My name is Megan Schoos, and I am a senior. My major is psychology with a minor in school psychology.

Spring 2007 Internship
This semester I am doing an internship at Gateway-Longview Therapeutic Preschool. This preschool provides special education for three and four year old children with social emotional and behavioral delays. The schools ultimate goal is for each child to increase their social emotional and behavior skills, helping to support them in a transition to a less restrictive classroom setting later on. The school runs from 9 in the morning until 2 in the afternoon, and consists of a gross motor area, an outside play area, and has rooms for individual counseling sessions and parent meetings. Specific therapy services are provided that are based on the individual education needs of each child. All evaluations and the Individual Education Program is shared with the therapeutic preschool from the child’s school district. When the transition occurs to go from the preschool to a kindergarten age school program, the preschool helps the child’s family and new school in planning for the child’s educational needs.

On my first day at the preschool, I was able to attend an intake session. An intake is when a new child is entering the school, the child and the parents/parent come to get familiar with the school and fill out some paperwork. First, they had the boy stay with what was going to be his new class to get to know them, while his mother came to fill out the paperwork. I was allowed to stay in the room when this was going on after the mother was assured all her information would be kept confidential. It was a very long and thorough process; some things that they went over were medical history and any medications he might be on, past schools he might have attended or if he is currently involved with any other program. Also family history and who is involved in the boy’s life currently. One thing I found very interesting that they did was have the mother fill out a sheet of all the boy’s likes and dislikes. This would not only be beneficial to the preschool but also will be for the boy. After this process was finished I was given the opportunity to look over some other children’s files that were already attending the preschool. And saw all work that goes into actually accepting and finally entering the school. On my second day, I observed several different classrooms to get a feel for how things were run in the school. After this I sat down with the woman in charge of me and we both decided that I would learn the most if I was directly in the classroom interacting with the children.

After a couple weeks in the classroom, I got more familiar with their routine and how things go in that particular class. I was put into a room that had 14 children and three teachers. It is an integrated class that has half the children from the Gateway program and the other half from Headstart. The Headstart children are there mainly for the reason of low income difficulties in their families. The reason for the integration is because the kids from Gateway do mostly have behavior difficulties however, they act better than the other children in the preschool that are in classroom where there are just six of them. For instance, there was one boy that was in the classroom, but he was constantly acting out, kicking, screaming, and often needed to be physically restrained. As a result a few of the other kids in the class would begin to act inappropriately too and would prompt bad behavior from them because of this boy’s actions. It took a while but the boy was finally removed from that classroom and put into another one with children similar to him. One of the teachers told me that he should have never been placed into this classroom based on his behavior compared to everyone else. Since then, there has been a distinct difference after he was removed and placed somewhere else, the other children began acting much better because they did have the boy there as an example. The schedule in the class is very structured. There is a set time for everything and the children never spend too much time at on any one thing. They do the same activities at the same times everyday. This way it gets the children into a routine of doing things and they know what to expect.

One thing I often see in the classroom is part of the applied behavior analysis concept. Since most of the children at the preschool are there because of behavioral problems, they are often acting inappropriately. In order to help encourage some behaviors I see reinforcement with teacher attention frequently. The teachers are always giving praise to students for their good behavior but once they start to say something inappropriate or talk when they are not suppose to, the teachers begin to ignore the behavior. One student in particular whines all the time if he does not get his way or his questions answered. However, the other day when I was there he happened to be having a very good and positive day. He was doing everything he was asked to do and did not complain when he did not get his way. Each time the boy did something good, he got praise from the teachers, such as by telling him he was doing a very good job or that he was having a great day. At rest time when he did not get the book he wanted, he started to act out by crying because he did not get the book he wanted. All the teachers simply ignored him until he stopped. This worked, and soon he stopped. The moment he was exhibiting good behavior again the teachers started back with their words of encouragement and praise. Although this technique worked with this individual, it does not work with all the students. A different little boy often misbehaves in the classroom by running around, knocking things over on purpose, or simply not putting away the toys he has been using. When this happens the teachers try to cope with his undesirable behaviors by using negative reinforcement. They use this by if he is not acting the way he is suppose to then they will hold back certain things until he decides to act the right way. For example, if he does not pick up his toys when the rest of the class does, then he will be held back from some activity that he really enjoys, like play time in the gym or playing outside until he decides to cooperate. This usually works pretty well with him because he does not want to miss out on those activities so this makes him quickly respond by cleaning up his mess.

Throughout the semester I was trying to apply certain things that I had learned or was learning in some of my classes; one thing that I noticed the most was that using a token system could have worked extremely well for this classroom. In the last two days I was there, they did start using something of that sort by giving the children stickers if they had no time-outs for the whole day. For the most part, the children were quite excited to receive stickers; the only downfall I saw in this was that maybe the kids would get tired of getting stickers and receiving nothing else. Since these stickers did not lead up to anything bigger if they earned enough of them such as being able to watch a movie, or get a treat of some sort at the end of the week. I thought they had the right idea behind it just needed to go a little further with it.

Prior to this experience I have never worked with children so close like this. I think it was extremely beneficial for me because if I eventually go to graduate school for school psychology I was interested in working with children around this age group. So it was interesting for me to watch and see how the children were and how they acted just to get an idea of what I could possibly expect in the future. Some the teachers in the classroom often joked around about how I probably would never want to work directly in a classroom setting again like I had, however, I enjoyed it and thought that doing that definitely gave me the experience that I hoped to take from this opportunity.


Fall 2006 Internship
This semester I am doing an internship with S.A.V.E. which stands for Students Against Violence Education. The goal for this program is to educate students kindergarten through 8th grade on non-violence. There are different areas for different age groups, specific focuses for grades K-4 are being a friend, bullying, abduction, learning to tell, and making choices. Grades 5-8 focus more on issues such as getting help, bullying, drugs/alcohol, peer pressure, responsibility, decision making, and consequences. The program offers school assemblies and/or training sessions for faulty members and parents on these issues. At the beginning stages of this internship my job is to contact schools and send information to them to see if they might be interested in bringing this program to their school. So far we have found several schools interested in S.A.V.E. Now we are working on setting up dates to go to the schools. Although there are many schools in Buffalo and around the Western New York area it has been slightly difficult because some schools already have a program similiar to this, for example D.A.R.E. But we are still in the process of booking assemblies. Our ultimate goal for this semester is to get 8-10 schools to participate in this program.

Well we are currently still booking assemblies, there are about 8 schools interested we just have to get confirmed dates that will work for both the program speakers and the schools. On Friday, October 6th we were suppose to have our first assembly. I went to the school to observe the presentation, however when I got there I was told it had been cancelled previously that morning because the school did not realize they had a half school day which caused them to not be able to fit it in their schedule that day. So I received dates from the teacher to reschedule later on in October during the school's spirit week. That was slightly irritating since they did not give any of us much notice of the cancellation. I was really looking forward to seeing how these assemblies go. But luckily, we are suppose to have another one booked for this Friday, October 13th. Other things I have been doing well spending time in the S.A.V.E. office is, organizing everything in the filing cabinet because many papers are misplaced. Some letters are old and need to be rewritten which is also being done, such as informative and/or conformation letters. Hopefully this assembly will go through this week and I will be able to see what is explained and taught to the children.

With the storm that happened in October it forced us to cancel the assembly that was scheduled for the 13th and also on the 20th. So after returning to the office we concentrated our time on trying to reschedule the assemblies. Unfortunately, one of the schools were not able to reschedule due to having not enough funds to afford one. But we were successful in setting up a couple assemblies for one school which are scheduled to take place on November 15 & 16. A couple weeks before our scheduled assembly me and the other two interns in the office set up a meeting with the state trooper who is going to be the main speaker for these assemblies. Since none of us had ever meant him before we thought it would be a good idea to become accquainted with him, also it gave us an opportunity to go over the layout and what will take place in these assemblies. In addition to setting up assembly dates a new task that we are working on in the office is working on trying to receive a grant. Since S.A.V.E. is a non-profit organization we have been running into the problem of funds. Many schools are not able to participate in the training sessions and/or assemblies since it asked that they pay a donation fee for the services. So these grants that we are working on would help to pay for things such as this. For these grants it is required that we write a grant proposal narrative. In this proposal we are to explain the mission of the organization, a past budget plan, along with what the expected outcomes will be for the program and how we will measure the progress. Also during one of my scheduled working days in the office my supervisior asked me and another girl in the office if we would like to come watch her do an individual class session with St. Vincent de Pauls school which is the school that this program originally started. This session took place with the 7th grade which my supervisor has been working with ever since kindergarten. We observed how the children interacted with her and she asked them questions that she taught them all the way back into their earlier years. It was amazing to see how much these children had remembered and had been taught without even being warned they were going to be asked all these questions from the past. It showed me that this program and its main objectives are really being used and are important for children to learn. We thought it would be a good idea for a few of these children to come and participate in some of the upcoming and future assemblies that we have booked. All of them but a few were thrilled and wanted to take part in them, we thought it would be a good idea for the children that are going to receive these assemblies to see how children of their own age have benefited from them and can relate more with them. So at our upcoming November assembly we are hoping and planning to have two of the students from St. Vincent de Pauls to speak and one shy and timid child just come to observe. Along with all these things taking place, the board members and committee are also trying to work out a location for their annual fundraiser which usually takes place in December. The interns and I have been attending the recent board member meetings to see what takes place during them and also to see what our tasks are going to entail once the fundraiser gets underway. Right now, it is still up in the air and it is possible that it will get moved into a later month such as January or Febuary.

We had our first assemblies today and yesterday that were held at a Charter School in Buffalo. The school itself was very unorganized when it came to having the students attend the assembly, throughout the whole time period children were walking in and out. There was no supervision of the kids from a teacher. The State Trooper did all of the talking because we had a limited time, since we found out at the last minute that we were only going to have a half an hour instead of the whole hour that was orginally planned. The whole focus of these particular assemblies was the topic of bullying. Some of what was covered includes, defining what bullying is, the types and examples that bullying can come in, where bullying is most likely to occur, what one should do if this is happening to them or they see it happening to another. The kids which were in grades 5-8 all seemed very interested with the topic, when asked questions, multiple hands rose every time to answer them each time giving correct and reasonable answers. I noticed one girl in particular that was answering every question and I got the impression that she might of been a victim of bullying so I hope that today was able to help her in some way. Overall, I think it was very helpful for the children to hear and learn about bullying. I, myself, was bullied throughout middle school and I think I would of found this very beneficial to know when I was younger. However, I think there are some limitations in only doing one assembly at a school. I do not think it is as effective just having one session. It would be much better if sessions are taught weekly or monthly to get concepts better taught and learned.

Overall, I feel this whole experience has been very beneficial for me. I learned one great aspect about myself, that when forced under pressure I know that I am able to converse with important administrative officials. For example, only three days into the internship, barely knowning anything about the program and I had to call school principals to promote and book assemblies. Usually this is was not an easy task for me to do and I tend to be more introverted. It has also helped me to see several other different things. I have found that non-for-profit organizations are very hard to keep going if you do not have the right and dedicated people to support and run it. It seems to me that board members of S.A.V.E. have too many other obligations on their plate thus causing them to only give half an effort to the program. Such as when monthly meetings took place, only 1/3 would show up to these important meetings. Due to the fact that an organization needs full participation from its members, it causes a lot of problems in decision-making processes. There were a couple times when the board needed at least 5 members to approve a decision for an upcoming event or new member initiation. S.A.V.E. is having a fundraiser together with the new restaurant, "The StillWater" in December in hopes of raising at least $3000. They need this money to help defray the cost of operating expenses and to allow assemblies to be of no charge since the main objective of this program is for children to learn about anti-violence. The fundraiser I have learned is very hard work. Many things go into operating an event, such as getting donations from other services and restaurants to use in an auction to help raise some of the money, also to have food and entertainment for the event, invitations, setting up etc. They are all very time consuming projects, so in order to be a member for a non-for-profit one should be very dedicated and must believe in the organization and what it can do for the community. But with hope for the fundraiser to raise more money than expected not only to keep the organization on track but also so that there will be no need to ask for a donation from the schools interested in having assemblies because after talking to some of the administration I found out that many of the Buffalo school districts would love to have assemblies or training sessions to help benefit the students it is just that they can not afford it financially. S.A.V.E. is a great idea and has helped many children to be educated on the important topics of non-violence, hopefully this fundraiser will go well and it will allow the organization to raise money to help continue to run it.



Annotated bibliography:
The topic that originally interested me for my annotated bibliography was school phobia, but when I searched for articles on it only came up with 3 articles. So the next area that interested me was Attention Deficit Disorder with Hyperactivity. These topics interested me because I had just got done learning about them in my child psychopathology class and wanted to learn more about them. I used the theasaurus to find options with "intervention" and decided on school based intervention. So when I searched ADHD and school based intervention the search engine came up with 33 articles. But not all of them were PDF so I ended up using all different types of interventions and treatments.

I ended up using a variety of different articles that ranged from interventions using computer programs to help at risk children for ADHD to natural treatments for the disorder even to medication for treating children suffering from ADHD. After reading all the articles I saw that medication especially methylphenidate was considered the one of the most effective treatments however not all parents want to put their children on medication. So other treatments were experimented with. After going through all my articles I realized that parents play a key role in whether or not their children receive help. One of my articles was based on the notion that culture variations play a big role in whether or not the child is diagnosed and treated. Results were able to show that African-American parents were less knowledgeable on the disorder and did not show as many concerns. This lack of knowledge prevents treatment or intervention which could ultimately hurt their child in the long run, academically and socially. One study showed that families who have children with ADHD have a much tougher lifestyle, with more stress, and less social support. So then I quickly realized the faster ADHD is detected the better the outcome for the children and the families. Many of the studies were done on children who were at risk for the disorder and did not actually have it yet.

After reading all my articles I was able to see that every study no matter how successful there is always limitations to them. For example, some studies only took place in one location in one state and were not completed all over the country. Also sometimes the studies contained only a few participants and all of the same sex. Many of the results came from parent observations which could effect results, also some studies the researchers were not blinded on the topic and knew what they were looking for which could also significantly effect results. Also not all of the studies were longitudinal that took place over a period of years.

One article I found particulary interesting was of natural treatment. The article showed that children exposed to the natural environment, such as a farm or backyard was able to reduce symptoms of ADHD in children. Which I find very valuable, especially for families who can not afford expensive treatments and medications. But in the end I realized that out of the many different treatments and interventions there are each works differently for every child, where one might be beneficial to one child, a different one could be better for another child.




I interviewed Terri Reeves at Gowanda School on Feb. 9th.

These are some of the questions I asked her:

What kind of schooling background do you have?

• I got my Undergraduate degree at Fredonia State majoring in Psychology and a minor in Education. And I went to Alfred State for my Masters.

What does your day consist of?

• My day mainly consists of assessments, classroom observations, consultation with teachers, and behavior programs. Also sometimes I have meetings to attend and a child study team. Some of the negative aspects in my opinion are huge amounts of paperwork, documents, and reports to always fill out.

How often do you interact with the students parents?

• I interact with the children's parents very frequently. I talk with parents everyday.

What situations do you deal with most frequently?

• The situation I would have to say I deal with most often is children who are not succeeding academically as well as they should be and I help to try and turn that around. But sometimes it can be difficult when there is resistance of the parents who thinks their children do not need special education.

Do you enjoy your job?

• I enjoy my job most days. I always knew that I wanted to work with children so it was a good choice for me. This is the type of job where you never know what they will be doing that day. You could have an entire day planned out and last minute it might change because something else new came up. So if you like the type of work where it is not consistent and routine that it is a great positive aspect to the job.

Dr. Bayer's questions:

Which providers of services in the community do you use for outside referrals?

• Most often the child's pediatrition, and clinical psychologists.

What special intervention services do you offer in your building that you think are particularly effective?

• Well it all depends on the child, every teacher in the school is trained in helping children with reading disabilities since that is the most significant problem about 80% of the time. I also work with the school counselor a lot to work on behavior modification techniques, and remedial reading and math.

What outside agency educational programs does the district use? Any impressions on their strengths and weaknesses?

• We have access to BOCES however there is not many kids involved only two children right now. There are many more older kids that are involved in it. Also Randolph Academy, Gateway Longview for children with young behavior problems. The weakness is that sometimes the child does not attend school if they are not in a familar area. But the strengths are that there is much more staff and they are managed much more intensely.

Overall, I thought the idea of the interviews was very beneficial for me since I do want to continue in this field of study. I chose Gowanda because it was where I went to school, and I decided to interview Terri Reeves because she is the school psychologist for children K through 4th which is the age I would like to work with. Some of her answers to the questions I asked I had expected however, at some points I got the feeling that she might not enjoy her job as much as I thought or hoped she did. Since this is not her first school she has worked in, she seemed to like her job much better when she was in a bigger district. I have always wanted to work with children and be able to help them so I think that I still feel I want to follow along in this direction. Even though it discouraged me somewhat when I got the impression she did not enjoy her job, after hearing about what it entails it still sounds very appealing to me. After I was finished asking my questions she was nice enough to take more time out of her schedule to show me around the school to the different classrooms and see the children which I enjoyed immensely!

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