Final Reflection ECSE 421

This semester I have learned so much about families who have children with disabilities. I have learned that they go through a grief cycle after experiencing a loss of the life they thought they would have with their child. I also learned how important it is to help parents feel empowered and also listen to what the parents have to say.

This will help me in the future as a Developmental Specialist. I will hopefully be prepared to judge less on their situations and check my bias. I want to advocate for the child as well as the parents in the school systems and when they have confusion over their rights and their children's rights.

Something I liked in this class was hearing all of the different family situations in our class. It is important for us to experience these discussions because it teaches us to collaborate in the future.

Final Reflection Blog ECSE 340

At my final home visit with my infant, I was able to present her Future Development Plan, and Resource Plan. Each of these gave her mom a lot of information and allowed me to think over infant development more deeply. She was sitting up almost unaided when Celeste and I visited. Her mother is more confident about leaving her to sit up while she accomplishes tasks, and is excited about her daughter's progress.

Celeste helped play with the infant as I presented the plans to her mom. It was great to have her there with me. I am glad I had Amanda as my partner for this semester. She taught me a lot and helped me understand a parent's point of view, as well as helping me find new ideas for intervention strategies.

ECSE 340 Week 10

This week my intervention session went better than I hoped for. I made the booklet for the infant which included pictures of her family and pictures of her. This was to engage her as she was sitting up and help her play with a toy while her mom sat her down. She was so excited to see the book. Her eyes lit up as she played with the book and saw her siblings. She wanted to find where her brother was when she saw his picture. She sat up and played with it for a few minutes at a time and kept coming back to it. Mandy helped me find resources for the family as the infant continues to grow. The infant’s mother has continued to show excitement for her daughter’s progress.

“The best part of being a parent that I never expected, is seeing my children interact with their siblings.” -Infant’s mother

ECSE 421 Week 10

This week we as we graded the family rubric I was able to relate a lot of what we did throughout the project to the guest lecture we experienced on Friday. As she talked about the families she visits and the importance of helping those families by empowering the parents, I realized our resource project needed to empower the parents of those families to act. To learn about my family in a different manner I would have changed how my group and I reflected together. We focused so much on splitting the project into parts that we forgot to reflect upon each section together. That collaboration is important especially as a Developmental Specialist. You bring together many professionals who are able to put the child’s best interest in the forefront.

The experience this week that helped me the most was the guest lecture who was a Developmental Specialist. She helped us as a class put into perspective the importance of helping the families and coaching them to help their children. She encompassed everything we have learned throughout this class.

To apply this in the future, especially our lecture on Professionalism on Wednesday, I am prepared to understand all areas of professionalism to be a great employee and represent the company I work for well, and show I am educated and can help families and their children. I want families to be able to trust me and I can do this through my professionalism.

My peers learned a lot in the Guest Lecture. They were completely willing to participate and ask questions. You could tell they were all invested in what she was sharing with us, and how we could develop the same respect for families that she had.

“While teachers may be viewed differently than other professionals, the importance of effective teachers in societal change cannot be underestimated. In fact, the classroom teacher is arguably the single most important individual in directing student success.” Professionalism PDF

For my HWD Project I decided to look into Retts Syndrome. This syndrome is a postnatal genetic disorder in which the symptoms start to show up around 6-8months of infancy. This disorder is a genetic mutation is often misdiagnosed because of the early symptoms as autism or cerebral palsy. These children experience sensory problems, communication delays, and impairments in their dietary function as well as breathing, muscles, and their mood. Because each of these symptoms show up separately I can understand how they would be misdiagnosed. Sister Cranmer and I talked about how this was a hard syndrome to work with as a DS because you have to “unlock” what is inside of them. They lack communication and it is hard to understand what they need or how they are feeling. As a DS I would need to look into strategies for communication as well as movement.

http://www.rettsyndrome.org/about-rett-syndrome/what-is-syndrome

ECSE 340 Week 9

This week my home visit went really well. My infant is sitting up and we started a new goal of balancing with her hands and reaching for objects. We tried something new as I sat her in a laundry basket. Her mother mentioned that while she is in a grocery cart her daughter gets tired of sitting up. Moving the laundry basket mimics that movement and will build her core strength.

For my Developmental Activity I am working on a booklet with her family’s pictures in it. This book will have sensory activities as well as a strap to hook to the laundry basket or to her car seat. This will allow her entertainment to engage her as she sits up.

In class this week I was able to get great feedback on my activity as we learned what I could do differently with my activity. They expounded on my idea and gave great critiques. I learned a lot from my peers this week.

In my expert interview for ECSE 421 I was able to get ideas for helping my toddler learn to sit up. I shared some frustration in applying my interventions into her daily routines. She said, “Every family is unique and busy, and trying to help them learn to help their child as a part of their routine.” –Sister Cranmer

As I focused on this quote I was able to use the coaching model more effectively in my intervention session. 

ECSE 421 Week 9

This week in our class we had a work day to focus on our family projects. As we were able to finish it up my group came together and we understood the purpose of the IFRP. We are giving the family valuable information that is easily accessible. What we could have changed and done better in our project is edit our binders to fit the family’s current situation. The family changed with each card and we hoped that we updated it enough to adhere to their changing family.

The experience that helped me the most this week was my HWD expert interview as well as the other group presentations. I learned through my interview the importance of working with families and other professionals. I also learned through other presentations that families come from different backgrounds, religions, and have different mind frames. I need to be unbiased when dealing with each family.

I am becoming well prepared to apply this in my future as I am sensitive to the family’s needs. I will hopefully begin to understand the importance of collaboration with the family’s and other professionals.

My peers did really well on their family presentations and helped me become aware of different disabilities. With them being prepared they were able to teach me something new.

“It used to be that the interventionist was expected to “fix” the child. The power comes as parents learn that their child isn’t broken, but different.” –Sister Cranmer HWD Expert Interview.

This week for my HWD project I did my expert interview with Jillisa Cranmer who is a faculty member over the toddler labs on campus. She worked as a Developmental Specialist after getting her undergraduate degree in Child Development. She later received her master’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education. I have looked up to Sister Cranmer as my faculty mentor as she has helped me in my education thus far. The interview I did with her took place in person. She expressed her excitement with me in sharing her experiences. The biggest thing she stressed throughout the interview was collaborating with other professionals as well as the families. When she was an interventionist she was expected to go into the home and “fix” the child. The coaching model was not implemented until after she was a Developmental Specialist. Looking back she understands the need and vitality for the coaching model because it implements the interventions into the daily routines.

            I appreciated her thoughts about families. She shared with me that easy families are the minority. We are lucky to be receiving our degrees in Rexburg, Idaho where families are open-minded and understand the importance of their child’s development. Some families in Rexburg as well as around the country will not be so simple to work with. I will need to be educated in tactics on working with families and helping them have easy transitions as they work with and learn to teach their child. I need to take into account that the parents are their child’s first teacher. They spend the most time with them. If I want the strategies to work when I am gone I need to make them comprehendible for the parents. As I work with other professionals I need to understand that I will not always agree. My opinion needs to be open minded, but Sister Cranmer said that it doesn’t always mean I am wrong. Sister Cranmer loved working with other professionals because she could really uncover the child’s disability and come to a wider understanding through those who specialized in different areas.

ECSE 421 Week 8

I didn’t attend the first class on Monday that we had, but I read the preparation materials and the videos. From that I realized that the Lord has a hand in our life, but he needs to let us go through trials in order to for us to have growth and learn from the hard times. God loves us enough to watch us go through hard times and learn just as he also needed to grow and learn. As we trust him he will show us that everything turns out all right.

As we worked on our family projects we were able to find some great resources that match the family’s concerns. It is sad to see that when a child is born with a disability it can take such a strain on a family. Hopefully we are able to provide them with the resources they need in order to mend their family and relationships with each other.

The resource that helped me the most this week was my peers. They were able to help me find resources and understand the family project better. We worked together to understand the assignment and were able to complete our portions on time. We had a work day on Wednesday and Friday that really helped us finish Part B and C of the assignment.

To apply this in the future I will want to validate the feelings these families are having about their trials. They will wonder why their child is not like other children, and some will become frustrated in their relationships that have been severed because of their child. I hope they see that I am an advocate for their family and I will strive to have the light of Christ show through what I can teach them.

“Thank you, for loving me enough to cut me down.” –D. Todd Christopherson 

As we understand our trials make us better, we are going to trust in God even when he cuts us down.

For my HWD project I decided this week to study Down Syndrome. I have seen older children with Down Syndrome, but I want to know how I can help a child with Down Syndrome in Early Intervention. First there are health problems that are related to the copy of their chromosome, Trisomy 21. Some of these health problems include Heart Defects, intestinal problems, hearing, vision, and thyroid problems. These are just a few of the health problems some children with Down Syndrome with have.

As and early interventionist I will be finding resources for these families to receive help as they deal with medical bills, and possible relationship problems as a result of a high stress family situation. They will already be seeing a physician frequently for their child’s medical concerns, so my next step after helping them find resources, is to teach them how to help their child reach milestones.

    

Since these children will likely have developmental delays related to Down Syndrome, they will have different ages that they reach milestones as opposed to typically developing children. An example of the difference in milestones is they will sit up unassisted between 6-30 months. Typically developing children usually sit up between 5-9 months.  I will help the family see where they child is at in their development and gauge where they need to be based on having Down Syndrome.

http://www.webmd.com/parenting/parenting-child-downs-syndrome#1

http://www.ndss.org/resources/therapies-development/early-intervention/