Day 3: New Experiences

Today at HighPointe, we rotated rooms and met with new clients and new staff members. All the rooms are very different and unique. Each day we are exposed to these new experiences. Today was very eye opening for us because, we saw how special each individual's disability is. The Developmental room was filled with lots of cheery faces. They were constantly laughing and loved to have conversations with us and the staff. Whereas the Foundational room was filled with clients who cannot participate in a verbal conversation, but do partake in many other forms of communication, whether that through facial expressions of hand gestures. 

 We all enjoy seeing how well the clients interact with each other, and bond over their shared journey through living a life with a disability. Watching them all make each other laugh, and comfort each other when they are feeling sad, makes the whole experience much more real and authentic.  Being present in engaging in the everyday lives of the clients has really allowed for us to envision what their lives are like on a day-to-day basis and build a type of understanding as to what makes disabilities so life changing not only to the client but to all those they may encounter. 

In fact, we heard a talk in the evening from someone who has a child with a disability. The provided a lot of insight into how having a child with a disability does changes things. They told us some things that their child enjoys and how they live their lives with the child's disability. We were all touched by this story and were able to have even more of an insight into how a disability affects not only the person but also the family. We were very grateful to be with these clients and to be able to help the staff today.