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WENDY BRIDGEO: Children with CHARGE of any age
are going to be challenged by obsessive-compulsive disorder,
OCD, or anxiety disorder.
How this interferes with them would be how the work gets done,
maybe changes in the environment,
as well as their acceptance or their ability
to work with the materials that are presented to them.
NARRATOR: In a video clip, two students with CHARGE
sit side by side at a high counter
in the back room of a market.
Their job is to fill containers with trail mix or candy,
and they must tolerate wearing plastic gloves and hairnets.
At one point, one of the students turns to the camera
and smiles.
BRIDGEO: For example, when we look at how a job gets done,
a person with OCD may want to take full control of that job.
We, as the teacher or the job coach,
need to stand back and look.
Is the job getting done,
and fulfilling the need of that employer,
or do we need to make that change?
And we need to weigh that out.
And maybe later on is when we really look at organization
and the efficiency of the job, but allow that student
to have control of it.
NARRATOR: We see a young girl with CHARGE
sitting at a table in the Perkins student store.
She places packages of cookies somewhat haphazardly
into a dispenser.
A teacher occasionally rearranges the packages
so that the container can be filled to capacity.
TEACHER: Great work.
BRIDGEO: When out on the job sites, we are not always allowed
to control what our job responsibilities
are going to be.
So we get out there with a student to work.
And we need to make adjustments.
As we can't always change our materials,
how are you going to accept what you're given to do?
For example, one day part of our job at a clerical task
was to collate various materials into an envelope
along with a green pencil.
She doesn't like the color green.
So to have to work with a green pencil...
it sounds minor to us, but for her, it was a big deal.
But we looked on that pencil, and on the pencil
was a Perkins logo.
It was a Perkins pencil.
So we helped her look at it that it's not a green pencil anymore,
it's a Perkins pencil.
As she was continuing to work that day,
and was given sheets of labels because she needed to label
the fronts of the envelopes, she also has a hard time
working with odd numbers.
NARRATOR: A teenage girl with CHARGE is seen
stuffing envelopes and placing mailing labels on them
in preparation for mailing.
BRIDGEO: Everything has to end in an even number.
And when work was over, and it was time to go,
it was ending on an odd number.
And she had a choice.
We could either look at it as an odd number,
she could continue to do a little bit more,
she could finish out her label sheet.
But she needs to make a choice to decide
what is going to be comfortable for her.
And at that moment, it wasn't up to me to say,
"It is time to go, we need to go now."
She needed to have control of that situation,
and end it on a point that she could be comfortable with.
NARRATOR: We then see the girl holding a stack of envelopes
as she stands and walks away from the table.
BRIDGEO: For one of our students,
we had tried out multiple placements for him.
And in those placements, one of the things
that was challenging for us was to keep him busy.
There was never enough work for him to do.
And we were always looking.
And he'd be looking at a peer, and want to do their work.
because they were working at a slower pace.
And we had this environment
where it was a wholesale greenhouse,
where we could work in several factors for him.
He wants to be busy, he wants to be on his feet.
He has that need to keep working, working, working.
And within this environment,
there was repetition all the time.
So he could go in and fill pot after pot after pot.
And we could even finish work, and there would still be
plenty of work for him.
NARRATOR: In a photograph, we see two teenaged boys
with CHARGE working inside a greenhouse.
One of the boys, wearing a bright green t-shirt,
repots a plant.
There are several dozen plants on the table behind him,
which will also need repotting.
BRIDGEO: And that made it easier for John
every week as he went to work,
because he knew what that expectation was,
he knew that he was going to have a lot of work to do,
more than enough.
And for this individual, and in this environment,
this was a good match, because it made his OCD
and his anxiety...
he could relax, because he knew he didn't have to worry,
that his time was going to be filled,
he was going to be productive, and he was going to have
more than enough work than he ever wanted.
NARRATOR: Fade to black.