Week three was Victoria Day, and therefore we did not have any class.
This week was a fun week, on Monday instead of having class we traveled to a high school in Barrie to meet with the life skills class. I was fairly apprehensive about going to the school and meeting with the students. As I haven’t had any experience of this nature and was unsure of how to prepare for it.
When I arrived at the school, I entered the cafeteria full of students. I discovered that the student who I had been assigned had already been paired up with someone else, so I was then matched up with Whitney a student in my class and her partner Courtney from the life skills class. Courtney was a chatty girl so it took no time at all to feel comfortable conversing with her. We didn’t spend too much time talking about her oral care habits, she said she didn’t like the dentist and that she rarely brushed her teeth, but that was the extent of the dental conversation. We then just spent the rest of the time talking about things she liked to do, or things she was going to get to do either with the class or at home on her own time. Courtney had quite the sense of humor and had Whitney and myself laughing for most of our time together.
After I left the high school, I felt a lot differently than when I had arrived. The whole experience had seemed scarier before and after I left I couldn’t really remember what had been worrying me in the first place. We didn’t get much information from Courtney, but we got enough to begin to make a DHE/OHI session that would be appropriate. Whitney and I both decided that the circular brushing method would be the easiest for her to learn and the most important thing to teach her, as well we wanted to stress the need for tooth brushing everyday, so I had a brushing chart fabricated for Courtney to use to keep track of when she brushes each day.
Next week we will be travelling back to the high school to go through the DHE/OHI with Courtney and deliver the brushing chart and a new toothbrush to get her started. Updates to follow.
