Working with a 7-year-old girl from Tonga with cerebral palsy named Maikale, along with her family members who are living in TVA, students in this semester’s SPED 370 class have gone above and beyond what they were assigned to do, said Dr. Barbara Hong, who teaches Special Education classes.
Hong said her students are helping Maikale and her family, but “it is nothing to do with the credits. It’s just wonderful.”
Maikale’s father, Kelepi Akoteu, brought his wife, and three of his six children to Laie through the LDS Church’s International Teacher Education Program. He is part of this semester’s SPED class as well.
Hong said her class created two goals for Maikale: “To be able to stand and to be able to express something for herself.” This is part of learning about IEPs, or Individual Education Programs, documents teachers use to set goals when teaching special needs children.
The students in the class spend at least an hour every day reading books and doing matching or coloring activities with Maikale and her two siblings, Lavender and Seini. Students work with Maikale at Laie Elementary School as well as at home.
But Hong said the students decided to focus on helping the whole Akoteu family and preparing them for when they return to Tonga in a few months. In their home country, there are limited resources for Maikale.
Akoteu said in Tonga, there isn’t a doctor that is suited for Maikale’s needs and she wasn’t unable to even sit up by herself. However, when they came to BYUH in January 2015, they took her to a hospital here and she got surgery that reconfigured her bones. Now, “She can sit properly by herself. We were so happy,” said Kelepi.
“We see now - the bones are still growing. The bones will get stronger and we need to exercise her,” he added. Hong said she is training the parents in physical therapy and academic teaching so they can continue to provide Maikale with the help she needs when they return home.
Since the class has begun spending time with the family, her father has seen a change in Maikale. “My daughter is really excited when someone knocks on the door and she sees the student,” said Kelepi.
Chelsie Lambert, a junior from Utah studying elementary education and pursuing a special education certificate, said she goes over to the Akoteu’s TVA home more than she is required to for class.
While the goal of the class is centered around Maikale, Lambert said she interacts a lot with Seini and Lavender as well.
“We help more than we thought,” Lambert said. She recalled a time where she handed books to Seini and Lavender and afterward asked them to explain the stories to her. They did.
Lambert said working with Seini and Lavender sometimes makes Maikale jealous. “She’s super animated. She’ll hit my leg like, ‘Pay attention to me,’” Lambert explained.
One time, Lambert said she asked Maikale, “‘Which Disney princess are you?’ She pointed to Tiana from ‘The Princess and the Frog.’ Then I said, ‘Which princess am I?’ and she pointed to Repunzel. I was like, ‘Yeah!’”
The students are also helping the children improve their English language skills.
“When we first came here, we wanted them to play outside with the other kids to get the language. They didn’t want to,” Kelepi said. “But now, they are always outside. It gets to be evening and we want to get them back inside, but they don’t want to come in!”
“It is a blessing for us, for them to learn the language,” he said.
Talking about Maikale’s improvement after working with the students, Kelepi said, “She is understanding everything very well.” Maikale cannot speak words clearly, but she nods and shakes her head to respond to questions.
“We count this as a blessing for us,” said Kelepi. “Not only do the students come and read to her and my other kids, they pronounce correctly.”
Kelepi said knowing English is a great skill he hopes his children can keep, and because he and his wife don’t “pronounce English properly,” he is especially grateful for the students.
For example, he said when his family has Family Home Evening, Maikale is “going to do the prayer first. We love to give her the chance to do it in front of us.”
Kelepi added, “She loves to read the book. It is very helpful for everyone.”
For the Christmas holidays, Hong said the students wanted to do something extra for the Akoteu family and gave a bin full of Christmas presents to them. Hong said it was a student, Korin Lopez, who put it together with the help of her generous mother and brother, who bought all the gifts.
Lambert said she also took the three Akoteu children to sing Christmas carols. “It was cute,” she said. “Seini was singing all day.”