by Elianna Israel
Working with a child with learning disabilities has many challenging moments and many enjoyable moments. One of the enjoyable things about being a member is TAP is knowing that you are part of a group that is helping these children receive the Jewish education that they and every child deserve.
Another thing that is enjoyable to me is that I know that I am able to give these children the extra boost that they need to be able to learn. When they need help calming down I can always rely on what I learned from TAP to make sure that even though they need help calming down they can still learn what is being taught that day in class. For example one day, the child I am working with was having a lot of trouble keeping calm and controlled during the class period. I decided to take him on a walk and teach him what they were going over during the walk. At the end he seemed to get what I had taught him.
It makes me feel accomplished when I see the children being able to achieve more because of my help. Seeing them able to advance in their learning because of something that I have thought them is a great feeling to have. An example of this is in the classroom, having somebody there who is helping to keep a child under control, makes it possible for all of the other kids to learn. If I was not there to help out then the classroom would not be able to achieve what they have been achieving so far this year.
One more enjoyable thing about being a TAP member is when I can use the skills that I have learned from TAP in the greater community. In December, I went to the Yachad Chanukah party. There I really enjoyed to be able to use some more of the skills I have learned with TAP in the community, with different people then I have been working with this year. It was really nice to be able to see how what I have learned will be used in daily life in the greater community.
In conclusion I have really enjoyed all of the experiences that I have been able to do this year because of TAP. I love being able to work with different types of people and helping them achieve more.