American School Vallarta's Water Therapy Field Trip Eduardo Xavier Garcia - American School of Puerto Vallarta
March 1, 2014

The American School of Puerto Vallarta's eighth grade class recently took a field trip to Acuatica pool to work with Laura Brown, a physiotherapist from the UK. Mrs. Brown works with children with a wide range of physical and mental disabilities using a technique called "Halliwick" and other general water therapy approaches.

Students have been reading the novel of "The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time" by Mark Haddon. In the novel the protagonist, Christopher, falls somewhere on the Asperger's spectrum and our class discussions have centered around embracing each other's different abilities. Students gained prior knowledge about Autism and Asperger syndrome during building background lessons.

At the beginning of our field trip, Ms. Laura Brown spent 45 minutes talking to the students about Halliwick therapy, its benefits, and some basic therapeutic techniques. Students then entered the pool and worked with children who had a physical or mental disability.

The objectives of our field trip were to have students learn more about Asperger's therapy, the Halliwick theory, general water therapy, and participate in a community activity that required embracing each other's different abilities.

"I am proud to be these young scholars' teacher. I knew how awesome they were before our field trip, and the trip further displayed how great of a bunch they are. We all had an enjoyable and memorable afternoon!" said Mrs. Kelly Morlan de Pérez.

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