Vignette #1: Choosing
Between a Diagnosis and a Safety Net
Vignette #1: Last
year a parent requested testing for her son’s attention problems. Susan, the
school psychology intern, collected initial data but the team determined not to
complete an evaluation and instead put interventions in place. Later in the
year, his mom asked Susan to have teachers complete rating scales so she could
bring that data to the doctor. Over the summer she brought her son to the
doctor and he was diagnosed with ADHD and prescribed medication. The mom
emailed me at the beginning of the year informing me of the diagnosis, so I
then called her to see if she wanted to schedule a 504 meeting to see if her
son would qualify for accommodations through a 504 plan. She said no, and that
she wanted to see how her son would do without a formalized plan. Two weeks
later there was an incident during the ACT where the student grabbed the
supervising teacher. The teacher pressed charges and the student was arrested
for assault. The student is now being put up for expulsion. After the incident,
the student’s mom contacted Susan’s supervisor to request a 504 evaluation.
Vignette #2: Systemic
issues
Crystal, a fourth grade
teacher, is concerned about the mounting behavioral and academic problems she
has observed in her classroom. In a conversation with the school psychologist
and his intern, MaryAnna, she expressed extreme frustration. “I have eight
students with awful behavior during math. The trouble started in January when
we started preparing for State-mandated testing. I know it’s frustrating, but I
have to give them these daily drills. Now that I think about it, I’ve only had
these problems since we started the new math curriculum. I need these kids
evaluated now!” Apparently Crystal is not the only fourth grade teacher coming
to administration with referrals and concerns.
Dilemma #1: Making
New Connections
Imagine you are a practicum student with an assignment to
conduct a multi-modal social-emotional assessment. In your elementary school,
personality testing and narrow band diagnostic testing is rarely, if ever,
conducted. You are worried that you will not be able to find a student to test.
Once you do, you realize that several of the social emotional assessment
protocols available in your school are out of date. How would you approach your
supervisor about this problem? What are some creative or collaborative
solutions to this issue?
Dilemma #2:
Drawing the Line
You are an intern at a high school and you are involved in
individual counseling with a 16-year-old girl, Renee. Renee tells you during a
session that she just found out she is two months pregnant, but she is very
afraid to tell her parents and refuses to do so. What are your school policies
on student pregnancy? What would you ask your supervisor with help on this
case?
Reflection
Question #1: Challenges
How can school psychology students and their supervisors
gain and maintain an understanding of the communities in which their students
live? What can they do to collaborate with and contribute to that community?
Reflection
Question #2: Social Emotional Learning
How can supervisors help interns and practicum students
to understand and integrate themselves into the systems operations of their
schools? How can the supervisory relationship be used to work through
difficulties when working with other staff?
Reflective Question #1:
ReplyDeleteI do not think that the importance of community involvement can be emphasized enough. As a practicum student, my supervisor did not actively volunteer or participate in activities outside of her work day. I noticed that she was well-respected in the school setting, but I didn't feel like she was active enough to be known be any of the students outside of special education. This year, the school that I am at has made it a mission to become more involved in service activites. In order to relate to the student body, and become recognized as a staff member they actually "know", I have decided to volunteer in a couple different activities - one of these is ongoing in the community, and the other is a seasonal project that I am working with the students on to gather coats/boats for kids for winter. All of the activities are tied to outside community agencies, and I often volunteer to communicate with these places so that I can enhance the relationship with these places in the community. My supervisor is also very involved with these kinds of service activities, and we are always collaborating on ways to get involved more with the general education students.
I very much agree with what you have said and I think it's awesome that you are going beyond what is likely expected of an intern and really becoming a part of the school. I think my school has done a really excellent job from what I have seen of connecting with the larger community. It is my understanding that over the years the population of the town has changed from primarily white, working class families to a much more diverse population that includes many Latino families. What I have been so impressed with is how the school seems to have done its best to adapt to the changing population. This has been happening in the school as well as in the larger community. My school is very aware of homelessness issues and is able to identify and provide services for most homeless students in the school. They also provide parenting classes in multiple languages for families. I think what I have seen so far is a great example of how schools can provide for students and help them to be successful even when their home life seems impossible to change.
DeleteVignette #2: This is an incredibly difficult issue when a curriculum may not be the best fit for a population. However, changing systemic issues is much harder than referring a child for an evaluation. I think with this issue, the first place to start is to gather more information. Is this happening in all classrooms or just at certain grade levels? Is there alternative ways to provide the curriculum? Is it an issue with the activity, how it's being given, or a management issue? Too often, the first response from teachers is "evaluate them." However, just because an evaluation is completed doesn't mean the changes to support the child would be any different then what they should be getting through RTI. Referring kids has become second nature but we need to start looking at other factors before performing case studies on kids.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree with you! I can actually see this issue potentially coming up at my internship site later on (we just implemented a new Math curriculum); however, we don't even have math interventions to implement with students who are struggling. I would first start by collecting data in this classroom, and other classrooms in the grade. Like you said: is this just happening in this classroom? Or are others having same difficulties? I would try giving the teacher some strategies to address behaviors in the classroom during math drills, that may be affecting progress on the math curriculum. Perhaps some modifications to classroom management will help make the curriculum more accessible. Finally, I would use other teachers as a resource - perhaps there is a third grade teacher who has found more success with the math curriculum. What is he or she doing in the classroom that seems to be effective? Has he or she encountered some of these problems and addressed them effectively? Sure, some students may end up going to case study - it all depends - but for now, they are still going to be in the classroom, and we need to assume that they are going to stay in the classroom and take the state test, and implement strategies to help address their needs, and the teacher's needs.
DeleteReflective Question 1: KL- I definitely agree with you on the importance of connecting with resources in the community and getting involved. It is great that you are volunteering at community agencies in order to build a relationship and to just be part of the larger community outside of your internship site. I think my site does a great job at working with community agencies. Since I am at a school with students with low incidence disabilities, home/school/community collaboration is very important. We have a counselor at our school who is very knowledgeable on agencies available in the community that can help our students and their families,as they benefit from extra supports. We also put together a community resource fair at our open house in September. One thing that our community has that I am particularly impressed by is an ELL center, in which they provide many free services for individuals who are learning English, such as homework help for students, English classes, and community field trips where participants learn how to use buses and function in unfamiliar places. They also provide free translators for approximately 20 different languages, which is useful for parent meetings and screenings particularly in a diverse community like ours. During my first week at my internship site I actually went to an informational lunch at the center, in which I learned about all of the services they provide. Had I not gone I would have never known about the center and could not recommend it to families I work with. I think this demonstrates the importance of having an awareness of community agencies and collaborating with them to support the needs of both students and their families.
ReplyDeleteReflective Question #2- I think that this is a challenge that I often face as an intern and something that I struggled with as a practicum student. I think how integrated the interns and practicum students are into the systems operations of their schools is largely impacted by how the staff in the schools perceive the interns and practicum students. At my current internship site, the school psych internship position has been well established for many years. Because the intern's role is well defined and I felt that integrated myself into the systems operations of the school was much easier. I think being a part of multiple problem solving teams and committees helps to support this integration. I've found that the more interaction I have with various staff and departments the more integrated I become in the school. At my practicum site last year the school had not had a practicum student in years. My role there was not well established and I often struggled in the beginning to establish my role and integrate myself. Integrating myself into the systems operations at my practicum site was really facilitated by my supervisor and through my supervisory relationship. I think the supervisory relationship is central to working through difficulties when working with other staff. My supervisor was able to help me problem solve when working with staff members. She would often give me tips and strategies for working with certain people and intervene if necessary. One of the counselors I worked with was very opposed to working with me because she did not really understand what a practicum student was. My supervisor intervened and by the end of the school year the counselor loved working with me. The supervisory relationship can be very beneficial in helping to facilitate integration and helping interns and practicum students understand system operations.
ReplyDeleteThe supervisory relationships I have formed at both internship and practicum thus far have been very beneficial to system integration. However, I find it interesting that the amount of integration I feel this year is completely different than last year at practicum. More or less, like yours, my school has also had an intern for many years and therefore the teachers already know our role along with the roles they can expect us to fulfill or be involved in. I have found being involved/participating in multiple teams across the school (both special education and general education) has helped me integrate more into the school as a whole. In regards to the supervisory role, mine approached it in a way of providing me with the information and tools but expected me to follow through on my own. Although it’s a very independent style, when I need assistance or have questions about how the system operates, I know I can refer back for any questions I may have.
DeleteLast year at my practicum site, I felt very similar to your situation. I was the first student they had in many years, and often staff members didn’t understand my role or what my abilities were. I found myself spending most of my time trying to form more relationships but because I was only there a couple times a week, it became really difficult and instead I focused on the relationships that I had already built to make them stronger. My supervisor at the time was great with integrating me into the school as much as possible for the time I was there. There were many times I needed feedback in regards to working with particular teachers or how to get my role across to others. For example, in many IEP meetings, I was asked to go watch a class while a teacher was reporting on the student. My supervisor finally stood up for me and explained that as a practicum student I was there to learn and not sub for a classroom. He was also great at helping me form relationships with notable personnel in the building. These included office personnel and administration. He helped me better understand how to work with them when I had an issue. Overall, his role in system integration was very helpful.
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ReplyDeleteVignette 1
ReplyDeleteSituations similar to this have occurred several times within the few months I have been in at my current school site. It has been interesting to see the increased interest in legal protection after problems arise instead of before. This responsive behavior has been enacted by both parents and school personnel, making it frustrating when it is clear the chaos could have been prevented had plans been in place before. On the parent side, some parents have not wanted to label their child and have even denied services the school has to offer until their student is at risk of expulsion. The school team has also at times deemed services inapplicable to students because the particular students are doing “fine” in school and instead they need to wait until something like this incident occurs. Unfortunately then, when either side determines it is necessary, there is often a short time frame for eligibility to occur. I believe this situation could have been avoided had better communication occurred prior to the incident. Parental education about the continuum of services and the possible supports 504s can give may have resulted in a better understanding of the student’s behaviors and ways to remediate and prevent problems from occurring. The mother’s choice however is commendable, as she wanted to first see her son’s response to his medicinal intervention before giving him even more supports (perhaps unwanted by him). This incident therefore suggests a lack of required responsiveness from the student and therefore could be evidence in the following 504 evaluation to his eligibility.
Dilemma #1
ReplyDeleteI did my practicum at a site where social-emotional screeners were rarely used. Luckily, we purchased test protocols through our Personality Assessments class at Loyola to complete our multi-modal assessment, so using university resources might be one way to approach it. I am sure supervisors were aware of the scope of assignments before agreeing to supervise a practicum student, so they would probably be supportive of assignments. However, I am learning more and more that sometimes supervisors have to find ways to work within the parameters they are given by their district or school, and if their district or school does not keep up-to-date protocols, herein lies the dilemma. I actually recently went through the process of requesting my super-supervisor to purchase an executive functioning screener that I thought would be really helpful in one of my current evaluations and I'm sure many more after. I first asked if we had the specific measure, and was told we do not. I then asked if my super-supervisor had ever thought of purchasing one. She asked me about it and what I liked about it. I told her my reasons and what kind of information I used from it in the past. We looked into it, and it was relatively inexpensive, so she decided to purchase it. I think some of the key factors to her decision were the cost-effectiveness of the measure, the high volume of cases we get for attention and executive functioning, and my testimony of what kind of information we can gather from this measure. It made sense, and it was feasible for the budget. Plus, my super-supervisor is often open to new ideas if they have good reason. It is fair to note that every school has their own idea of "evaluation," and some supervisors may be harder to persuade than others.
Dilemma 2: If I was working with a 16-year old student who told me she was 2 months pregnant, but she is very afraid to tell her parents and refuses to do so, I would need to know about the rights of the student and the rights of the parents before proceeding. This is a complex issue that involves considering how the student confirmed she was pregnant, whether the sex was consensual, the age difference of both parties, and the student’s relationship with her parents. After I understood the legal/ethical aspects involved and the details of the situation, I would try to encourage the student to talk to her parents and help her find the best approach to do so. I would ask my supervisor for help regarding confidentiality and my ethical obligation to report the pregnancy to the student’s parents or others as well as any school policies and state laws. When talking with my supervisor about this hypothetical dilemma, I learned that my internship site does not have any specific policies related to student pregnancy. I think it may also be helpful to contact state and national professional organizations about this dilemma as well as the attorneys that the school district works with. I found the following article to be helpful in understanding this dilemma: http://illinois.edu/lb/article/72/39725.
ReplyDeleteReflective Question #2:
ReplyDeleteI think that one way to integrate ourselves into the systems operations is to go into classrooms as much as possible. This way we can observe how students and teachers interact, have a better understanding of the curriculum and expectations for students, as well as making ourselves visible to the staff. I am fortunate that the majority of teachers and staff at my sites have no problem with me just dropping in to observe. My supervisor has been good about encouraging me to spend time in the classrooms to get to know the students and teachers, and at one of my schools, I also help out during a 7th grade Language Arts period. This way I am able to get to know the students, I can observe and work with the students who have IEPs, and it also give me an opportunity to informally consult with the classroom and resource teacher about ongoing concerns with students, or new ones that are starting to “bubble up.” I also attend grade-level team meetings, so I think that this helps me to have a better idea of what is going on in the classroom from the teachers’ perspectives.
As far as working through difficulties with other staff, I think that my supervisors can be a good resource to coach me through working with other staff members if things start to get difficult. Thankfully, I haven’t really had any difficulties with staff members, but I am sure that it will come up at some point in my career, if not sooner at some point in my internship. When talking with teachers or other staff, I will often say that I am still learning, if I am asking questions that some people may get defensive about (e.g. why/how certain things are done). I do my best to come across as non-judgmental, and that all of this is a learning experience for me, and I’d like to help them out as best I can.