Dominic

One of the clients we saw at Korle Bu Hospital today was Dominic, an 8 year old male who presented with reading and writing difficulties. According to his aunt’s report, Dominic has been held back in school for three consecutive years due to delayed reading and writing skills. He appeared to be shy and reserved at the time of the assessment, as evidenced by lack of eye contact and quiet demeanor. However, Dominic’s aunt reported oral language skills to be age appropriate.

Toward the beginning of the session while the parent interview was being conducted, we attempted to establish rapport by using a wordless picture book to elicit oral language from Dominic. We pointed to the illustrations and asked Dominic the question, “What do you see here?” which was followed by an accurate response of “man.” Then, we asked him, “What is the monkey doing?” which was following by the correct answer of “taking keys.” It was unclear whether Dominic’s limited oral language production was due to delayed language skills, shyness, or a combination of the factors.

When asked to verbally identify written letters of the alphabet (i.e. C-A-T), Dominic was hesitant and only produced the names of the letters in imitation of our models. We used crayons and pieces of paper to create alphabet flash cards, and laid the cards “C”, “A” and “T” on the table in front of Dominic. With maximal modeling and repetition in a rhythmic pattern, Dominic was able to spell the word (e.g. C-A-T) and imitate the individual letters sounds (e.g. “kuh” – “ah” – “tuh”) approximately 20 times, as we used the hand over hand method to guide Dominic’s finger to tap each corresponding card.

To further facilitate phonological awareness and knowledge of letter-to-sound correspondence, we laid the cards for a rhyming cognate of “cat” (i.e. “bat”) in front of Dominic and repeated the process. Dominic demonstrated stimulability for this learning method and we invited his father to practice the method with his hand over Dominic’s. After practicing the method with both Dominic and his father, we as clinicians discussed ways to incorporate this activity into Dominic’s daily routine. His father enthusiastically stated, “I will make it my work to teach him these skills.” Letters of the alphabet on separate index cards were given to the father along with a demonstration of how simple it is to make these materials at home.

As Dominic and his family parted ways with the clinicians, both parties felt confident that the methods and recommendations introduced in the session would be implemented and continued at home to facilitate Dominic’s acquisition of literacy skills. The information and methods introduced during the session were also shared with Albert, Korle Bu Hospital’s speech-language pathologist, to support sustainability. Over all, Dominic demonstrated great potential for learning, and with practice and steady progress at home, Dominic can hopefully move forward in the academic setting, as well.


After our work at Korle Bu, we enjoyed a late buffet-style lunch on the hospital grounds and headed to the vibrant and culture-rich marketplace of Accra. It’s a sure tourist trap, where we are prime targets for eager vendors, simply because of the color of our skin. Here in Ghana, a popular (and apparently socially acceptable) way of addressing me is “my sister from China”, or simply “China”. Love it.


Lisa and I kept one hand on our money pouches as we snaked our way through the kiosks of locals selling jewelry, paintings, woodwork, and much more. While Lisa unleashed herself upon the plethora of bead necklaces, I made a beeline at each stall for the earrings and bracelets, picking up a few to bring home to the lovely ladies in my life!


Before heading back to the bus, I picked up a set of wooden elephant, rhinoceros, and swordfish ornaments, hoping that inspiration will strike when I get home and I can work them into a craft project of some sort!

With a mere hour allotted to shop, we headed back toward the bus, but not without being bombarded by vendors galore, hands full of items – mancala games, goat skin drums, African masks, etc. They called to us through our bus windows, lowering their prices as we insisted “no, not interested”. There was a point – not sure when – when their prices dropped so low that our attention was caught, and thus began a twenty minute session of shopping through our bus windows! It was quite a fun experience, and it was then that we realized we should’ve never de-boarded our bus in the first place!


As our bus pulled out of the marketplace, we sat in our seats, surrounded by more Ghanaian goods than we had bargained for, and headed for the residence of Dr. and Mrs. Ofosu-Amaah. Thanks to Brooke, we were given the opportunity to meet the retired chairman of the board at Korle Bu Hospital, and he and his wife graciously invited us into the sitting room of their home.

It was interesting to get the perspective of Ghanaians of a different socio-economic status than other Ghanaians we had met previously, in the fishing village, for example.


During our visit, we asked questions about Ghanaian culture and Dr. and Mrs. Ofosu-Amaah shared their life experiences and current views on education and healthcare issues in Ghana. It was enlightening to have a conversation with two cultured, intelligent, and highly-respected individuals who have accomplished great things in Ghana and abroad!

Upon our departure, we presented them with a basket of fruit and baked goods, as a token of our appreciation, and headed to our new hotel, the Unique Palace, where we were the very first patrons. This might sound like a delight, but as the Unique Palace had pushed its grand opening forward a week to accommodate us, we encountered problems such as unfinished plumbing, heater tanks that “exploded”, and drains that were still sealed with plastic wrap. Oh, this African adventure gets more and more interesting by the day!

We held class in the pool tonight among the Vegas-style light-up palm trees (the epitome of luxury here in Ghana), but adjourned early on account of the mosquito swarm that came to feast upon us. My roomie, Cassie, and I chatter into the evening as we type up our journal entries. We pause intermittently to pile our things onto the various articles of furniture around our room, because the tank of our toilet is steadily leaking water (clean, thankfully!) into our bedroom. All part of the experience, my dear.