so i was glad he had fun with me. furthermore while we were dancing with the students, she seem to be rlly engaged and happy to show off her dancing skills which i was happy to see her doing that.

2023-12-28 13:07:47 UTC

in the morning i was rather dead and such but when i reached there i knew i had to hype myself up abit because i needed to be of a high level of energy in order to engage and interact with the students so overall i would give a 3.8/5 👍👍

leiaytleong — 2023-12-28 15:15:26 UTC

although both children were equally friendly, children at Friendship Village are more tactile than the children at MINDs Centre. Back at Friendship village, the children like hugs and handshakes, so they like to embrace us with physical affection, which can be overwhelming when there’s a lot of physical contact. At MINDS Centre, the children were energetic and comfortable with us the moment we met them. Also, the teachers at MINDs took a more initiative approach and would look out attentively for them and us as well (e.g. if we face difficulty in controlling them).
I think that we should let them do what they want, as long as their actions do not cause harm to others. They may already find enjoyment in their distraction, and if we ‘force’ them to do something else such as participating in our games, they may not find enjoyment. However, if someone is speaking (e.g. introducing the games), I think that the most basic respect is to listen to the speaker. Thus we should direct their attention to the speaker instead of letting them get distracted. It’s like the disengaged students are physically present but their minds are mentally somewhere else.
When the children were smiling and laughing while participating in our activities, I felt that we had succeeded. Our main objective was to get the children at MINDs Centre to have fun and enjoy their playtime with us, and they seemed to be entertained in the activities that we had conducted. Also, befriending the kids was our goal, and everyone managed to accomplish it. I’m really happy that most of the kids at MINDs enjoyed dancing and singing. Seeing them immerse themselves into the music made me happy. We succeeded!!
3.5. Yup I think that one’s energy level is important because we shouldn’t expect that the children can reciprocate the same energy level as us. For example, if we give them 100% of our energy level, they might give us 65% of energy level in return. I think that as long as we put in energy and effort into being sincere with them, they might feel happier and maybe they’ll be livelier. Most importantly i think the least we can do is to give them a genuine smile that can make them feel comfortable around us.
If it was me, i would feel overwhelmed😭. i think the caretakers and parents will definitely feel the fatigue, and i would sympathise with them if they felt the burnout and frustration at times. It’s not easy to always give in and make compromises for the children all the time. I really admire how patient and tolerant they are to put up with the children’s emotional behaviour. I think they make lots of sacrifices for the child which can be energy draining at times. However, i think the caretakers and parents deserve all the respect for tending to their children’s tantrums.

nur_aniqah_vivianna_mohamed2 — 2023-12-29 09:16:59 UTC

qn 1

I think that there was quite a clear difference between the children at MINDS and the children at Friendship Village. At MINDS, the children were more reserved and had more sense of boundaries as compared to those at Friendship Village. For example at Friendship Village, hugging and all these physical interactions seems very common there. However, at MINDS the most they would do with me personally was hold my hand or give me a simple hug. That said, they also behaved more like how a child would as compared to those at Friendship Village. Perhaps one of the reasons for this is that the children at MINDS were much much younger and were in a more contained (?) environment with teachers who are very involved. However, one of my buddies happened to be non-verbal and agitated. So, she would drag me to places, scream, shout, roll on the floor etc. The way I handled this was to follow the instructions from her teacher (to shadow her and keep a distance if she was mad). This way, I could still keep and eye on her and she wouldn’t be so agitated.

nur_aniqah_vivianna_mohamed2 — 2023-12-29 09:26:44 UTC

qn 2

I think that we should try the best that we can to try to make them interested in the programme again. However, there’s a limit to how much we can push ahh. If the student is about to throw a tantrum because we are near to them, then its best to back off and let the teachers handle it. However, of the student simply looks left out, then we should approach them and include them in whatever activities

nur_aniqah_vivianna_mohamed2 — 2023-12-29 09:34:09 UTC

qn 3

I think the key factor to seeing if the session was a success is the contentment of the students. I don’t think that their responses to the instructions/games/how they followed the rules really mattered that much. The main objective was for us to befriend them & have fun along the way and I think that that objective was met. As I walked out, one of my buddies hugged me ans said “bye bye see you again” with a widee smile on his face. So, safe to say that they had fun hence to me, this befriending session was a success.

nur_aniqah_vivianna_mohamed2 — 2023-12-29 09:49:14 UTC

qn 4

hmm I’d say that my energy level was around a 3-4? I feel like it isn’t thaat important to have that high an energy level especially if your buddy didn’t match it. I think if the buddy prefers a slower, more relaxed pace, we should reduce ourselves to match their preferences. With that, we should also try to get them excited by the activities and include them in the group games as well. For one of my buddies, he preferred to wander around and wasn’t really social with his friends. So naturally, I followed him and tried to bring him back to the group (even though I did not succeed HAHHA)

nur_aniqah_vivianna_mohamed2 — 2023-12-29 09:53:28 UTC

qn 5

Yes if course they would. Children in general are not the easiest people to manage & care for. What more children with special needs? Caretakers and the teachers there are bound to have some sort of stress and problems. If I were to work there, I can also see myself struggling to constantly tend to so many children and all their needs. Therefore, to be a caretaker really takes heart and soul and I’m very thankful to the caretakers at MINDS as just being in their jobs show a lot of courage and empathy.

2023-12-29 10:11:51 UTC

qn 1

there’s definitely a really big difference between the kids at friendship village and the kids at minds. at friendship village they are more touchy as they don’t really know how to express their feelings using words. and what i did for this was to politely reject or redirect them if im feeling really uncomfortable. however for the kids at minds, although they are quite touchy as well, but they know how to control themselves and what is right and wrong to do. personally, i do think the students are minds are quite active as some that i interacted with likes running around or just holding your hand to walk around which i was okay with. and one of the kid i partnered with was quite shy and the teachers said she didn’t like to smile as much but during the befriending session, i was really glad to see her smile and laugh and also talk to me which i found really cute

2023-12-29 10:12:04 UTC

qn 2

personally i think we should try and guide them back first to the initial planned activity and try and keep them on track every now and then when they get distracted. however, if they really don’t like a certain activity or all they want to do is just walk around with you then i would think it’s fine because you have already tried your best to engage them in the activity.

2023-12-29 10:12:18 UTC

qn 3

i would define the befriending session as a success in how the kids there are really happy and engaged in all the activities planned. although we had one or two really shy ones but they did come and join us in the end to play the game. understanding instructions was relatively easy for them as they didn’t really needed us to explain it again to them. and i really thought that the session was a success when the really shy girl i was with the start smiling a lot and also started talking to me even if it’s just a few words

2023-12-29 10:12:36 UTC

qn 4

I would say my energy level was quite high maybe a 4? i do think having a high energy level when conducting games is really important as the people playing your game will only be participative depending on how you conduct the activity. like for example when giving instructions you are very sloppy and your tone sounds like you don’t care and just want to get this over and done with then the participants won’t want to play your game

2023-12-29 10:12:47 UTC

qn 5

i definitely do think they would face caretaker fatigue as I don’t think having a child with special needs is something everyone wants and having to put up with screaming and shouting for a long period of time is really tiring. and also sometimes when the kids don’t know how to express themselves through words and the parents/caretakers have a hard time understanding them, it gets really tiring on both sides.

2023-12-29 15:10:35 UTC

qn 1!

yes, there was def a difference between the students at MINDs and those at FS Village because i feel that at FS Village, they were more used to doing what they want to do, like if they were not interested in your activity, they would lose their attention span and focus on something that interest them more no matter how you convince them. i would say that the students at MINDs were similar BUT they were more disciplined (i feel) in a way that when i tried communicating with a few of them, they understand and they were really engaged in like our activities. i feel that this could be due to the teachers who are with them 24/7 becuase they were quite strict handling them.. at the same time, they were very chill and fun with the kids too because i remember when like this one boy wanted the restroom so as i was bringing him to the restroom with the teacher, she actually tried playing w him.. knowing he was scared of the dark but she just switched the lights off and ran away so like i feel like this kind of small pranks and games really helped the kids,, not just being strict ALL the time.. comparing to the students at FS Village, the students at MINDs were also less touchy and they understand what is meant by a boundary? or they were taught to behave like how they did...

to be honest! i didnt change the way i handled the students at both locations,, it was my first time, i did feel abit nervous and scared but i was convinced that i was going to do it well no matter what because i wanted to really step out of my comfort zone in a differnet way, to learn and serve the community no matter locally or internationally. and i feel that i personally did well in that aspect and being able to serve as a leader has been the proudest satisfaction:)

2023-12-29 15:14:42 UTC

qn 2!

i def did see students who were disengaged during the briefing as they were very curious of where we came from and for what purpose and other things like that, it is a form of discipline to keep their attention span on what we are engaging them in but we should not force it upon them. even though it wouldnt be exactly right for us to let them do what they want but we could understand the reason behind what they want to do and communicate with them. we could possobly convince them to play the games we have planned out but forcing sometjing against their will should not be the case because it might result in worse or rowdy behaviour from the students.

2023-12-29 15:16:15 UTC

qn 3!

i believe the session as a success because of the students smile and their behavious when we were about to leave the hall. ill continue this later.

Reflection

vivienne_chua_xuan_yu2 — 2023-12-29 15:57:45 UTC

1. I think that the students at MINDS were calmer as compared to friendship village
However, i think that they were more disengaged from the activity and games that we played but that could have been due to the fact that these children are younger and do not have that long of an attention span to play the activity. One of the students that i was with actually cried while watching the dance part. They really wanted to call their mother. So i brought them to wash their face first and drink water and after that decided to talk to a teacher to see if she can help call their mother. The teacher said to just let him rest at the side so i left him alone :-:
Another student was kinda hard to communicate with but idk i just tried to copy what they did and it calmed them down which was very cool.

2. I think that we should first encourage them to take part in the activity first but if they feel upset or really doesnt want to play, i think we can just accompany them with whatever they want to do. As long as we bringing joy to the students.

3. I think when the befriending is successful is when we have made a mutual understanding of each other and can communication our ideas even if there is no verbal communication. I also think that one way of knowing when befriending is successful is when they cant bear to part with us?

4. My energy was like a 2/5 during the games, i didnt sleep much…
I think it is important to have a decently high energy level during the games as it can make the students interested in the games that we are playing as well. However, having too much energy may also be detrimental as the students may feel overwhelmed by us and might be intimidated to try to interact with us.

5. Yes i think that they face caretakers fatigue as they have to do this day in day out which would all build up eventually.

2023-12-30 14:48:13 UTC

Question 1

The befriending session on Friday, I noticed some differences in students' behaviour. As compared to Friendship Village. Some beneficiaries were more clingy, seeking additional attention and companionship. During the befriending session, however, there was a noticeable increase in overall activity and engagement in MINDS as compared to friendship village . When faced with instances of students being overly clingy, I handled the situation by redirecting their attention and encouraging interaction with a broader group. Additionally, when it came to politely rejecting someone, I prioritised kindness , empathy and boundaries."

2023-12-30 14:57:21 UTC

Question 2

Personally I believed that we shouldn't allow them unrestricted freedom, as it might instill a mindset of disregard for rules. Despite their distractions, it's crucial to ensure they listen, as preparing them for societal integration requires instilling a sense of responsibility, given that their actions today can influence their future behaviour. By giving them too much freedom , the other beneficiaries may think that they also could wonder off from the activities which can cause many to be disinterested which may cause the VIA to fail .

2023-12-30 15:00:39 UTC

Question 3

I define the befriending session as a success by seeing the emotions that the beneficiaries have shown or expressed . This can be seen when some of the beneficiaries say “good-bye” to us and some said “see you again “or “see you Tomorrow “ which shows that we have successfully created a fun and enjoyable day for them .

2023-12-30 15:03:08 UTC

Question 4

My energy level was a 2 as personally I was kinda injured on that day and my group have a bit of squabble between 2 boys so the activities did not really hype me up in anyway as I was busy managing and teaching them violence is not the way to earn someone’s respect

2023-12-30 15:05:56 UTC

Question 5

Yes , surely the caretakers may feel fatigue and tired after taking care of the kids in MINDS. But I believe they also would have enjoyed the journey of taking care of the children as they are the ones who are most likely to teach and educate them which means that they can see them grow as person . Which I surely believed that is the dream of all the teachers out there .