Assignment #2

For my project for this semester I have chosen to work with my individual client. My client is a five-year-old boy with behavioral issues. I have been working with him for about three months at this point. In order to make this evaluation different we have started to focus on different and more specific issues. There are many different things that him and I have been focusing on throughout the semester. For this project I have decided to work on strategies in order to help him focus more during class.

My client was brought in last semester by his mother because of behavior problems that he was having at school. He is very impulsive and has a hard time focusing in class. He also has a very difficult time in the lunchroom because of the overly stimulating environment. He has a history of biting and hitting other children. The biting has stopped and the hitting is no longer and issue. He tends to threaten children but doesn’t hit them anymore. He tends to disrupt other children while in school, which has caused the teacher to isolate him during class. Because of the issues that he was having in school his mother decided to get him evaluated by a developmental psychologist. After going through the testing with the psychologist, he was diagnosed with sensory integration issues as well as ADHD. The specialist recommended that he get occupational therapy as well as social therapy. He will be starting with all these services later in the year or possibly the beginning of next year. This history/baseline phase involved both my individual client and his mother. (Bloom e.t, 39, 2006).

The behavior that I have chosen to help my client modify is the ability to focus. My client has a really hard time sitting still even for just a few seconds. Since he has a hard time sitting still it makes it very difficult for him to focus during class. The goal that we have made for him is to increase the amount of time that he is able to sit still in order to help figure out how we can increase his attention during class. This is an observable action. During previous sessions we have had together I notice how hard it is for him to sit still. When he sits in a chair that spins in my office he is constantly moving it through the entire session. I am able to measure the exact time that my client engages in attempting to focus during a specific activity in my office. Since he is so young the easiest way to perform the measurements is for me to do it myself while we are in session together.

My client is very excited to participate in this evaluation. Although he does not completely understand what the evaluation is he is excited to get to play a new game each session. He knows that we will be doing an activity in order to help him focus more during class. My client is very aware that he has a hard time sitting still and concentrating during class. He has stated it to me before saying that he has a hard time remaining in one position. When I explained to him that we would be playing a game during each session he got even more excited. He is excited to be working towards a prize that I have promised him if he follows the therapy rules that we have. Every week if he plays the game and participates in therapy he receives a sticker on his sticker chart. When he reaches eleven stickers he gets a robot toy that he chose earlier in the semester.

After discussing this project with my field advisor I was initially going to be doing this project with my individual clients mother who is also one of my clients. I had problems with this because she has been very inconsistent with attending her sessions. Although her son comes regularly she does not. Because of this I was very worried about being able to do the measurements with her. Therefore I decided to switch the client to do the evaluation with. Since switching the client I have not had an opportunity to speak with my advisor and discuss the evaluation directly. Previously though my supervisor and myself have discussed doing these freezing activities with my client in order to help with focusing and attention. My supervisor helped give me the initial idea of doing this activity with my client in order to make it both fun and helpful for him.

My next blog for this class will discuss the specifics of my intervention.

Reference List

Bloom, M., Fischer, J, Orme, J.G. (2006.) Evaluation Practice: Guidelines For The

Accountable Professional. Boston: Pearson.

Assignment #1

The agency that I am currently interning at is the Y. The Y is a non-for-profit agency serving the surrounding community. It is a non-sectarian Jewish Agency that offers many different types of services and programs. The Y serves many different populations. It also offers many programs specialized for individual populations. The Y offers programs in Chinese, Hebrew, English and Russian.
The Y offers many different types of programs. They offer programs for older adults, children, teens, new immigrants, and toddlers. These programs include educational, social, fitness, cultural, trips, and summer and winter camps and after school programs. There are also specialized social adult day center programs. These programs include two meals, fitness activities, case management, swimming, transportation, art, music, and inter-generational activities. There are two different social adult programs, one in Mandarin or Cantonese and the other one is in Russian. The Y also offers programs for children with special needs on Sundays.
I work with many different populations at the Y. I work with senior adults doing social discussion groups. We meet Monday mornings and discuss current events as well as different topics that interest the individuals within the group. The other program that I work with on Mondays is the after school program with the Chaverim program. This is an after school program that focuses more on getting homework done. On Tuesdays I work in the Alzheimer's respite program. I am the peer leader of this group. There are four different interns in the group and I am in charge of coordinating the sessions as well as planning what the different activities for each day will be. The Alzheimer's respite group is a group where individuals effected by Alzheimer's can come and get stimulating brain activity as well as socializing. Tuesday afternoons I work in the after school program for the Hebrew Language Academy. This is a specialized after school program that mainly just for the children who attend this charter school. The homework help is aimed towards the classes offered at this school. The last group program that I do is called Sunday Funday. This is a socialization group for children with Autism or who are on the spectrum.
My internship also includes two individual clients, a mother and her son. I have been working with the son since November. I just started working with his mother in January. The son just got an IEP at school and is going to begin services at school. Since I don't want him to become confused with all the different services he is receiving I have decided that its best to stop counseling with him and to continue counseling with his mother. I started working with the mother initially because she would come in and talk to me about everything looking for help when I was only counseling her son. Also her son is five years old and behavior modification therapy is only going to be effective if the parents are also involved. After beginning to discuss all of this with his mother I realized that there were deeper issues in the home then just her son's behavior problems.
The client that I am going to be using for my project this semester is the mother. She has attitudes and behaviors that I would like to change. We are going to have to work through her issues with having a son with behavioral problems as well as her actions towards her son in the house. We have to work through the ideas that behavior and intellect are not connected. There are many different things that the mother and I will be working though this semester. I will have a chance to see this client at least 8 times before the semester ends. Hopefully I will have the chance to see the client more then that before having to terminate with her.