traveling day eight - in which we finish a conference

On our last day of the communication and physio conference in Karakol that we have been presenting one lady said something amazing in the feedback session.  She said that we had 'woken up' her desire to communicate with children, and she gave us a bolshoi (big) thanks.  Two of the teachers who came really got the idea of how to choose vocabulary for communication boards, and I learnt more Russian as they were telling me how to make their boards up in Boardmaker (a picture software program).  Making communication boards is an excellent way to learn language! 

teaching at the conference.  Check out my funky new felt brooch.

teaching one of the participants to use Boardmaker

Talking of understanding Russian, today I understood about 90% of what our translator was saying as I was talking.  But I still can't say as much as I want to.  And I learnt some more words in Kyrgyz today as we were doing an observational assessment on a girl who had come in to visit us.  We were asking some diagnostic questions, and after a while our translator understood what we were looking for, and she started to do her own speech assessment in Kyrgyz, and then she started helping the girl produce the sounds correctly.  Bigyma our translator is really smart - she is going to be a wonderful offsider as we look at children's communication in the village. 

Bigyma working hard on getting vocabulary together.  She pretty much ran that part of the session.

singing Old Macdonald in Russian.  Good times.

It has been really amazing to have an opportunity to talk to these teachers about literacy (I told them about Four Blocks Literacy) and communication.  I also did 15 minutes today on cleft palate and articulation strategies.

I think being translated makes me a better speaker.  I have to speak simply, and think whether what I am saying is worth translating.  I use less idioms, and I have time to think about what I am going to say next as I am being translated.  I am hoping my jokes translated well.....

We are leaving a computer here with the Boardmaker software on, so the teachers can start to use visual symbol alternative communication with their students.  We were also talking today about Russian sign language - I kept accidentally teaching and using Australian signs which will not translate here! 

Some of our training group.  And some Samaritan's Purse boxes.

mmmmm lunch.  Tasty tiny lapyoshka (bread).

Tomorrow we have a day off, and we are going up to the top of the mountains that surround Karakol to get some photos.  Maybe ski or toboggan.  Bring on the ski pants.

And I am in danger of only having photos from Kyrgyzstan of our gorgeous resident baby.  Must Take Photos Of Countryside, Local People and Interesting Sights.

Onwards.