421 End of the Semester

I feel like the biggest thing I have learned in this class, is the ability to work with others in a group. As I go into the work force, wherever that is, I will be working closely with people who have different backgrounds than myself. Just as it is important to check for bias with my students or children I am working with, I need to check bias with my coworkers.

I remember one of the first times in class we had a discussion about our backgrounds. I was surprised to hear the different upbringings of my classmates as we discussed the grief cycle. While I was surprised at times, I was also aware of the fact that not everyone chose to share that day. We all have different circumstances and backgrounds that make us unique and also give us the tendency to act in certain ways.

Creating a family plan for a fictional family was rewarding because I was able to learn from the ideas of my peers. Sometimes they would come up with ideas that I wouldn't have thought of on my own.

Working on a HWD throughout the semester was really fun because I was able to focus on things that I am passionate about. I loved being able to learn about the requirements to become a speech and language pathologist and interviewing professors was rewarding because of their insight.

From this class, I hope to take away the ability to learn from my mentors and to be confident when working in a group.

Final Home Visit

This week, I met with the family for the last time. It was sad to realize that I wasn't going to get to work with Ezra anymore, but it was exciting to see him picking up on some of the signs during our last visit. We came 15 minutes before lunch time and went over the future development plan and resources for Ezra. We participated as a group in one of them that was a little hard to explain on paper. Then we played bug under the rug to give Ezra the opportunity to imitate his siblings. He imitated them by putting a blanket over his head and by taking the blanket off of his siblings. He seemed to really like the game because he was smiling and giggling. During lunch, he did the sign for milk several times which was the first sign we introduced to him. His mom asked him if he would like some cheese and he signed it for the first time without any assistance! It was great to see him using the signs we had showed him during the semester.

I realized during the process of writing the future development plan and resources for Ezra that I need to be more intentional with how I word things for parents. I just assumed the parents would know why they should use these resources with their child but we don't have the same background in education. I needed to add an explanation to all of my resources for the parents benefit.

To have a better experience in this class, I should have used the textbook as a resource. It would have been good to try specific strategies for each client that are backed up with research.

I learned the most from going with a peer because Kailey did an excellent job of explaining things to the parents. In the future, I can apply this knowledge to working with parents in a way that empowers them. I can speak to them with respect and coach them to help their child. I tried to help my peers learn by coming up with strategies that they could use with their infant. I did this by talking to professors on campus.

Take home activity

This week in class, we talked about our resource plan and future development plan for our infants. We also talked about bringing the take home activity into the home and how the children responded to them.

I went with Kailey on her home visit and loved watching Hadley look at the picture book that Kailey made for her. She recognized the pictures of her siblings because her facial expression changed as she looked at the pictures. It was so darling!

Ezra didn't get to use his activity very much because his siblings were busy using it. His mom directed his sister to hand Ezra the pipe cleaners so he could do something with the container. When the novelty of the new toy wears off, I think Ezra will enjoy dumping the pipe cleaners out and putting them through the slots in the top of the container.

"America doesn't value education as much as they do doctors"-Mallory
As we talked about the education system in America, I realized the importance of continually learning as a future educator because in other countries, this is why teachers are valued. To have the same job I could have in America in Finland, I would need to have a master's degree.

Developmental Specialist

"My favorite part is seeing the progress of the children I work with" -Carly

I really related to Carly when she said this in class on Friday because I have felt the same this semester as I have worked with infants and toddlers. One of the toddlers I am working with is working on redirecting from large group to going outside and cleaning up the classroom. This past week, he was able to get his coat and backpack and stand by the rope to go outside. It is amazing to see the progress of young children.

For my HWD this week, I asked Sister Swenson and Sister Cranmer some follow up questions about becoming a speech pathologist. Sister Swenson mentioned that I would just need to do a years worth of classes to get into the master's program at Utah State. Sister Cranmer pointed out that it might be possible for me to do some of the classes online while I am still in Rexburg.

This week in class, we graded each other's family projects and talked about professionalism. I liked the aspect of professionalism that emphasized the importance of being a life long learner. The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.

Creating a Take Home Activity

For class this week, we all presented our take home activities and gave each other feedback on our ideas. I was grateful for the feedback of my peers because I would have tried using straws with mine and it probably wouldn't have worked as well as pipe cleaners. They also suggested adding bells to the bottom of mine so it would make more of a sound when Ezra uses the drum sticks on it.

I liked talking about making the activities appropriate for future development because it helped to hear the insights from my peers. Some of my peers had really creative ideas that I was tempted to switch my activity, but I decided mine would work best for helping Ezra learn how to put his hand into a fist.

"If you put water into the bottom of the container, it will be filled with a lot of germs later" -Jamie

I was grateful for the health and safety discussions we had as a class while we presented our ideas because one of the activities looked like it wouldn't be very safe for children, but after she explained how it was going to work, it looked like it would be a safe activity.

Presentations

This week in class, we had our presentations for our family projects. When the other groups were presenting, I realized how real these situations could be for any of us in the future. I couldn't help but feel that I had taken my situation for granted with such an easy pregnancy and delivery with my baby. I also realized how quickly things can change in early childhood for some of these families that think their child is typically developing, but really they have an illness that can take them early in life.

"Take the time to think about how you would feel if you were the mother of this baby" -Hanna I felt like all of the groups did a good job to make it applicable to us and to make the situation seem real.

For my HWD this week, I created my student hand out and found out some of the requirements for graduate school. While it depends on the university, I noticed that some blanket requirements would be to take the GRE and to have letters of recommendation. To go to Utah State for graduate school in speech pathology, I would need a bachelor's degree in communication disorders. Other universities would require courses such as anatomy or language development with children.

340

We didn't have class this week so we could work on our take home activity for our infant.

 I am working on a fine motor bucket that he can put pipe cleaners through. The purpose of the activity is to increase his fine motor muscles so he can sign for the things he wants like crackers and milk. He has begun consistently signing for milk, but doesn't understand that he will only get milk when he does that sign. This week, he was doing the sign for milk, but what he wanted was the jello. I am not really sure how to help him understand the difference between signing for milk and signing for something else.

This next week we are going to introduce the sign for eat.

I don't have a weekly quote because we didn't have class this week.

Family Project

While working on my family project this week, I realized how hard it was to narrow down the amount of resources that I wanted to help find for the family. It was difficult to decide what would be most helpful for their current situation and how to help them the most after the support coordinators were no longer there.

 It was nice having two days off of class this week to be able to work on the family project. I spent Wednesday trying to finalize what I thought the best resources would be for the family and then Friday I worked on making the pamphlets for the family. I decided it would be most beneficial for the family to have information on wheelchairs and walkers for the future as well as where they could rent an apartment since they came home to a foreclosure sign on their front door.

For my HWD this week, I researched schools where I would want to go to become a speech pathologist. I decided that ideally, I would like to go to the university of North Carolina in Greensboro. Next week I am going to see what I would have to do to go to school there (entrance exams, scores etc.) and see if there is a neighboring school that my husband could go to for Graduate School for engineering.

Because we only had class one day this week, I don't have a weekly quote.

340 Strategies for infants

Today in 340, we talked about creating strategies for the families we work with so they can continue to develop their child's goal in many of the routines throughout the day. Through this conversation, I learned the importance of connecting with the child and family to make this a more playful experience with the baby and parent.

Because my infant is working with communication, I can increase my strategies to include imitative behavior. The infant responds well to his brother and sister and so having them model the sign during different routines could help the infant to pick up on the sign.

For my developmentally appropriate activity, I am considering using signs and the picture of the object as a matching game for the infant.

When I went into the home this week, the baby was excited to play peek-a-boo with me as he sat in his high chair. This simple game of cause and effect was fun to watch as he was anticipating my response to his actions. I was pleased to have the mom so involved with the intervention session and her willingness to model the sign for the infant to attempt.

I wish it was easier for me to come up with strategies on my own for different routines of the day because that would help me to be able to think of ways to incorporate their goal into more areas.

"What strategies are you going to use that aren't so clinical?"

Speech Pathologist

"First ask yourself what did I say? Not what are they doing." -Sister Swenson

In class this week, we talked about the importance of looking at the triggers for the crisis cycle. We discussed the behaviorist view of child development and the need for motivation. We watched a video of parents talking about finally being able to connect with a support group because of their child with a disability and the advantages associated with the support group. We talked about the importance of connecting with the parents of our students so we can work together.

Another thing Sister Swenson mentioned was the difference between being a shepherd of the 99 or a shepherd of the 1. This really resonated with me because I have struggled for years since being in college as I have gone into the classroom and have been expected to work with the 99. This isn't my calling and it felt great to be validated and to understand this about myself.

For my HWD this week, I researched the difference between a speech pathologist and a speech therapist. I came across this article by Donald Fuller:

The terms "speech therapist" and "speech pathologist" have been used for years as titles for persons who work with persons having communication impairments. In the past, the term "speech pathologist" was used by professionals to describe themselves, but the term most commonly used today is "speech-language pathologist" or "SLP." Lay people have more often referred to us as "speech therapists," "speech correctionists," or even "speech teachers."

These are all terms that describe the same profession, but "speech-language pathologist" is the preferred term because it captures the essence of our work (speech and language) and also signifies that we are qualified by our training and clinical experience to identify, assess, and provide remediation for pathological conditions of communication. The term "speech" is used to denote the components of vocal activity such as phonation (the production of a vocal tone via the larynx or "voice box"), articulation (the movement of the structures in the mouth to create speech sounds to produce words), resonance (the overall quality of the voice as well as the process that transforms the vocal tone into what we recognize as a person's "voice") and fluency (the timing and synchronization of these components of the complex speech act). "Language" refers to the comprehension and production of language, including the mode in which it is comprehended or produced (oral, gesturing, writing, or reading).

Even the term "speech-language pathologist" doesn't quite capture the totality of our scope of practice. For example, speech-language pathologists also address the needs of persons who exhibit difficulties with cognitive functions (attention, memory, problem-solving), literacy, social interaction, and swallowing. Considering such a wide scope of practice, perhaps in the future a new term will be coined to describe who we are and what we do.

http://www.speechpathology.com/ask-the-experts/what-difference-between-speech-therapist-1057

From this, I learned that a speech pathologist and a speech therapist are the same thing and that they do more than working with speech. Next week for my HWD I am going to research what I would need to do to get into graduate school to become a speech pathologist. 

Got Milk?

Ezra was ready to work on signing for milk when Kailey and I arrived at his house. We decided to try the least intrusive approach to the most intrusive. To do this, we started by modeling the sign for milk. Ezra's mom held the sippy cup of milk while I signed for milk. As soon as I signed for milk, his mom handed me the milk. Then we asked Ezra, "Do you want some milk?" while doing the sign. As we continued to model for him, we would gently touch his hand and say, "milk?" Ultimately, we did hand over hand, and helped him sign for milk.

I wish I would have given Ezra more of a wait time instead of expecting him to sign for milk a few seconds after asking him if he wanted any. His mom and I talked about the importance of looking him in the eyes when we ask him and of giving him the wait time he needs to process things. 

Next week, we are planning on continuing to work on the sign for milk and will reevaluate his interests if he isn't picking it up.

In class, we talked about the importance of carefully planning the words we use in the home because it can cause the parents to become defensive. I asked the mom of one of the other infants if her daughter enjoyed bath time and she immediately became defensive and said, "I don't really have a routine with her. I just bathe her whenever and I don't like to have her sit in the tub because it is slippery." This made me learn the importance of thinking through how I ask something because the intent of my question was to find out if she liked being in the water to see if we could use that as part of our intervention session. 

Speech Therapist

For my HWD this week, I emailed a professional speech pathologist to gain more insight into language strategies for young children. While I haven't heard the response back, these are the questions I asked: 

What requirements did you have to meet in order to attend graduate school to become a speech pathologist?

Why are there red flags associated with a child at the age of two only speaking 15-20 words and what are some strategies to increase their vocabulary?

What are the drawbacks to teaching a toddler/young child sign language?

What resources are available to parents who are trying to help their child develop in their communication skills?

Why does imitation and dramatic play help a child develop their language skills?

Knowing that you can't force a child to speak, what are some ways you encourage verbal communication in young children and toddlers?

What other domains of development tend to be delayed when speech is delayed?

What are some of the varying degrees of speech delays that you deal with?

After I get the response from my email to these questions, I will move forward with researching what I would need to do to get into graduate school to be a speech pathologist.

This week in class, we read articles and watched videos on fathers that have a child with a disability. It caused me to reflect on the mothering role and how sometimes we don't allow fathers to help. I am grateful to have a spouse that is so hands on and helpful. I can't imagine trying to raise my family on my own! I think it is important to include fathers in IEP meetings by planning them at a time where both the mother and father can attend. 

We also had a panel discussion from members of my class who have siblings with a disability. I found it very insightful to hear what they had to say about the relationship they have with their sibling. I wish IFSP plans could transfer over to families who have children with disabilities who are older than three because it is such a family matter! 

This week for my family project, we found out about many of the complications our baby is going through. I can't imagine not being able to hold my baby and wondering if my baby was going to make it or not. 

My quote for the week is, "it's out of 50 dear." -Sister Swenson

ECSE 421

"Normally I have my expectations under control, but for some reason, it really frustrated me today that I wasn't able to have my own experience at the Temple" -guest speaker

As I listened to the experiences of the guest lecture on Wednesday, I realized how grateful I am that Zandi has been hitting her developmental milestones. The speaker mentioned how great preschoolers are, but that ultimately, you want your children to progress past that point. Having her come and speak to out class gave me a reason to reflect on my own judgments and ideas that I have towards others. How I view others needs to be changed because I look through a pretty narrow set of eyes. She made me want to rethink the way I view members of my community.

This week we began our family projects. As of right now, the parents in the scenario are expecting their third baby and the mothers water broke during the middle of the night at 24 weeks into the pregnancy. This scenario really hit me because this could totally happen to Tyler and I. I am interested to see what resources will be available to this family and what their main concerns will be.

For my HWD project, I contacted a speech therapist this week to see about doing an interview.

I also researched the benefits of sign language because the infant I am working with in my other class is starting to learn some basic signs. Sister Swenson advised me to avoid signs that aren't concrete such as more, please, and thank you. But I still had to wonder if there were other pitfalls to try to avoid when trying to help a young child to communicate. One of my toddlers in toddler lab is working on language development and this past week, he verbally labelled several items. would this have happened if he knew the sings for these words instead?

To begin my research, I read an article by Lynn Corley titled Benefits of Sign Language." Lynn says, whether language is oral or manual does not matter in the formation of a language base." For a long time, it was generally thought (myself included) that sign language would delay verbal communication if taught to deaf children, as well as to toddlers or infants. But now, it is actually advised to use sign language for children with disabilities other than being deaf or hard of hearing, including down syndrome, autism, and other intellectual disabilities. Lynn goes on to say, "there appears to be a correlation between tantrums and a child's inability to communicate their needs. With signed language communication becomes easier."

Corley, L. (2016, May 11). Benefits Of Sign Language. ASL University. Retrieved from http://Lifeprint.com/asl101/topics/benefits-of-sign-language.htm

Meeting Ezra

For class this week, I had the opportunity of filling out an environmental checklist for my peers infants' house as well as meeting both of the infants we will be working with. I was grateful for the warm environment of both of the families and their willingness to let me and my peer come and work with their children. 

Going through the Ages and Stages questionnaire was interesting because I have an infant who is a couple of months younger than one of our infants. It was interesting to look at both of their motor abilities because my daughter is almost caught up to one of them. I was excited to see the infant we will be working with doing a lot of the same things Zandi does because I felt like my peer and I would be able to help her to progress a lot as we plan activities specifically for her.

I also was excited to find out that my infant is going to be working on language development because my toddler in toddler lab also has this goal so I have been researching for this already. I look forward to learning more strategies from Sister Swenson that I can implement with both of the infants we will be working with.

I haven't received feedback on my activity plan based on a case study yet, but it was beneficial to fill it out for someone before filling it out for my infant so I can have practice making the activities developmentally appropriate. 

ECSE 421

This week, I completed my application activity. I chose to interview a family that has a child with a disability. It was interesting seeing the different responses between the siblings as well as the parents. While some of the responses were the same for everyone, I found it interesting what some of the parents have felt as they have helped their son/sibling to progress.


In class this week we learned about the crisis cycle. I am unsure of what the difference is between the crisis cycle and time out and am unsure of if I will use it or not because of another philosophy put out by Alfie Kohn. His theory is that when we distance ourselves from our children when they are expressing a strong emotion, like crying or screaming, that we are actually sending the message to the child that we only want to be with them when they are happy. I would say that the crisis cycle would fall into that category, so I could adapt it to fit my belief system.


In class I also had the opportunity to create an ecomap which was beneficial because I will use them in the future as a Developmental Specialist. It was interesting to get to know one of my peers a little bit better as I saw which relationships were strong for her and things that were causing her stress in her life.


My quote from class is, "Get out of my office and don't come back." Sister Swenson said this to one of her clients' parents because he wasn't listening to her instructions. I relate it to the coaching model and if I am not getting the support from parents at home then anything I do for early intervention is really a dead end pursuit. 


This week for my HWD, I learned about a lot of different activities can help aid a child in learning to speak. Some of these include cause and effect, gestures, and imitation. When I learned this in one of my other classes, I decided to start implementing it with one of my toddlers who is struggling with language. He was able to imitate his peers as we pretended to ride a train during toddler lab. I can also apply this to the infant I will be working with in ECSE 340 because if I have him imitate his mom, he will pick up on the sign language she is trying to teach him.

340

This week, we are beginning our case studies assignment. In preparation for class, I read about the routine based approach that goes along with the coaching model of early intervention. This made me think about the paperwork I received for the infant I will be working with because the parents would like him to learn sign language for the words more and all done. I thought of this because it will be important for me to go and be with the family during a meal time for the infant in order to effectively help the mother or father to help their infant learn these signs. If I didn't go during a meal time, the signs would be out of context and wouldn't be very natural.

"A child qualifies for part C services if they are developmentally delayed in one or more of the following categories:..cognitive...social/emotional...physical...adaptive self-help...and communication." (p. 5, Family-Centered Early Intervention).

The book then goes on to talk about how children and infants learn best in their natural environments.

"You're more intellectual than I am" -Sister Swenson

This week I learned about family subsystems and the relationship between each member of the family. We also discussed the difference between a medical and social view of disabilities and the place for each. I found it interesting that as we talked about our family backgrounds in class, we were able to make connections with the material found in our book and could understand some of our own tendency within our current family situations.

One thing I realized from our lecture time was how true it is that if one member of the family has something going on, all members of the family are affected in some way. I found this interesting because one of satans biggest lies is that no one will ever know what you have done or that our decisions only affect ourselves. When working with family in an early intervention setting (or even in the school system), not addressing the needs of the whole family will be a useless and unsuccessful pursuit. 

I felt that my peers and I learned well together as we discussed our different family subsystems. I could learn more if I am to class with an open mind. I am opinionated and tend to think that my way of thinking is the only perspective. While we were talking about medical versus the social view of disabilities, I was becoming irritated with some of my family members who hold a medical view of their child's disability. 

For my HWD this week, I began by looking at what is developmentally appropriate for the communication domain, beginning with infancy. In the book, Family-Centered Early Intervention, there is a section (p. 108) that talks about the stages of prelinguistic communication development. It says that between birth and two months, the baby communicates solely through crying, coughs, grunts, burps and sighs. Between the ages of two and four months, they communicate through cooing and laughter. Four and six month old babies communicate with vocal play. Ultimately between six months and their first word, babies reduplicate consonant vowel sounds such as dada. Around ten months old, we see the emergence of jargon, or sound combinations and intonations that make it sound like a real conversation. With this information, I plan on finding out where my toddler is at for his baseline of communication and will research more next week to see what is developmentally appropriate for a toddler and older. 

*I am changing my HWD to Intervention with Language Learning because one of the toddlers I am working with this semester has a goal that relates to acquiring expressive communication skills.

“I’ll walk with you” is my focus for the week because it is easy for me to forget to put myself into the shoes of someone else. This ranges from my friends sharing their trials with me, to working with the children in toddler lab. I want to have empathy for the parents of the children I am working with as they share concerns they have about their children with me. I want to build collaborative relationships with my co-teachers in toddler lab and will need to focus on some of their trials and struggles to be an effective team member.

As I completed a home visit for one of my toddlers, I realized how little I know about developing expressive language in a 21-month old child. When I searched for resources to give the parents, I came up with a blank face and no answers. This made me realize my need to study this topic this semester so that I can better learn how to implement early intervention currently and in my future working with children.

From what I found on emedicinehealth.com, it looks like after the first year of development, toddlers begin to communicate expressively by using gestures. While sign language hinders vocal communication, other gestures help parents to understand what their toddler is asking for. The key for further development, according to the website, is to continue off of that base of understanding and help the toddler to label words in single form. Simple phrases will follow and finally simple sentence structures typically emerge between the second and third year.

·         Between 1 and 2 years, usually can say between 20 and 50 words that are intelligible to family members. emedicinehealth.com

My toddler is hitting the second year marker and has only a handful of words. Next week for my HWD, I want to research strategies I can use to help him develop his expressive language. I want to find this from a speech pathologist site etc.

ECSE 340 Week 2- Coaching Model

This week, we didn't have a guest speaker, but we did get to go over the interview process for working with families. I liked learning about how to control our biases by having the parents identify what they would like to work on, instead of telling them what is dysfunctional. I liked hearing the insights of my classmates that talked about going into homes and wanting to make changes based on what the parents were already trying. This ties into the interview process because early on in the interview, I should be asking what they have already tried. This will help me not to repeat the same strategies and can also help me know if there are strategies that they are unaware of that they are already using.

One of my classmates talked about how she worked with a family that was trying to help their daughter to suck on a straw. They had her try drinking from a caprisun so that the straw was smaller, and she could squeeze the liquid out into the straw.

"You guys will get to practice doing the interview process the correct way instead of learning incorrectly and having to go back and learn the coaching model" Sister Swenson

ADA Simulation- being disagreeable

For my ADA experience this week, I had a behavioral disorder that caused me to contradict and argue with people over the course of a four-hour time frame. In order to have contact with people who could communicate back and forth with me, I knew I would need to fulfill this assignment during my toddler lab practicum because at any other time of the day, I would be at home alone with my baby daughter. I was worried to begin this simulation because I knew that I would be creating tension within my new lab of friends and I didn’t want to set a tone for the remainder of the semester by being disagreeable.

I decided that because I would be causing conflict within a group of peers that I needed to inform my teacher about the assignment so that she wouldn’t think I was being unprofessional and rude in class. She actually aided the simulation by giving me opportunities to role play with by having open disagreements with her.

I was surprised at how difficult it was for me to openly argue or contradict people because I felt like I was being really rude. It was hard for me to have someone talk to me about one of their ideas for our class and then shut their idea down by being the opposite opinion. At one point, I decided to use the phrase, “I don’t agree with how you are doing…” to see how my peer would react. My peer just kind of laughed at the way I said it, but two girls who overheard me say it gave each other looks that said, “Well that was a rude and weird thing to say.”

During this point in the semester, we are making decisions about how to organize the room and other basic decisions for how we want to function as a lab. My co-teacher asked me if I wanted a butterfly on my name bag. I said, “I don’t like butterflies.” So then the other girls in the lab took turns at suggesting other bugs that could be on our name badges such as bees, dragonflies or ladybugs. I came up with a reason for not choosing any of them. One of my co-teachers finally said, “Does someone besides Mandy want to choose which bug we should have on our name badges?”

I found it interesting that because I was being argumentative, many of my peers started to act in the same way. I overheard many of them talking to each other and arguing over which would be the best way to do something. I wonder if it would have been like that if I had set the tone that way initially. Doing this simulation made me realize how hard it is to have friends when you are disagreeable. Nobody wanted to ask my opinion by the end of lab and I felt like I had been a jerk for four hours.

I had the opportunity of shadowing a Developmental Specialist as she went into homes around the community to help families with their children. From this experience, I learned about paperwork that is filled out by the DS with the family as well as how to appropriately speak to members of the family.

After earning my associates degree, I had the opportunity of working for a government program that works in the homes of families with young children who have special needs. From this experience, I learned how to support families by teaching them techniques to use to help their children progress in language, motor, and social goals.

"An Asian family may be more interested in an online support group because it is anonymous." -Sister Swenson

From previous semesters in college, I have learned a little bit about working with families in our community by writing IFSP plans. As an ECSE major, I am interested in becoming a Developmental Specialist and want to learn more about how to find resources available in our community to help enrich the lives of families with people who have disabilities. Because of this interest, I shadowed a DS who works here in Rexburg to get a feel for how she responds to the needs of her families. I was impressed by her nonjudgmental approach as she walked into environments that were less than ideal. She spoke to the mothers of these children with compassion and understanding and never belittled their efforts to help their children. From this experience, I have learned the importance of parents in the lives of these children.

I really don't have a wide understanding of families and communities and hope to gain a lot of knowledge from this class. As this semester progresses, I hope to be able to learn about a variety of resources that I can offer to families. When I think about what programs are available, my list of ideas is short. I think it is great to know where to find resources, but I need to first know what resources could appeal to families depending on their religious, cultural, and ethnic backgrounds.