Barte, Anne Bernadette B. BSOT II-A Reaction Paper Zapatera Elementary School: Physical Therapy and Occupational Thera py Rehabilitation Center

Twenty-eigth of September, two thousand and ten, Tuesday. As w e passed through the SPED Center going to PTOT Rehabilitation Center, the area was environment friendly and everything seems to be colorful and alive. At the PTOT Rehab Center, we noticed that there were no lon ger patients around, because as what the staff had said, it was already the end of the morning session, but fortunately, there was Miss Lesan S egador, PTRP and Leo Melandro Dizon an OT intern was there to help u s be oriented about the center and what does Occupational Therapy ha s more in store for us. So to begin with, the history of the Zapatera Sped Center was started when it was organized on June of 1973 by Mrs. Evelyn Tusalem, a Zapatera Elementary School Teacher. Mrs. Tusalem has a special Chid who motivated her to take up the scholarship training for Teaching the Mentally Retarded Children at the University of the Philippines, Dilima n, Quezon City. Having completed the training course, she opened the SPED Center at Zapatera Elementary School, Sikatuna Street, Cebu Cit y originally with fifteen mentallt retarded sy\tudents. She handles the c enter for five years before she was promoted as school principal, after which another teacher took over the center for the succeeding five yea rs. In June of 1976, a hearing impaired class was opened with ten he aring impaired students. Between June of 1980 1984 a class of visuall y impaired students was also opened. Classes were dissolved due to un availability of teachers. In June of 1982 1989 a class of fast learners c omposed of twenty-five students was opened although it met the same ill fate as the visually impaired class. Since 1983 up to the present, Mrs. Carol Pacana heads the Zapat era Elementary School SPED Center and together with her staff, manag es the entire population of 158 students. Ninety-eight of which belongs to the mentally retarded group and sixty to the hearing impaired group. In November of 1997, the Occupational Therapy section of ZES SPED Center was opened. Ms. Menierva Lagria, OTRP, a faculty of Velez

College of Occupational Therapy approached the ZES board of administration fpr an approval for affliation of the said college. The O.T. section was based on the school's clinic, wherein a maximum of fifteen students can be accomodated. The clinical supervisor at present is Ms. Sandy C. Bracero, OTRP. The OT section staff is composed of the Occupational Therapy volunteers and interns offering a number of different O.T. services to the special children in the center such as prevocational skills training, cognitive stimulation, behavioral modification techniques and socialization schemes to foster group work. The Zapatera Elementary School SPED Center is attended by a total of 158 students. Ninety-eight (98) of the students are mentally retarded. The remaining 60 students are hearing-impaired. Of the total population, only the mentally retarded group has received O.T. services. This group has been divided into three sections. Two sections are considered into one section. Their OT sessions are held in their sheltered workshop where the male group manufactures chalks as their pre-vocational training activity. Funds are then gained by selling their products to the teachers in school. On the other hand, female group sew bags, potholders, and rugs. O.T, sessions in the moring are allocated for pediatric patients wherein patients are brought to the clinic for the individual therapy. In the afternoons, the available adult MR students are also brought to the clinic and are treated as a group. The stated type of clients that they cater in the center were indiv iduals with autism, global delay, ADHD, mild retardation, and CP's (cere bral palsy). Their were several interventions they gave to their patients to help build their abilities, such as the following: * BMT or Behavioral Modification Technique - (i.e., verbal praises, promt ing and prodding) * TUS or Therapeutic Use of Self - (i.e., Active friendliness) * TUA or Therapeutic Use of Activities - (i.e., melted crayon, blowing, w atercolor hand painting, touring of school grounds, checklist) * SIAx or Sensory Integration Activities - here patients play (i.e., jump t rampoulins, shape sorter, left and right discrimination technique, matc hing of colors)

Below is the Organizational Chart from the Zapatera SPED Center down to the patients: