This week we had a rather wide array of experiences at the Kindering center.  For example, the team had an attempt at problem solving, although it didn’t quite go as planned.  We had noticed that in previous weeks two of the less active girls seems to bring out the energy in each other when playing side by side.  This week, on Thursday, we decided to see if we could try to wake one of the girls up a little bit by placing the two together – this one student was incredibly drowsy and unresponsive during the entire class, so we had hoped that we might get some more reaction out of her if she was paired with the other quiet child.  However, we did not observe any change in energy levels in either student.  To tell the truth, neither one is very energetic in class – even when amplifying each other’s energy, they are still quiet at best on a good day – but it worth an attempt.

            Job specific skills, just like last week, were a surprise part of Thursday’s class.  In a position like Kindering, one must have one’s wits about oneself – one child, at snack time, was overly eager to eat and would not take small bites of his food.  We tried to cut his food into little pieces, but he would just put them all in his mouth at once.  As the closest supervisor, it became my responsibility to keep him from choking.  This was a delicate job, since I couldn’t tell whether he intended to take small bites or not until the food was halfway in his mouth already, at which point I had to yank the rest of it out.  I had never done such a thing before, and I was at first not very confident in my skill in such a delicate job, but it warms me that the specialists trust me to keep a child from choking on his food.  I’m just grateful that I didn’t freeze up and fail to do my job.

            Character development was one of the most prominent aspects of my week at Kindering.  One of the children was incredibly reluctant to leave his mother and much crying and tantrums ensued after she left him for class.  Despite what we had been told about handling tantrums, and despite the fact that the specific goal for this particular child this week was self-soothing, it took all of my control to keep myself from rushing to him and trying to comfort him.  I didn’t know before just how little self-control I had in this area, but being firm is certainly something I have to work on.

            Lastly, teamwork had a role at my time on site this week, except this time, the collaboration was with the mother of one of the children.  I spoke with the mother of the child I wrote about before, the drowsy one, just before that class.  She and I have been discussing how to bring the student out of her shell in class, and at the end of Thursday’s session, I reported back to her about her daughter’s progress and we spoke about her at length, comparing our observations – mine of the child when at Kindering and her mother’s of her daughter when at home.  So far, we have managed to make some progress (although not this Thursday, unfortunately), and I hope to continue to do so in the future.

Oh, for heaven's sake, I'm late again:

This week at Kindering, I was required to gain job-specific skills – specifically, dealing with a temper tantrum.  Every class, we take the children to the motor room, where they are allowed to run, climb, ride tricycles, play on slides, and jump on trampolines.  One child wanted to place one of the cars from our “roller coaster” (a small, shallow track with for small carts of glide across) on the slide and ride down the slide upon this cart.  This was incredibly dangerous, and I, as the closest supervisor, had to physically stop the child from doing so, leading to a temper tantrum.  I had never had to deal with such a situation before, so I had to quickly figure out how to get the child to calm down without giving in.  I ended up taking the cart away, but explaining to the child (while holding onto the child very firmly, to prevent him from thrashing and trying to run away) that while the cart couldn’t go on the slide, he could – by presenting an alternative, I promoted the idea that the rules could be just as fun as more dangerous forms of play.

            There have also been some developments this week in communication.  My mentor has to attend home visits right after class, so there is no time to orally present her with my observations anymore.  However, the first time this happened, I wrote down my notes about every student and left them in her mailbox, and she has decided that I can begin documenting their progress using official progress notes that will be filed with the children’s records.  This provides an efficient way to communicate with my mentor about the children while making sure that the information is kept secure.

            There was also a notable instance of teamwork and collaboration this week.  In a position such as Kindering, it is essential that the entire team is constantly on the same page and works together.  However, there was one instance that stood out to me this week – we were attempting to assess the development of one of the students.  However, each of us had only observed one aspect of the child.  When we began discussing this child at the meeting, we were able to pool all of our knowledge and even think of some new ideas as to how to treat this child’s condition in the classroom setting.

            Lastly, time management had its place among the notable developments of the week.  I have been assigned the task of making sure that all of the active and exited files on past and present patients have been properly alphabetized.  While this is not a particularly difficult task, it is very easy to drift off into a daydream while sorting through the files.  In order to ensure that I did not waste time (since I only get about an hour and a half every day to work with the file sorting), I had to keep myself muttering the first letters of each name aloud.  In this way, I was able to get through more files, quickly and efficiently.

I am so, so sorry that I waited so long to post!  My next journal will in all likelihood be up a couple days after this, but let's just pretend it's been a week, shall we?
Okay, here it is!  Week 2:

Character development comes in all forms – this week, mine came in paperwork.  I’ve always believe that I’m a patient person, and I suppose that in a way it is true.  But I am patient when doing things that I love doing.  For example, I will be incredibly patient when making a teddy bear from scratch as a birthday present.  However, paperwork was another story.  I was introduced to Kindering’s filing system, and although my mentor for this part of my internship is possibly one of the sweetest people alive, and although filing is relaxing for a while…it gets tedious quite easily.  However, I am actually very thankful to be able to find out now that I am not as patient as I used to believe, rather than later.

            Problem solving had a role in my time on site this week as well.  The classroom I was working in had too high of a ratio of adults/caregivers to children, making the children feel crowded and overwhelmed, while the adults were constantly worried about smothering the children.  As the intern, I became more of a floater, since I did not have any specific predetermined jobs to carry out, like the speech and motor therapists – I was meant to emulate them.  However, Kat, my wonderful friend who was lucky enough to get an internship at Kindering as well, has to leave, due to her father's weakened immune system -- it's probably not a good idea for her to work with kids so often.  Anyway, much as I am sorry to see her go, her classroom has almost twice the number of kids than mine, our mentors have come to an agreement – when there are too many adults in my original classroom, I will take Kat’s place in the other classroom.

            Job specific skills were, again, required this week. From my time teaching three-year-olds the basics of karate, I learned how to help a child move without hurting them.  This skill was required when working with a new student, a twenty-month-old girl.  This girl wears splints on her feet and walks with a walker.  Needless to say, she is far more comfortable crawling, and she frequently attempts to lie down or crawl when she is supposed to be trying to walk.  When this happens, I was often the one who had to help her back onto her feet and hold her gently when she tried to twist out of my grip.  I had to be a bit more careful with her because of her age and her difficulties using her legs than I did with the kids in kinderkarate, but it was the same in essence.

            Communication plays a great role in this internship as well, not just with the staff members, but with the children.  A couple of the children are echolalic, meaning that they might repeat what someone says to them, but will not really comprehend what is being said.  For example, a parent might ask “do you want some raisins?” and the child, regardless of whether or not they want raisins, or even whether or not they are hungry, they might repeat “do you want some raisins?” or perhaps just “raisins,” which would cause the adult to believe that the child actually does want raisins.  Part of the job at Kindering is understanding what the child is actually trying to say.

            My goals this week are fairly similar to last week’s goals: to learn as much as I can about each child’s disorder, as well as how I may help to treat them. My long term goal, as last time, is to see marked progress in each child’s abilities during my time with them.