My name is Rebecca Nietopski. I am a senior Psychology and Criminal Justice major. I am currently doing an internship at Summit. I am working with Pre-school age children. The classrooms are integrated, meaning that "normal" children and children who have been diagnosed with autism, as well as other disorders are all in the same class.
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Practicum Information/Log
Psy498PracticumLog
site: Dr. Bayer
Activities: 12/20/2004
11am-3pm
I began my internship at Summit Educational Resources. I am being placed in the pre-school classes, where I will participate in classroom activities, as well as collect data regarding the children's IEPs. On Mondays I am in room 101. This is a half day integrated classroom. There are children who are in the pre-school/day care program, as well as children who have been diagnosed with developmental disabilities, such as autism. This being my first day I was introduced to the children. I observed their activities, and the classroom routien. I also was told that I would be collecting data on the students who had IEPs.
12/22/2004
11am-3pm
On Wednesdays I am in a different pre-school room. This is a full day integrated pre-school. Like on Mondays I will be participating in classroom activities as well as collecting data. Today I was introduced to the children. I was also taught about the data I would be collecting. Each classified child has an IEP, which has specific objectives, or goals that the children are working to achieve. In this classroom the children's objectives are grouped according to the different activities (arrival, circle time, centers, social activities). If a child exhibits the behavior specified by the objective, they generally are verbally reinforced and a plus sign is marked on their chart. If they do not act in accordance to their objective a minus sign is noted. After ten trials, the percentage is calculated and graphed. Today I calculated the percentages and then graphed the results.
Activities: 1/3/2005
11am-3pm
Monday-I am in class 101. This classroom, like the other three that I am in, is composed of a classroom teacher, speech pathologists, and classroom aides. Occupational therapists and physical therapists come into the classrooms to work with individual children, as well as organize activities with the whole class.
Today the classroom teacher was familiarizing me with the student's objective charts. In this classroom each child has their own individual chart with their specific objectives. I was given two children to follow through the day. Their main objectives were to make eye contact when speaking, and to verbalize their feelings when they were upset, or wanted something. At this point I am becoming more familiar with the children and their objectives.
1/5/2005
11am-3pm
Wednesday I am in class 103. They are basically caught up with their data collection and graphing so I helped with the classroom activities. During center time I helped out at the sensory motor table, where the children played with dry noodles and small toys. Also during the day I had the opportuinty to observe the OT administer a test to one of the pre-schoolers. She first made a shape out of small blocks, while the child was watching her. The child then had to copy her actions and build the same shape that she did. When I asked her about the test she was giving she said that it was to test his perception, memory, cognitive and physical abilities. She said that once he was able to build the shape after watching her do it, she would then build something while he was not watching and see if he could copy the shape.
1/7/2005
11am-2pm
Fridays I am in class 107. This is an integrated half day pre-school as well. There are more children diagnosed with autism in this classroom. More of the students need one-on-one aides. The class basically follows the same structure of activities as the other classrooms (circle time, centers, art, oral motor skills and sensory motor skills).
Today I was following one boy and taking data on his objectives. His main objectives were to name his colors and shapes. Unprompted he was able to recognize his colors and shapes accurately.
1/12/2005
11am-3pm
Wednesday- I am in room 103. Today after the students had lunch, gym and center time, they go to go play outside. It is interesting to watch some of the students react to different situations. A few of the students who have been diagnosed with autism have a hard time dealing with activities that differ from their normal routien. One of the students uses the excuse of having to go to the bathroom as an avoidance behavior. It was a little cold outside today and he was not to pleased to be outside in the snow and the cold. Even though he had gone to the bathroom before going outside he went up to all the teachers and told them that he had to go to the bathroom. Since they are familiar with this behavior they told him that he could go in a few minutes (and told me to say the same thing). It is nice to be in a collaborative setting, in which the teachers, aides, therapists and others in the room all work together to help each other with the students.
1/14/2005
11am-3pm
Friday- I am in room 107. When I come in in the afternoon there are still two children from the morning class there. They are actually full day students. The little girl stays in the class all day. She is a typical student. The other little boy goes to a behavior program after lunch. He is not actually dianosed with autism at this time, but he is exhibiting some of the typical signs of autism. The children have quiet time after lunch where they can take a nap, read books or play with puzzels. The little boys was playing with a multi-colored puzzel of the alaphabet. Instead of putting the puzzel together, he was taking off all the pieces and lined them up according to color. One of the teachers was telling me how he had the routine when he came to school in the morning to line up certain toys. This is one of the signs of autism. He exhibits flapping behaviors. He stimulates himself (or "stims") off of watching his own hand movements. He also repetitively sings songs, especially "Old
McDonald had a farm."
1/17/2005
11am-3pm
Monday- I am in rom 101. I am becoming more familiar with the children and their objectives. The teacher had me pint off copies of the children's data sheets so that I would have the chance to look at all the data sheets and become more familiar with them before I had to collect data on all the children in the class.
Today I actually did collect data on all the students who had objectives. At first it was a little difficult to keep up with the children's behaviors according to the data charts, but as the day went on I was able to follow and note their behaviors according to their objectives.
1/19/2005
11am-3pm
Wednesday-Room 103. Today I had the opportunity to collect more data on the children. It was a special day because a therapy dog came into the classroom. She is a young German Shephard dog who is going through training right now. Most of the students were excited to see a dog in their classroom. They watched her do a few tricks, and had the opportunity to pet her. Some of the children were a little weary at first, but even the students who are tactilely defensive touched the dog after being prompted.
1/21/2005
11am-3pm
Friday-Room 107. Today I went outside with the class. It was a pretty nice day, and most of the children had a really good time. In this class the majority of the children are diagnosed with autism. It was interesting to watch them play. Most of them did not interact with each other, but just ran around by themselves. A few of the students would just take off their mittens, or even their boots. They would just continue playing, not even noticing that their hands and feet were cold and wet.
1/24/2005
11am-3pm
Monday-Room 101. I was shown what to do with the data after it is collected. The percentages are calculated, which I did, and then it is graphed and entered into each students' own binder. These binders chart the student's progress through the year. Each child's objective is broken into separate steps. If the main objective is for the child to sit and pay attention to the teacher for 10 minutes, then this would be broken down into about 3 steps such as: (1) child sits and is attentive to teacher for 2 minutes. When the child accomplishes this goal for three consecutive weeks, he is moved up to the next step, which might be (2)child sits and is attentive for 5 minutes. After accomplishing this goal, he is moved to the next step (3)child sits and is attentive for 8 minutes. When the child accomplishes these goals, and reaches their objective data is still collected so that the behavior can be maintained.
1/26/2005
11am-3pm
Wednesday-Room 103. The class is pretty much caught up on their data collecting, so I had the opportunity to participate in the classroom activities. One of the centers that was set up during center time was for them to play with little cars and trucks. I was in that center and had the chance to observe the children while they played. During this time I noticed that one boy was a little upset. He was talking to himself telling himself to follow the rules and play with the cars. He would then answer himself and say that he did not want to do that. When I asked the teachers about him, they said that despite his lack of inner monologue, as of now he had not be diagnosed with anything.
1/28/2005
11am-3pm
Friday-Room 107. Today all of Summit had a winter festival. Each age grade had a time to go down to the gym to participate in winter fun activities. They had differnt stations set up in the gym where the students could play hockey, play with snow, and "ice" skate on the gym floor. During this time I was asked to watch one of the students who is known to wander off a lot. A first we were doing alright, but he got bored when he had to wait for his turn to play hockey and began running through the gym. With the help of another teacher aid we caught up with him. She told me that I just needed to keep him engaged in things and that he wouldn't run off. So while we were waiting for the next activity I tried to tell him about what we would be doing, or tried to quiz him on teacher's names or colors of clothing. This kept him mildly engaged for a little while.
1/31/2005
11am-3pm
Monday-Room 101. Today I transferred data to the students' individual books. I then collected more data on the students.
2/2/2005
11am-3pm
Wednesday-Room 103. Today the pre-schoolers began their pre-kindergarten classroom assessments. From 1:50-2:30 selected students from each of the three pre-school classes are sent to different classrooms. They have the chance to participate in classroom activities, such as group story time, drawing pictures or playing in different centers. However, the classroom is run similar to a kindergarten class where only the teacher and one aid can interact with the students instead of the multiple aids that are usually in the classroom. Data is collected on the students who are in the classroom. Today I observed the children and the data collecting process, so that next Wednesday I would be familiar with everything.
2/4/2005
11am-3pm
Friday-Room 107. Today I had the opportunity to sit in on a lunch meeting that the teachers had. During this time the classroom teachers, aides, speech pathologists and occupational therpist all sat down and discussed their morning classes. They talked about things that were going well in the classroom. They discussed each other's strenghts in their interactions with the children. They talked about things that they thought they could improve on. It was good experience for me to witness this meeting. All of the people involved were very positive in their collaboration. They did not focus on the negative, but instead on what was going well in the classroom, and how they could all work together to keep the classroom setting a positive environment for the students and those working with them.
2/7/2005
11am-3pm
Monday-Room 101. Today I transferred and graphed data. I also collected new data regarding the children's objectives. This classroom is composed of students that are high functioning. It is interesting for me to be in these three different classrooms and experience the spectrum of children which range from the high functioning students in 101 to the low functioning students in room 107. It is interesting for me to watch these students interact with each other. They play and talk with each other. They organize games for themselves in the play corner. This is quite different from the students in room 107 who range from high functioning to low functioning on the autistism scale. These children need more attention. They seem to have their own agendas. They play with themselves, with minimal interactions with their classmates. They get up and wander during activities. They do not talk much unless prompted.