DEOP Experience

One of my favorite experiences from Cal PDS was attending a DEOP event at the Latinx Health Fair in Oakland. Because it was a fair rather than an in-class presentation, I wasn’t sure how much participation we would get. Surprisingly, tons of kids came up to our booth and asked questions about maintaining healthy oral hygiene and wanted to know more about healthy foods we should eat. There is something immensely rewarding about teaching children a skill that they will utilize for the rest of their lives. At the DEOP event that I attended, there was a kid, maybe 4 or 5 years old that asked, "What?! You brush the roof of your mouth?!", and after I explained the importance of that act and showed him how to properly brush his teeth using the Leo the Lion stuffed animal as a model, he turned to his guardian and demonstrated how to brush the roof of a mouth on the teeth model. I know from that one experience that I changed the way that he brushed his teeth (twice) everyday and therefore influenced his oral health care. This is my favorite part of DEOP: communicating with kids in a way that's fun and comprehensible for them, and that's engaging, yet educational as well. 

Written by: Autumn Lee