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