Blog assignment #2- MY CLIENT

My client is a six year old girl in first grade. A comes to the Y for the after-school program. A is a happy and social girl. She loves playing with her peers. In the after-school program homework is done by the children and help is received by councilors. After observing the first graders during the homework help, it had come to my attention that A was never finished with her homework, while the rest of her classmates finished in a reasonable amount of time.

Once a child has completed his/her homework they are allowed to play. I often found A playing with the children who were given permission to play, even though she was not finished with her homework. I asked some of the councilors why A seemed to get away without doing her homework. It was told to me by the councilors that there are “some days where A is just not able to do her homework”. I was disturbed by this comment because I was given the impression that the councilors had given up on trying to help A because the task was just too difficult for them.

Because I found this behavior from the councilors unacceptable, I decided to take it upon myself to work with A individually. We began by identifying the problem which was that A gets very distracted while doing her homework and has great difficulty concentrating while doing her homework. A expressed that she would like to be able to do her homework without getting so distracted by her surroundings. Specifying the problem (getting distracted, looking away, etc.) and defining the goal (to have the ability to do her homework without being so distracted…)is an essential part of attaining a clear understanding between the client and the practitioner in terms of what must be done to fix the problem and hopefully reach the desired goal (Bloom, Fischer, Orme, 2009).

For the past few months, A and I have decided to work together to find a way for A to work on her homework without allowing the distractions that surround her to jeopardize homework completion. A appears to have some learning disabilities as well as ADHD. A constantly looks away while I am helping her, and I frequently have to redirect her back to her homework.

Because of some apparent learning disabilities it is often quite difficult to help A understand the homework; when A looks away the process becomes even more difficult because her attention is elsewhere. Therefore I feel that the key behavior to modify is A’s looking away from her books while working on her homework. I am operationally defining that A getting distracted by her surroundings while doing her homework, is equivalent to her looking away from her books that contain the homework material. By operationally defining the behavior that we would like to modify, we are able to have a clearer understanding of the extent of the problem (Bloom et al, 2009). .

I only work with A once a week. Due to an absence one week and a holiday the next week, I have not yet had a chance to discuss the evaluation study with her; therefore I do not yet know how she feels about it. I will have to discuss this with her the next session. I discussed the evaluation study with my supervisor at field work and she was very excited about the learning experience that I will be getting from it. She agreed with my decision to work with A for this particular study and she gave me some ideas for possible interventions.

I will begin the study with the baseline phase. The baseline phase is a “planned systematic collection of information of the target” (Bloom et al, p. 7, 2009); this is done before an intervention takes place. In this case the target is the behavior of looking away from her books while she is doing her homework. I will keep a log of the amount of times she looks away from her homework. Therefore, once the intervention is implemented there is data to compare before and after. This will help the client see if he/she has improved or did not improve from the intervention. For my next blog I will talk about the intervention that I will be using with A. (Bloom et al, 2009).

Reference List

Bloom, M., Fischer, J, Orme, J.G. (2009.)  Evaluating Practice: Guidelines For The Accountable Professional.  Boston: Pearson.

             

blog assignment #1- MY AGENCY

My field placement is at a JCC-Y in Brooklyn, New york. It is a non-sectarian Jewish community center that services its entire neighboring community. It is a not-for-profit organization that offers social, cultural, educational and recreational services to people of all ages. The populations that are serviced by this agency range not only in age but in religion, race, and culture as well.

            In the mornings, I work with three different groups. One of the groups is a basic computer skills class meant for adults that have little to no knowledge of how to use a computer or the internet. The purpose of this group is to help adults who lack knowledge in this particular area to be better equipped to communicate with friends and loved ones as well as to learn how to get quick access to the media so they are able to be more aware as well as more independent.

            Another group I work with is a Jewish current events group made up of well-elderly adults. In this group we discuss the most current and relevant news effecting the present Jewish community at large. I also work with another well-elderly adult group called Coping with Everyday Life in which we discuss various topics that are relevant to the trials and triumphs we often face in our everyday lives. The purpose of these two groups is to promote the importance of socialization in seniors. Socialization is an important contributor to mental health and is crucial in maintaining a healthy lifestyle both physically and mentally.

            In the afternoons I work with 2 afterschool programs. One of these programs is with first graders and the main focus is homework. These first graders all come from the Hebrew Language Academy. This is a charter school in which the second language is Hebrew and it has a close affiliation with my agency. The other afterschool program that I work with is called Omek. Omek is a Jewish education program meant for kindergarten to second graders. This program includes various aspects of the Jewish religion including prayer, weekly Torah portion, Jewish values etc.

            The client that I think would be most appropriate for this semester project is a girl that I have been working individually with from the first grade after school program.  A is a six year old girl that has been presenting behavioral problems as well as learning disabilities when it comes to doing her homework. In the past couple of months I have decided to focus special attention on A to see if individual help will make a difference in the quality of her homework. As much as A loved the individual attention, there was no apparent improvement in either her behavior or her homework production. After consciously observing A for a while now, I noticed signs of ADHD as well as a few learning disabilities that cause her to fall behind in her school work and not be able to keep up with the rest of her classmates.

Aside from her learning disabilities, I think her biggest obstacle is her difficulty of focusing on the task at hand.  It is extremely difficult to help her with her homework because she is constantly distracted by anything and everything that surrounds her. She would rather play then do her homework, which is completely understandable but it also often keeps her from participating in many of the fun activities offered to those students that have already finished their homework. I would like to find a way to help A concentrate better when doing her homework. Even if individual attention is needed, I feel that it is important that A finds a way to focus her attention on the task at hand. This will hopefully facilitate A in learning that with certain structured behavior, homework completion is an attainable goal.