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Dr. Susan's Trips to Russia...
WHY DOES DR. SUSAN GO TO RUSSIA, AGAIN AND AGAIN, AND AGAIN! DO YOU WANT TO KNOW?
Colleagues and families from areas in these United States do ask “why?” Why go to Russia? Why travel half-way around the world to teach teachers in strange classrooms, learn “baby” Russian, and spend ten hours a day visiting homes, assessing infants and preschoolers day after day?
“Why not?” Turben Developmental Services is Dr. Susan’s 25 year-old business that serves those who cannot serve themselves! I make house calls, even half-way around the world! I am a trained developmental specialist (8 years of graduate work!) who is happiest when she can observe, assess and provide activity-based developmental profiles to families and teachers, pediatricians, psychologists, teachers and best of all, mothers and fathers! She does this work in places where families are most comfortable….at home!
To give a quick history lesson, Russia and many eastern European countries regressed under Communist domination during a period that lasted more than seven generations! In those times, Soviet asylums were built to “warehouse” all “defective” children; their parents were forbidden to see or care for their children, men left their wives to father other children and create new families if newborns had even a minor “defective” condition. How do you like that word, “defective?” “Defectology” is what we call ‘Special Education.” Dr. Susan is determined to change the futures of children and their families, stuck in the old days of this outmoded word!
In America, “early intervention” is the word! “Defects” are amenable to “early intervention,” which is the breakthrough phrase for providing services to infants and their parents from the moment of birth and even before! Advances in infant potential, child care and early development have been discovered that reveal a vital change in understanding disability….the fact are that with activity-based assessments, exercise, nutrition and many types of sensory therapy, the infant body-brain duo are successfully stimulated, creating neural connections which spontaneously are able to recover from injury, illness or impairment.! Perionatal medical diagnoses have changed, in favor of positive life-opportunity outcomes in the treatment of children with disabilities.
But, in Russia, without the help of developmental specialists like Dr. Susan, the future for the education of kids with disabilities is bleak! Seventeen million people live in and around the central city of St. Petersburg, formerly Leningrad. Parents cannot enroll their children who have disabilities in any school. Russian, Ukrainian, Serbian, Croatian, etc. schools reject all childhood abnormalities; families hide their children away.
Americans warehoused children in the 60’s…there were over 100 residential asylums and facilities in the state of New York when Dr. Susan went to work to remove all infants and toddlers and many preschoolers from these institutions on behalf of the governor, Nelson Rockefeller.
Did you know that down syndrome children, kids with spastic cerebral palsy, blindness, deafness, aphasia, Tourette syndrome, autism, dyslexia, and hundreds more lesser conditions are now commonly treated from birth and not only go to school but fall within the range of ”normal” ? Dr. Susan goes to Russia again and again to be sure these same bright beginnings can occur everywhere there are families in need. She hopes you have enjoyed this short explanation of her work and welcomes comments and questions on the “ask Susan” menu on her home page.
October 2006 Trip to Russia
Tayna is five years old; she has cerebral palsy; she is the youngest of eight children and spends the majority of her time at home with her mother who also brings her to the Adain Lo Family Center in St Petersburg Russia, where Susan plays with Tayna and the other children during her trips there to help families and daycare teachers realize the potential in every child! Susan is a developmental specialist who counsels children that have a special learning conditional or disability.
Susan’s powerful skills in observation allow her to “read” children’s minds, their body language, their mood and temperament. In order to learn how each child thinks best, she develops activities and games with everyday ordinary household materials and toys. Nothing could be more accessible, inexpensive or effective….it is a project guaranteed to be 100% successful.
After Susan assesses Tayna’ strengths and abilities and also Tanya’s weaknesses, she writes down play-learning ideas for the family and helps them to find materials in their apartment that will be used to Tayna’s advantage. Some language games are talk-and-sing activities; others are movement and motion games, some are brain teasers, and the rest are constructional and perceptual play games, brain games, and pretend play, which can inform adults about how children think before they acquire language and the ability to express their thoughts and feelings.
After the initial observation the fun begins! Tayna needs visual –motor training. She is a moody person who enjoys being cared for and getting a lot of attention when she moans and cries, and yells. The family needs to encourage her to do more for herself and depend on her mother for less stimulation. She can move on her own with assistance and so she is placed on a belly board scooter on the floor.
Boom, she falls off! She is placed on the belly board again and this time she yells ands shrieks ; oops! She is not a happy crawler.
Sorry Tayna! Her mother then places a scarf around the trunk of her body and under the board and wheels, and straps her to the board so she cannot fall off! Yippee, off she goes on her own across the floor. Tayna likes the freedom of being able to propel herself from one room to the other, under the tables, by herself!!! She laughs and smiles!!!!
Tanya grinds her teeth because her jaw and teeth are out of alignment, so her mom rubs her gums and gives her a chewy cloth coated with maple syrup to chew on. No problem!
Tayna needs motor exercises for her arms and hands which are not as strong as her legs. Susan drapes a blanket and an overcoat over the two card tables in the room. There are ten family members, so they use two card tables at dinner time! The blanket hangs down to the floor and Tayna is rolled like a ball with her arms around her legs under the table so she can hide out by herself; inside the tent-like table, there are toys such as musical instruments to bang with her fists and to try to hold with her hands.
Tayna’s fingers don’t work independently, so it is natural that she feels frustration, but the hiding spot under the table is a good place for her to do a new activity. The musical toys are right there for her, but she does not stop yelling. Her mother does not run over to move her. Absolutely not!
Her mom calls out, “stop that crying and tell me what you want to do. If not, I will go into the other room and come back when I hear you playing the instruments and making noise. Her mother leaves the room until she hears a noise, then she rushes back and compliments her for playing and hiding. The rule at Tanya’s house is that whining or crying only makes people go away and that playing and moving makes people want to come back to Tayna and give her attention. Play time, rest time, bathroom time, and outdoor time are all times of the day that are different and Tayna is leaning that there are activities she must do during each part of her daily schedule, like any preschooler.
Tayna needs to use her imagination and engage in pretend and make-believe play, so that her speech improves. Tayna can show adults what she is thinking. Teachers and parents must show her how to make believe and pretend. Tayna does not know how because her body and brain will develop slowly and with more assistance from adults. Tanya’s communication skills are beginning to become more active and alert, so the family plays “Let’s pretend!” The family pretends they are shopkeepers at the market, or a baby who needs to be fed a bottle, or a repair man who is fixing a street car, or a truck driver who is driving a truck.
The family uses an orange or an apple to pretend they are selling them to Tayna. What will she do? How much will it cost? What is she thinking? They expect Tayna to do the play-acting just as they are doing it! Any thing they see or hear, or touch or smell or taste is just exactly what Tayna needs to learn at school and in the neighborhood or at home.
Remember that you too can do all these activities with all children. What is good for one is absolutely good for all! Look for another profile from Russia next month that tells about more children and the families that are benefiting from Susan’s observational and developmental knowledge of children, and her ability to create individualized play and observe and select toys that teach!
2005 Trip to Russia
In Russia, Susan is working with special needs children up to the age of 12 to 13, helping parents, teachers and medical professionals recognize and appreciate early human development, and, as she likes to say, "How smart and competent babies are. What I do in St. Petersburg, is to teach preschool and toddler caregivers and parents about the many abilities infants have in utero through birth, and then demonstrate how all children learn so that adults can guide their children's development knowing the very important capacities children have since birth. Because these teachers are used to working with older kids, they are always stunned to see how much babies are able to learn."
Turben believes that it is incumbent upon countries like the United States who have a wealth of infant research available, to take it to other parts of the globe, which have not been able to accrue such knowledge. "All children can learn," she states firmly; adding, "From the age of three months, it is possible to observe that all children have skills and talents." "Sharing the knowledge is so important in light of current world-wide events, which prove how vulnerable children are and how small and interwoven the world has become," she said. Not only is Turben bringing her knowledge to St Petersburg, where there are 28 child care centers in just one small area of the city and up to 83,000 children living full time in orphanages, but she is learning individual family cultures and language, as well. She's been studying Russian with a coach and tutor for nine months, taking classes two times a week, and says, "I am doing ok with reading work; but there's always that barrier among us English speakers - we fear using the wrong words, when really any words at all are greeted with so much warmth just because I'm trying!."
The people in St Petersburg understand that it's a two-way learning street. They asked Turben to speak to them in their native language, and she does, using an interpreter to fill in the more complex subject matter. Using pictures, dolls, and working with children themselves, Turben hopes to open up a door of promise to young special needs Russian children.
And when she's finished her work in that center? "I'll ask them to take me to meet the director of another school down the street," she jokes.
Excerpt taken from The Empire State College Alumni Bulletin, 2005.
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