My Internship
I recently completed an internship at Children's Friend and Service Rhode Island (CFSRI) for Early Intervention (EI)Speech Therapy. I worked under a licensed SLP named Joy Munson as well as with multiple other therapists, social workers, andspecial educators. My experience at CFSRI was an eye opening one. The organization works with the at risk and most vulnerable population within RI. These children and their families are often overlooked and unfortunately fall through the cracks of the education system later in their lives. That is why early intervention is so crucial for not only the educational and cognitive development of these children but also for their overall development (physical and emotional) as well. Therapy is conducted within the child's most natural environment at the ages of birth to three which is the home. The families of the children are encouraged to be as involved in the treatments and goal accomplishments of their children so that the "carry over" once EI services are completed is as present and beneficial as possible. During my time at CFSRI, I was able to enhance my skills as a future SLP through direct observation of my supervisor and other team members from CF as well as through development of lessons and materials based upon the clients and their specific needs. But beyond the basic educational skills I've gained, this internship opened my eyes to another side of life that I had no idea was as prominent as it is in my very small state of Rhode Island. Most families I worked with were below the poverty line, living in government house, and were living their lives very differently from what I am accustomed to. However, one thing all of the families had in common was their insurmountable desire to better the lives of their children with the help of CF. To be part of such an incredible organization and to have played a role in the development of these children is something that I feel extremely privileged and honored to have done.
The first objective I had was to Understand and Evaluate an early intervention client (ages 0-3) who receives speech and language therapy services using the Mullen Scales of Early Learning Assessment. I was able to observe my supervisor Joy administer this assessment on on multiple occasions as well as well as numerous other assessments. In Speech and Language Pathology, and in this case Early Intervention, evaluations are the basis for education and treatment plans. The Mullen is used to establish where a child's baseline is and what there present level of speech and language development is. Without them, SLPs for early intervention would be unable to properly service their clients. I felt that this was an important objective because this be a necessary part of my future profession. It was rewarding to be able to and observe the many aspects of the assessment process, and to fully understand the many components that comprise an Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP).
The second objective I had was to Observe and play an active role in the development of an Individual Family Service Plan (IFSP) for an early intervention client and their family, based on their individual needs and required services. All early intervention clients have an IFSP written up for them with the entire team and the child's family. An IFSP, much like an IEP, is a step by step overview of what the parent's and early intervention team would like the child to accomplish over a specific period of time. The Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP) is both a process and a document intended to assist families and professionals in a community in their combined efforts to meet the developmental needs of a young child from birth to age three with some sort of developmental delay. Early intervention as a whole is based around the concept of "family-centered services" in which both the child's needs and needs of the entire family unit are taken into account. For me, this objective was extremely important to familiarize myself with because it is what the a client's plan is based around. It describes the child's present development as well as goals the family and early intervention team want the child to accomplish.
The third objective I had was to Plan a session and develop materials to be used in Early Intervention in-home therapy. Because early intervention takes place in the home, all lessons/ activities are usually brought in by the EI team. The client that I planned these for was a 2 year old girl with significant cognitive and language delays. After conducting and reviewing her Mullen Assessment, I examined that her scored in expressive and receptive language were quite below average as well as her attention to task. The goals put in place in this client's IFSP are formulated from the Mullen assessment. So, her goals were for her expressive and receptive language development. I based my lesson so that it addressed these areas. I used prior knowledge learned from CMD classes as well as extensive research to decide which activities and tasks would be most beneficial as well as age appropriate for her. The first material I created was a schedule in order to establish more focus and attention task. The schedule was created with pictures and ordered numerically and involved activities that were used to enhance her receptive and expressive language as well. I will go into further detail about the use of schedules in the full annotation as well as the details of this particular schedule. The lesson materials I created were a matching board which required the client to first choose between two pictures (characters from specific interests she had i.e. "Dora the Explorer"). Once she verbally identified the pictures, she then had to match it to the same picture on the board. This was a task that addressed first her expressive language delay and then her cognitive skills (i.e. identification and then matching.) The other material I created was modeled after a block-stacking set I had used with many other children. Each block displayed letters of the alphabet as well as corresponding pictures to each letter. The pictures on the blocks were all characters and objects from a favorite show of the client's. Different size stacking blocks are also good for working on fine motor skills as well as the concept of size and counting.
The third objective I had was to Plan a session and develop materials to be used in Early Intervention in-home therapy. Because early intervention takes place in the home, all lessons/ activities are usually brought in by the EI team. The client that I planned these for was a 2 year old girl with significant cognitive and language delays. After conducting and reviewing her Mullen Assessment, I examined that her scored in expressive and receptive language were quite below average as well as her attention to task. The goals put in place in this client's IFSP are formulated from the Mullen assessment. So, her goals were for her expressive and receptive language development. I based my lesson so that it addressed these areas. I used prior knowledge learned from CMD classes as well as extensive research to decide which activities and tasks would be most beneficial as well as age appropriate for her. The first material I created was a schedule in order to establish more focus and attention task. The schedule was created with pictures and ordered numerically and involved activities that were used to enhance her receptive and expressive language as well. I will go into further detail about the use of schedules in the full annotation as well as the details of this particular schedule. The lesson materials I created were a matching board which required the client to first choose between two pictures (characters from specific interests she had i.e. "Dora the Explorer"). Once she verbally identified the pictures, she then had to match it to the same picture on the board. This was a task that addressed first her expressive language delay and then her cognitive skills (i.e. identification and then matching.) The other material I created was modeled after a block-stacking set I had used with many other children. Each block displayed letters of the alphabet as well as corresponding pictures to each letter. The pictures on the blocks were all characters and objects from a favorite show of the client's. Different size stacking blocks are also good for working on fine motor skills as well as the concept of size and counting.
