Jason (center) and his siblings trick or treat around Fraternity Row with their mom (top), and Jason’s matched volunteer, senior Truong Truong. (Michelle Tran is visiting from UMBC (right)) (Jason is 7 (in the wheelchair), his brother Miguel is 7, and sister Brianna is 9).
Student volunteers paired with local children trick-or-treated around Fraternity Row on Saturday morning during this university’s weekly Children’s Developmental Clinic.
Each Saturday for nine weeks, the public health school-based clinic provides support and a safe play area for local children with developmental delays or from at-risk neighborhoods. Earlier this year, the clinic’s professional resource staff trained student volunteers to work on developing children’s language, reading, social and fine motor skills.
Christina Thoreson signed up her 7-year-old son, Jason, for the program when she heard about it through his school. Jason has cerebral palsy, and his mother said she hopes the clinic will help him develop motor skills.
Most Saturdays, Jason is the only one of Thoreson’s children to participate, but she brought two of Jason’s siblings for the Halloween festivities.
“They are having so much fun, especially Jason; he’s so happy,” said Thoreson, a Laurel resident. “We are really happy with the developmental clinic.”
Senior Truong Truong was matched with Jason at the beginning of the semester.
“We’ve been walking a lot; he likes rolling things,” said Truong, a kinesiology major. “I’m getting to know him, what things make him smile really big. … That part’s really fun.”
All of the fraternities and sororities on Fraternity Row handed out candy to the children, many of whom dressed up. After trick-or-treating, children could go to the basement of the Sigma Phi Epsilon house for face-painting, crafts, games and snacks or play basketball and cornhole outside.
On most Saturdays, the clinic operates out of the public health school, which has a large play area and separate stations to work on skills such as reading and language.
“The biggest reward I get is seeing the smiles on their faces,” said Dennis Vacante, the clinic’s coordinator. “I see kids who struggle in school, but then when they come to the clinic, they succeed and enjoy learning. I think once kids learn that learning can be fun, they do better in school.”
Children can come from infancy until they are 13 years old. While children are playing and learning, parents can stay to learn about helping children at home, he said.
“It plays a vital role in the child’s development, especially because the kids that we see are either at risk or they have some sort of disability, and so the clinic gives them a safe place to play and learn,” Vacante said.
On site each week, he said there is a speech pathologist, a reading specialist, a parenting specialist, adaptive physical education teachers and an autism specialist. Seventy-five university students received training as well, and some of them also take a class in conjunction with the clinic through the kinesiology program.
“I really like it; you get a lot of hands-on experience,” said senior hearing and speech sciences major Sarahi Islas, who is paired with a 4-year-old girl. “I get to see how she gets better with every week. … She learned how to play baseball last week, and soccer. We played dress-up and walked down the runway, so that was fun.”
Senior Sharaé Bennett, who is matched with a 5-year-old boy, said their relationship has grown each week.
“When he first got here, it was very hard for me to talk to him,” said Bennett, a studio art major. “He didn’t listen to me at all, but he’s gotten used to me week after week, so now he always comes and says hi to me and runs to me and we go play. He warmed up to me, and it’s fun.”
Vacante said many of these children have “failure syndrome,” meaning they are used to not succeeding in school and other aspects of life. For those children, the clinic plays a key role.
“When they come to the clinic, they have either a big brother or big sister, a volunteer that enables them to get full attention and they thrive,” he said. “I think once kids learn that learning can be fun, they do better in school.”
