Jani sees things that aren’t there and believes things that aren’t true. Sometimes, “Wednesday,” “7,” or “400 the Cat” will tell her to hit another child, sometimes her infant brother Bodhi.
“At 10:30 she loves you, at 10:35 she hates you,” said her father, Michael Schofield. “Not all interns were able to deal with that.”
Wang and her classmates have been working with the Schofield family since the fall, when Daphne Dionisio, a psychology professor at Glendale Community College, read about the family in a Los Angeles Times article.
“When I heard about this, I felt I could help out the family by providing them with psychology students who’d volunteer and take shifts,” she said.
To do that, interns join Michael or Susan Schofield and take Jani all over the city, visiting pet stores, animal shelters — anything to distract and stimulate her. The focus at all times is keeping Jani engaged, by playing games, home-schooling, or singing along with her in car rides.
She was very hungry Sunday morning, and to keep her engaged, Michael Schofield and Wang traded lines about how their breakfast was being made.
“First the chickens have to lay the eggs,” Michael Schofield said. “The hash browns have to be rounded up from the great plains of Wyoming. Have you ever tried to catch a hash brown? It’s not easy. And for the cheese sticks, you have to go to Wisconsin.”
Wang said Jani can be frustrated trying to reconcile where she is with what she sees and hears.
“Think about it — she has a mind of hallucination world and another mind knowing that she has to keep up with our reality,” Wang said. “It’s a constant struggle, and there’s no help.”
