This is my first CAS reflection on my service, MINDS Tampines dance and fitness fun. We had just visited our partners and I wanted to talk about my first experiences. When we went down to the centre, I was a bit nervous as I’m not too comfortable with people who have intellectual disabilities so I had to put on my nicest face and try and figure out what’s the best way to behave around them. I also find making a fool of myself to a bit hard, so for dancing with our clients, I am a bit nervous. Something that may make up for my weaknesses is my collaboration skills as I am comfortable with working with most people. At the centre, we went through some do’s and don’ts, this helped me considered the ethics of my actions because not only were the clients less privileged then we are, they also were different to us. At the centre, we weren’t allowed to take photos of our clients, this was because taking photos of them may give off the wrong image of the type of people they are.
One goal that I have is to be more confident and just not care what other people think, this will help me enjoy myself more during the service which will make my experience and my client’s experience even better.
After the first session, this brought some global awareness of issues with disabilities in the world. Seeing as Singapore, a highly developed country, it still didn’t have sufficient space for people with intellectual disabilities to be free or have access to facilities they require to help facilitate growth and development. This forced me to make responsible decisions about my way to not only interact with my service clients but also to interact with my current surrounding and be more grateful to what I have and what facilities I have access to
