sallacm-blog

[sallacm-blog]

Salla M. 08/08/17

11 hours this week 85.5 hours this semester

Part I

Many of the participants at my internship experience difficulty processing sensory information. The past few weeks I’ve taken more notice to how sensory issues affect behaviors and ultimately have profound effects on the participants’ development. Different sensory issues result in particular self stimulatory behaviors, which are often very obvious especially among individuals with ASD or similar/co-morbid disorders. There are participants who wear noise cancelling headphones or use earplugs due to auditory over-sensitivity or have a difficult time focusing due to visual hyper-sensitivity. From a neurotypical perspective, most of our sensory sensitivity is short-lived and are easily controlled. However, for individuals with disabilities, this is something they live with every day and can involve multiple senses simultaneously. This is the case for many if not most of the participants I work with. Stimming behaviors I’ve witnessed include hand flapping, teeth grinding, shrieking, echolalia, licking, and more.

Among the participants I work with, it’s very obvious that their sensory sensitivity is part of the reason that they have a difficult time forming and maintaining social communication and relationships with others. It also negatively affects their productivity as they may not be able to focus on the task at hand or cannot focus on the directions given to them. This week, I was able to observe how facilitating sensory play before breaking up into groups actually aided in some of the participant’s productivity and attention levels. Joseph (alias) is a participant who has evident auditory, visual, tactile, olfactory, and vestibular sensory issues. We allowed him to play with orbeez and slime before he went to group and though it wasn’t a significant difference, it seemed to help him focus and stay calm more than usual during group activities.

Part II

Throughout this summer, I have learned and practiced a number of skills that I can utilize in my potential future career in order to foster positive human development and growth. The three most important skills that have stood out to me include basic applied behavioral analysis (ABA) techniques, interpersonal skills, as well as self regulatory skills. 

I started at Ability First thinking that I would observe and learn structured ABA therapy; however, the staff here simply incorporate basic ABA techniques into everyday interactions with the participants. Many of the participants engage in atypical and/or maladaptive behaviors that may stem from having social communication and interaction deficits, sensory issues, and deficits in their motor skills. Therefore, utilizing prompts, reinforcement, and teaching them appropriate and safe self stimulatory behaviors are important to encourage positive development and growth amongst individuals with special needs. This may manifest in the form of using gestural prompts and positive social reinforcement to encourage eye contact with a participant who displays ASD traits to help foster their social skills. Another example of practicing these skills includes using physical prompting such as hand over hand with a participant who has difficulty with their fine motor skills in order to encourage independence and confidence. As I plan to continue working with individuals with special needs, these skills are essential to the work I will be doing.

Through my practicum experience, I also worked to improve my interpersonal skills with staff members and participants alike. Working with the participants comes easily for me, but I always have room to grow in learning how to interact with individuals who have different needs, behaviors, and personalities. However, with the staff members, I had a harder time building rapport with them and often felt intimidated to a certain extent. However, I learned that it’s okay to put myself out there and ask questions without feeling nervous. I also realized that many of the staff members are often as eager or willing to work with you as you are. At the end of day, they are probably just as nervous as you are and it takes time and effort to build rapport. So this is important to take with me into future professions so that I am able to initiate and maintain relationships without feeling overwhelmed as well as showing my full potential and eagerness to be there.

My practicum experience has also helped me practice self regulatory skills. I faced many disappointments in the first half of my experience because I felt that my learning needs weren’t being met and honestly wasn’t enjoying my time at the site. I also struggled with not having as much responsibility as I thought I would have in my position. However, all these things helped me recognize the importance of self regulation and that by taking care of my mind, body and soul, I can control my experiences and what I gain/take away from them. So rather than relying on others to help me meet my needs, I shifted my attitude and perspective so that I could learn from my personal interactions with the participants. I even did research outside of my practicum to foster my knowledge and understanding. This has helped me become a more self assured person and I can definitely apply these skills to future experiences in order to be the best version of myself.

[sallacm-blog]

Salla M. 08/01/17

12.5 hours this week 74.5 hours this semester

Part I

I really enjoyed my shifts this week as I accompanied a group during the kids program on two separate community outings. The first day, we went to Frostbites to eat some ice cream and gelato then went to a nearby park to finish up goals. The second day, we went to Stanton Central Park and played in the water play area. These community outings (or community based instruction/CBI) are something I am very comfortable with and have a lot of experience in my position as a special education aide. Somewhat different from what I’m used to, the outings I attended with my practicum site was with a younger age group (elementary school aged participants). However, the concept behind CBIs prove to be applicable to all age groups, because the goal is to teach independent living skills in real life settings. With that being said, physically taking individuals with developmental delays or physical disabilities out into the community leads to perfect opportunities for learning and practicing necessary social skills, communication skills, appropriate behaviors in the community, independence, mobility/capability, and more in order for them to be productive members of a community. 

During our first outing, the trip to Frostbites went very smoothly. The kids were able to practice their communication skills with the employees to place orders. Then, with the help of the Ability First staff members, they also paid for their ice cream. As there was plenty of time left until we had to be back for clean up, we also stopped by a local park to finish up their goals. During this time, the kids got free play time. A boy named Julian (alias) who typically avoids socializing, kept trying to cross the street and was giving me a hard time. As I found myself repeating the same thing over and over, my patience was growing thin. However, tapping into my HDEV brain and utilizing information we’ve also covered throughout this course helped me stay calm. I would be doing Julian a great disservice if I hadn’t remained calm and reasoned with him while explaining and teaching him how to stay safe in a public setting. On the other hand, our second outing to the park with the splash pad required more planning and time, as we lugged around backpacks and baskets for snacks and change of clothes. However, getting to interact and support the participants in engaging age appropriately with their peers made it all worth it. The kids had a number of learning opportunities whether it was practicing turn-taking down the slide or walking through the water shower, attuning to safety measures, initiating play with other kids visiting the park, etc. I particularly enjoyed this outing because it gave us (the volunteers) an opportunity for more responsibility and to display our competence/experience more independently to the staff we were assisting.

Part II

My practicum experience has only reinforced my genuine interest in pursuing a career helping people with special needs. I learned that I am an emotional person and every day I continue to surprise myself with how much love and compassion I have to offer the world. I also learned through this experience that I tend to take my work home with me. This can be overwhelming for me and I will have to work on maintaining professional attachments and boundaries as far as caring for my well-being in order to go into work and effectively help others. I also practiced being more stern while still allowing my kindness to peak through so as not to disservice myself or the participants. Prior to beginning my internship, I had only worked directly with individuals with “higher-functioning” or less severe disabilities. Therefore, although I have the fundamental skills to support such individuals, my practicum site has opened my eyes to just how much more experience I need to become more confident and intuitive in my work. I would say that my attitudes and values have changed in that at the beginning of this internship, I went in with the mindset of one day making a difference for a population of people. Since then, I have shifted my mindset to helping one individual at a time. This shift in attitude also helped me overcome challenges I was experiencing with my learning objectives and staff. Rather than depending on staff to teach me things, I looked to take things away from the interactions between the participants and me.

[sallacm-blog]

Salla M. 7/25/17

11 hours this week 62 hours this semester

Part I

The past week at my practicum site has been exciting for me as I’ve made a lot of break throughs with a couple of participants and I got to experience a version of art therapy, which I have never experienced or observed firsthand. 

The more time I spend at my internship, the stronger rapport I have been building with the participants. This week, I’ve realized that all the time and effort I’ve put in has paid off as my relationship with two of the younger participants have suddenly blossomed. One is a little girl who is nonverbal for the most part, has issues with her gross as well as fine motor skills, and stims quite often. Other than sporadic moments of eye contact and yelling when she’s disgruntled, communicating with her even through reading her body language is often difficult or even nonexistent. Ever since my first week at Ability First, I’ve continued to engage with her in any way I can and remain persistent in trying to get her to elicit any response or reciprocate any sort of engagement within our interactions. This week I went into my shift and urged her just as I would any other week, specifically targeting a goal for her to walk around the yard. At first, there was of course some resistance, but I tried a different approach and started making little chants with her name and singing for her as I nudged her along. This automatically got her to stop resisting me and as she made perfect eye contact with me, she had the biggest smile on her face and I even got her to laugh as we did multiple laps around the yard. Although that moment was brief, I came in the next day and did the same thing for her and I got the same reaction and she becomes more compliant and calm. I hope to build on this new way of interacting with her in order to help make an ounce of a difference during our interactions.

The other participant I connected with this week is a boy who displays the typical symptoms of someone on the spectrum (ASD). In the past, I’ve tried multiple times to engage with him in activities of his interest, but didn’t quite succeed. However, during a session of art therapy this week, I got to work with him one on one in developing his sense of self, expression, regulation, and more through drawing and painting. Human development involves growth, maintenance, and regulation; all of which can be explored through art. The art therapist emphasized that art is a safe place for self-expression where there is no right or wrong. It was intriguing to watch her build the participants’ self esteem while facilitating moments of self-regulation through boosting mood and encouraging calm body and mind; a clear example of art therapy in action. There was a point where the participant I was working with became very visibly and vocally upset (ie. yelling and slamming his fists on the table) and though it took a lot of staff members to de-escalate the situation, it was because of his art that he had the opportunity to express his frustrations and hurt. This then opened the opportunity to help him work through and overcome these feelings. People learn, grow, and self-regulate in various ways and this week, I observed firsthand how art can be one of those outlets.

Part II

As I don’t report to one supervisor in particular, I’ve been working with 10+ staff members through the course of this internship. Therefore, it’s been difficult “clicking” with all the staff members (especially those I don’t work with often) and getting to know all of their educational and professional backgrounds. The staff members/supervisors that are easier for me to talk to and relate with are close in age to me and seem to have either finished up with their Bachelor’s degree not long ago or are taking their last handful of classes. Some of my supervisors have other part time jobs working with children and one in particular has worked with individuals with special needs since she was a teenager, so I have learned a lot from working with her and getting positive feedback from her as she’s great at interacting and managing the participants. Unfortunately, I have never gotten to talk to her about her educational background past high school.

However, to my pleasant surprise, one of my supervisors and I have a lot in common regarding our professional goals. Like me, she graduated with her Bachelor’s degree (I don’t remember from what program) and is pursuing a Master’s degree in Speech Language Pathology (SLP). She also works another part time job as an aide in a special education class, but she works with preschool students while I work with high school students. Also, she took a year off before going back to graduate school and will have to finish some post-bacc work before starting her SLP graduate work; all of which I have planned out as well. It’s nice to see someone with the same career goals/trajectory as me as it shows me that although it’s very competitive, becoming a SLP this way is still do-able.

[sallacm-blog]

Salla L. 7/18/17

6.5 hours this week 51 hours for the semester Part I

My internship site held a “swim-a-thon” this week where the participants got to run around outside throwing water balloons, squirt each with water guns, and dump buckets of water all over each other. There was also music playing in one area, so I danced and sang along to the radio with my fellow volunteers, staff, and participants. Even after everyone transitioned into their groups for snack time, the group I assisted stayed outside where the music was still playing. Two of my participants had very high energy that day and rather than winding down, started a rap/dance battle. They would take turns standing in front of their audience, hold their hands up to their mouth as if they were holding a microphone, and just let loose and have fun as we cheered them on. It was not only entertaining, but extremely rewarding to watch the group encourage each other to keep singing/rapping and dancing as well as witnessing the confidence exuding from the participants who were performing for us. 

Applying Skinner’s theory of operant conditioning to this “talent show,” it’s clear that the participants continued to perform in order to gain social attention. The cheering, laughing, and encouragement that we provided served as positive reinforcement for the boys that in turn also built up their confidence. The importance of self-confidence hits close to home especially pertaining to individuals with special needs. My practicum site’s motto is to focus on what individuals are capable of doing rather than focusing on disabilities and through building self-confidence by something as simple as singing and dancing, the participants are utilizing self-efficacy skills essential for their independence and well-being. Their behavior not only benefited them (the participants who were performing), but also created opportunities for the other participants who are typically very individualistic to peak interest and socialize by laughing, clapping, and cheering along with the rest of the audience. 

Part II

My contributions to the organization are honestly nothing extravagant. In a world where everyone is expected to fit in according to societal expectations, I simply try to give them a space to be themselves and though my abilities are limited by my role at Ability First, I also try to provide participants with the necessary tools to communicate and socialize more effectively. I’ve made my supervisor’s lives easier in that I am another set of eyes, ears, and hands during group, especially groups with a greater number of participants. As the summer progresses, I’ve been able to build more rapport with the participants and there are moments of breakthrough every shift where there is clear communication between the participant and I. This allows my supervisors to run program without having to worry about every one of their participants. I would like to contribute more to my internship organization, colleagues, and supervisors by continuing to work on my attitude towards the organization policies/itself as I still struggle with frustrations of feeling misled at the beginning of this class.

[sallacm-blog]

Salla L. 7/11/17

8 hours this week 43 hours for the semester

Part I

The past week at my internship was eventful. There were two incidents I witnessed where the staff members were hurt by the participants. One participant named Jake (alias) was displaying aggressive behavior towards another participant on the playground and when a staff member stepped in to deescalate the situation, Jake ended up pushing her so hard that she fell back on the ground and was visibly upset. Another participant named Noah (alias) has autism and stims by squeezing your arm or hand and he also rubs his chin/mouth on you as he squeezes. On that particular day, it was apparent that he was more agitated than usual and was having a hard time communicating his thoughts. During snack time, he ended up biting a staff member to the point that the area was bruised and swelling. These occurrences are not uncommon in this field of work, but as it’s never happened to me and I’ve never witnessed it first hand, they were eye opening for me. Although working with individuals with special needs can be intimidating and you may get bit, scratched, kicked, punched, etc. it’s just something that comes with the job and at the end of the day, I want to be in a position to help them replace such undesirable behaviors with something more acceptable, safe, and substantial.

In one of my activity groups, we will be working on travel brochures and string art of assigned countries/destinations every Thursday. This particularly interested me as it will be my first long-term project with a group of participants since I’ve joined Ability First. I will not only get to see what progress each participant makes through this project, but I will also get to build a lot more rapport with them since I’ve been and will be spending more time with them one on one. With many of the participants in that group, I’ve been learning how to use different language to redirect/assist/communicate with the participants which has been great practice as well as a confidence booster as more of my skills become effective. 

Part II

There are a handful of frustrations that I have had to or am continuously working through at my internship site thus far. On multiple occasions I’ve felt that my supervisors could have prepared me better. There was an instance when one of the participants apparently fell outside on the playground and was crying. I didn’t see any staff around so helped her up and wiped off her knees. She had a little scrape but aside from that seemed fine. After shedding a couple more tears she ran off somewhere to play. In the last half of my shift, a staff member came over to ask me to recall the incident and informed me that the participant was now at the emergency room with a sprained wrist. Then another staff member came up to me. Then another. At this point I was very concerned (1) for the well being of the participant and (2) that the staff may find me responsible for her condition. I asked the first staff member who approached me if she could clarify what was going on and she reassured me that everything was fine but a incident report had to be filled out since the participant got hurt at our site and that I should have notified a staff member when the accident initially occurred. This is where my frustrations kick in. Though I don’t want to sound like I’m deflecting, none of my supervisors/staff members have ever mentioned how I as a volunteer should react in such cases, especially of which seem so minor. After I went to one of the staff to clarify what my duties as a volunteer are in cases of an accident (minor or not), I completely understand the logic behind it now that I’ve had time to replay the scenario in my head and think of ways I could have handled or can handle similar situations in the future in a more effective manner. However, there was even a staff member who saw the participants in tears when I was wiping off her knees that just reassured her that she was okay and walked away, showing no concern. 

I also have frustrations with the staff in that many of them see us as an extra set of hands as far as running simple errands (i.e. fetching materials from the next room) and don’t necessarily take the time to inform us of participants’ individual behaviors, goals, etc. I understand that some of the newer participants are going to be harder to gauge even for staff, but a majority of the participants have been going to Ability First for years and have very close relationships with staff members. There have been a number of incidents that I’ve witnessed where a participant can get particularly aggressive (i.e. biting, pushing, kicking) towards staff and volunteers alike. Now that I’ve spent some time at my internship, I’ve gotten to learn most of the participants’ quirks; however, as a newbie, knowing the behaviors, goals, triggers, etc. of the participants I worked with would have been a great advantage. 

[sallacm-blog]

Salla L. 6/27/17

will work 9 hours this week 29.5 hours for the semester

Part I

This past week at my internship, I got to experience a lot of one on one time here and there with different participants. On Wednesday, I assisted an activity leader in swimming, which consisted of directing participants from the kid’s room to the locker room to get changed as well as physically jumping in the pool with them to interact and have fun. I feel like being able to spend time with participants in the pool provided opportunities to work on building a more solid relationship with some of the participants. For example, there is a boy who is non-verbal for the most part, has limited motor movements, and that I have only gotten to work with a couple times. During our previous interactions, our dialogue per se has been very basic i.e. him communicating yes or no through head nods/shakes. However, when I got to interact with him during swimming, he himself tried to initiate communication with me through hand gestures (i.e. swinging his hands side to side in a cupped position to describe baseball) and more reciprocation (of gestures and emotion) when I would ask him follow up questions. As if I wasn’t ecstatic enough from the initiation of communication alone, he was bringing up topics of interest such as sports that let me get a glimpse of who he is that I otherwise hadn’t seen before and that I could use to connect with him in that moment as well as in the future. 

Prior to that day, I didn’t really think about how swimming benefits the participants’ development aside from the obvious physical fitness aspect of building coordination, increasing blood flow, etc. However, I learned that swimming is an activity that stimulates body and mind connection, which in turn improves brain development and intelligence. Swimming can be an outlet for the participants to reduce stress and increase cognition, speech, and communication, all necessary in improving socio-emotional development. This is particularly applicable at my practicum site since staff and volunteers get to work so intimately with participants. I can loosely apply these concepts to the experience I had last week where I made a tiny breakthrough with a participant I don’t typically work with (that I mentioned above). I look forward to the next time I get to jump in the pool and help participants in such a playful and effortless way!

Part II

From what I’ve observed and experienced at my internship, it’s been somewhat confusing in defining and maintaining professional boundaries... at least with the participants. From the get go, interacting with the participants felt natural and it was only a matter of time as far as building rapport/relationship with them. However, it can be difficult to draw boundaries and establish what you can and can’t do, especially as just a volunteer compared to staff members. Especially working in a field that is very interpersonal, there may be instances where you get very attached to or invested in your clients/participants. I don’t think that I’ve personally committed an act that could be deemed as crossing professional boundaries, but I have established some especially between participants that can get touchy sometimes. For instance, there is a participant who likes to hold your hand against his cheek or mouth and often will try to kiss your hand which could be uncomfortable and invasive of one’s personal space. So in his case, I try to prevent it from happening before it happens. As far as professional relationships and boundaries with staff, there haven’t been any issues that I’ve come across. 

[sallacm-blog]

Salla L. 6/20/17

will work 12 hours this week 20.5 hours for the semester

Part I

The participants at Ability First have a range of disorders with different function levels, a majority of them being low-functioning while the other participants are more independent. The participants that I seem to gravitate towards and feel the most comfortable assisting are those on the autism spectrum. Many, if not all, of the participants at my site present behaviors that are atypical in our society much like individuals with autism. Aside from facilitating independent living skills, Ability First also pushes to teach their participants desirable and appropriate social communication and interaction skills.

There is a participant named Omar (I am using a pseudonym to protect confidentiality) who always displays inappropriate and aggressive behaviors in any group activity he participates in. He will often get up and run around the room during instruction, yell and scream randomly while others are speaking, and have a difficult time communicating and maintaining relationships with his peers as well as with staff. In managing his behaviors, the staff takes a behaviorist approach in which they try to unlearn Omar’s unacceptable behavior and teach him more acceptable, new behaviors in its place, usually with some type of punishment and reward to motivate him to make this change. For instance, if Omar starts becoming disruptive during group activity, his punishment would include exclusion from the activity and if he is able to calm himself down and control his behavior, he reward would be ice cream during snack time.

While this behaviorist approach is something I am very familiar to and I am aware that this kind of therapy per se is effective for many individuals with autism, I can’t help but take other approaches such as neurodiversity into consideration. Neurodiversity is the idea that neurological differences such as autism should be regarded as a normal variation among the human genome. So neurodiversity advocates such as Amanda Baggs are against such behaviorist approaches like ABA therapy that I previously described, but would rather society accept “atypical” behaviors such as stimming as typical, normal forms of communication. However, especially depending on where an autistic individual falls on the spectrum, there are simply so many factors and issues to account for when providing support. So how can I, as someone who works alongside such a wide array of disorders, find a way to communicate with and build and maintain a lasting relationship with each autistic individual I come across? Is it morally correct for me to reprimand someone for behaviors that are inappropriate within societal context, but is appropriate for them to calm themselves/express excitement etc.? These are the questions that continue to run through my mind every time I interact with the participants at my internship site.

Part II

The disorders and developmental stages of the participants I interact with at my practicum reinforces that children and young adults with a developmental disorder may be delayed compared to their peers, but this doesn’t mean that they cannot catch up or improve with the proper support. 

As far as my learning needs being met, I am putting forth individual efforts in hopes that my supervisor/activity leaders see how much I care and want to learn from them. I’ve been building rapport and trust from them by showing initiative during group activities, asking questions about each student’s behaviors and goals, and making suggestions during activities. In order to have my learning needs better met, I just need to continue doing what I’ve been doing and build closer relationships with certain staff that seem to reciprocate interest back when I ask questions or that notice the effort I’m putting into taking on more responsibility in attempts to alleviate their stresses/work load. 

I would like to explore different developmental concepts and approaches such as the behaviorist and neurodiversity theories (ones I mentioned in Part I of my post) in class.

[sallacm-blog]

Salla L. 6/13/17

will work 8 hours this week  16.5 hours for the semester

Part I

Since beginning my internship at AbilityFirst, I have gotten to work with about seven different staff members and more than three groups of middle school aged participants with special needs in an after school program. The program is organized into five separate groups (each usually run by two staff members) that run on a rotating schedule throughout the week. Each group has different activities to partake in (travel/leisure, swim, fitness, healthy eating, etc.) as well as different cleaning areas/responsibilities at the end of the day. 

The participants I have gotten to work with present a wide array of special needs and while most of them are low functioning and need around the clock supervision, there are also high functioning, more self sufficient participants as well. Working with such a range of disabilities reminds me of Vygotsky’s concept of a complex structure of a disability and the inclusion of abnormal development, rather than focusing on what is typical for those without special needs. Vygotsky’s complex structure of a disability is the idea that a primary disorder such as language and speech related impairments lead to secondary disabilities that disconnect the individual from typical socio-cultural environments and situations. Therefore, it is up to the people who interact with individuals with special needs to help manage or eliminate these secondary disabilities through providing the necessary skills to socialize with others, learn independent living skills, etc. to maximize that person’s potential development.

If I were to apply Vygotsky’s concept to my experience at AbilityFirst, the participants we work with especially those who are low functioning have primary disorders such as being non-verbal or having very limited speech that causes their secondary disability such as exclusion and lack of communication with peers. Then it is our job, as staff and interns, to try to help the participants overcome these challenges. This is where the different group activities come in such as the healthy eating group, which exposes them to healthy food choices and preparing and cooking/making meals for themselves. Therefore, much like Vygotsky conceptualized, it is important to avoid using typical human development for everyone, especially in special education.

Part II

Discussing my learning objectives with one of my activity leaders/supervisor made me realize that staff members are willing to put forth the effort to help me learn as long as I am not afraid to put myself out there. I expressed how I have not gotten comfortable with all the staff yet, causing me to hesitate to ask questions and involve myself more in managing activities that my group is participating in that day. However, she assured me that she has observed me jumping in and taking initiative during activities without her having to tell me anything so to keep up the effort. She also advised me that even in such situations, if I have any questions or feel like there is a learning opportunity, to bring it up to her because she herself is fairly new to my internship site and has to get used to accommodating me into her work as well. Her advice has helped me relax and I feel more confident in working the remainder of my hours at my site, rather than going in with a negative attitude like I did my first shift. 

One additional question I wish I would have asked my supervisor is, “What sets apart my learning opportunities (since I am being acknowledged as a volunteer instead of an intern) and the extent to which I get to work alongside staff from the girl that is acknowledged as a full on intern?” I wish I would have asked this because I already went in feeling bummed that I did not have the title of an intern, but to have met another person at my site who is acknowledged as an intern at my site discouraged me some more in the beginning. I say this because during one instance the intern even got to go on an off-site activity over me because that she was introduced to the activity leader as an intern opposed to me being introduced as a volunteer. Although I understand that it is up to me to make the most out of my situation, I am genuinely curious as to how much I can ask of a staff member to involve me or explain something to me.