End of First Semester! (Blog #8)

At the start of the year, I knew I would love iQuest, but I never knew how much. Working with my mentor, Jeanine, has broadened my knowledge about behavior analysis incredibly over the last four months. I've interned around 28 hours with Jeanine's business, Building Connections Behavioral Health Inc. Most of the work I've done has been split between office work and field work. I first learned how to score the Vineland, a book used to assess and scale behaviors. I have gone to Bollinger Canyon Elementary School twice, where I helped special education teachers with activites in the classroom and at recess. Children have always been slighty foreign to me, and entering a classroom without prior experience with kids, let alone austic children, was intimidating. Every teacher was very accepting, and never hesitated to help when I was noticably uncomfortable. Being in such an accepting environment made it easy for me to catch on quickly! During one session I was told to watch a girl named Kala, and before we went out for recess one teacher told me, "Make sure you watch her closely! She likes to sprint towards to parking lot,". Situations like this definitely made me nervous, but were simply routine for the other special education teachers.

In the office, I have sat in on meetings about proper restaint techniques when dealing with violent children, and was volunteered to have the restraints be practiced on me! I have also created numerous goal sheets and visual commands teachers use in the classroom. Sitting in on meetings between Jeanine and special education teachers has taught me the effort and patience needed to control the small, yet unpredictable classrooms. Visual cues and commands are often used in these classrooms, as many autistic children have difficulty effectively communicating. I love hearing teachers personally thank me for making token boards or visuals, saying how often they use them and how much the children enjoy them! Laminating and cutting small pieces of paper for hours, only for them to soon be chewed on, bent, and eventually destroyed, pays off when I see them being used in a classroom. 

I also attended a workshop on play therapy with Mary Ruth Cross. This workshop was something new and exciting, as I was unaware of play therapy's existence until Mrs. Sekara introduced me to Mary Ruth. Sadly, I could only attend half the workshop. Once again, the workshop was full of very knowledgable and accepting people! One thing I love about the world of psychology is anyone in the field of therapy is understanding, welcoming, and open. I have yet to meet one therapist or psychologist that did not leave me a little slice of their knowledge. The concepts and techniques behind play therapy I found intriguing, and a month later Mary Ruth gave me a tour of her office. The organization and layout of an office is especially important when dealing with play therapy, as you need  sufficient space for a play room. Basically, the therapist or mother plays with a child during a session, and that is it! The child directs the play in most cases, and the therapist reflects later on the patient's behaviors and actions. Connecting with our left brain breaks away from our right brain's linear pattern, making us less critical of ourselves and more playful. While at Mary Ruth's office, she asked to have a session with me, so of course I agreed. There was a sandbox in front of me, a room stocked with toys on every shelf, and when she told me to just play, I was stumped. I had a lot of questions and took a very long time to grab any toys off the shelf. Mary Ruth mentioned how children are always quick to grab whatever they want, corresponding to how more left-brained they are. The more right brained we home, the more critical we are of ourselves and our decisions, not letting our minds simply wander and be free. Although I haven't met again with Mary Ruth, the concepts she taught me stuck with me! 

As of lately, Building Connections Behavioral Heallth Inc. just picked up a new contract, which took 3 painstaking hours to edit by the way, and are getting referrals daily! I have gotten tons of practice scoring the Vineland due to all these new clients. Recently, many new clients have been around the Danville area, giving me the opportunity to go to home programs! The first home program I went to was in December with a girl named Cassidy. Primarily, I sat in on a meeting with Cassidy's mother and Jeanine, and made sure she was okay with me observing or being apart of Cassidy's sessions. The next week I met Cassidy. While Jeanine met with her mom, another behavior analyst and I played with Cassidy and helped with her homework. Simply playing with her was a little uncomfortable, because I've never been sure how to act around kids. Having another behavior analyst there boosted my confidence, and watching how she interacted with Cassidy started to ease my nervousness, as I learned from her. It is difficult to draw the line between treating this child as a child, and treating her as a child with certain problem behaviors that we are trying to modify. Although working with kids is outside of my comfort zone, I'm developing and gaining knowledge in a whole new field I would have otherwise avoided. With an abundance of new patients in the area, my experience working with children is only growing faster. The next semester should be full of unpredictable and novel opportunities, and I am incredibly excited to gain more practice in the field!