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.