Rosario Caballero Early Intervention Services: Interacting with Professionals, Children and Families.

During my field work experience I had the opportunity to see the speech pathologies give therapy to one of the children. The therapist arrived in the classroom during snack time; she washed her hands and sat next to child. Then she began to interact with him by talking about what he was eating for snack. The child tried to vocalized some words but sometimes the words wasn’t understandable then the therapist reinforce what he wanted to say by saying the word and pointing to the object. The child finished his snack and the therapist asked him “Where do you want to play?” the child pointed to the block area and the therapist said “Oh I see you want to play with the blocks, so let’s go and play with the blocks”. The child ran to the block area and said “truuuck”. During the entire session that was for about 45 to 50 minutes the therapist interacted with the little boy and talked to him, always following his interests for play and exploration. She used all the toys available in the classroom and as well she interacted with other children in the classroom and the children taking the therapy as the same time. It was the half of the therapy and the mom of this little boy arrived, the therapist invited her to join the play, the young mother accepted and all the three were interacting. As the therapy went the pathologist gave the mom some tips on how to talk to his child, not just asking questions but as well describing his actions.

When the therapy ended I had the opportunity to talk to the language pathologist and asked her some questions. The first question was that I noticed that she didn’t bring to the room a bag full of toys as other therapist do, and I wanted to know why she didn’t bring any toys with her. The therapist share with me her believe that  the children who are receiving therapy must work with the toys or materials they have access on a daily basis because that way when she is not present the children and teachers have the necessary materials to keep working in the child development. Also I asked her why she didn’t take the child to another room so that way she could have the child’s attention and they were not disturbed by other children. Her answer was that all the children receiving therapy must take the therapy in their natural environment. Their natural environment is where they spend most of their time and in this case the care setting was considered to be the natural environment for the child. She explained that when you enter into the child’s natural environment the child will feel more secure and confident and able to cooperate than when taking them into a different room. Also when working in the room the teachers have the opportunity to talk with the therapist, observe how they work and keep doing this during the entire week, so the child can continue to work on a certain task.

One insight that I gain is that teachers should be open to work with parents and therapist from EI services, a lot of times this doesn’t happen because the teachers are not comfortable to have other people besides the teachers in their classroom for many reasons. But when it comes to open the doors for the therapist and parents to work in the classroom the teachers need to be flexible because they are collaborating to each other for the benefit of the children. Teachers should create strong and positive relationships not only with parents but also with the therapist to work as a team.

Rosario Caballero Interacting With Professionals

Blog 3: Interacting With Professionlas

During my field experience I have been interacting with the lead teacher, the assistant and the agency pathologist.  These people are of so much help when answering my questions and they are accessible when I’m doing my observations. The classroom that I’m observing has four teachers for 12 children, the atmosphere is very pleasant and the teachers have great communication skills. One thing that I really love about this classroom is that teachers are nurturing to the children. Each time a teacher talks to a child the teacher bend down to the child’s eye level and talk to the child with respect and in a passive tone of voice.  Even when it’s time to change a diaper the teacher approaches the child and asked for permission to check the diaper. One scene that I was able to observe is when the teacher was about to change the diaper of a child with special needs. The teacher approached the child and said “Hi P. I see that you are playing with the trucks it looks like you are having fun” (the child looked at the teacher) then the teacher continued talking to the child “P can I check your diaper? I think you need a diaper change” P didn’t responded verbally but he stared at the teacher and smile. The teacher proceeds by taking the child to the changing table holding both of his hands and helped him to walk up the stairs from the changing table. During the entire process of diaper change the teacher talked to the child about what she was doing and maintained eye contact with him.

The lead teacher told me that “P” is a child with special needs who receives developmental therapy, physical therapy and speech therapy. The child came to the agency 8 months ago and since the first day she noticed that “P” wasn’t developing typically according a child of his age. She stated that she didn’t wait until the 45 days required to make the first ASQ to the child; instead she administered the ASQ  as soon as possible and wrote some observations then she talked to P’s mom and asked her if she had any concerns, as well she share her observations. P’s mom had the same concerns the teacher had and she really wanted help from the teacher. The lead teacher and the family support specialist collected all the evidence they have (ASQ’s, daily observations, and the referral consent from the mother) and called the department of early intervention. Usually early intervention services has 45 days to evaluate the child but because the child’s mother, the teacher and the family support specialist were working together and communicating constantly EI services therapist came to evaluate the child in less than two weeks. During the evolution the lead teacher and the family support specialist were asked by the mom to stay in the evaluation because that way she felt supported.

One insight that I gained is that communication is a key factor when working with children. In the previous scenario we can see that there was a lot of communication between the teacher, family support specialist and the family of this child. Thanks to the excellent communication skills the child was able to get the services he needed as soon as possible and have a better opportunity in life. The teacher also thought me that when you really care about the children you need to advocate for them and do the impossible to offer the same opportunities to all the children.