Angel in the Nursery: Argelia Tlatelpa Perez

By Julian Ho

When Argelia Tlatelpa Perez reaches into her “therapeutic toolkit,” she’s not just referring to her wealth of knowledge and expertise – she takes out an actual box of supplies and demonstrates how she uses them in practice. Ms. Tlatelpa Perez is a Senior Social Services Coordinator at Kids In Need of Defense (KIND), an organization whose mission is to advocate for the rights of unaccompanied migrant and refugee children in the United States. Ms. Tlatelpa Perez opens each drawer showing the carefully curated items for children, including puppets, “feeling sticks” (colorful sticks used to represent different emotions), craft paper, and toys. 

Ms. Tlatelpa Perez recalls the moment where she was working with an infant who had difficulty calming down while the infant’s mother was meeting with an immigration attorney. Ms. Tlatelpa Perez described her decision to offer a toy mirror to the dysregulated infant and noticed that the child’s expression immediately shifted, and he was able to stay calm so KIND’s legal team could complete the intake process with the mother. Ms. Tlatelpa Perez acknowledges the importance of being culturally responsive and being conscientious to ask permission from the caregiver before presenting the toy because mirrors can take on a different significance depending on a client’s culture. 
 
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