My practicum is taking place at Martin Luther King School (School 36).  Martin Luther King School is an inner city grade school and junior high. My advisor is Amy Jo Crans-Stafford, and she is part of a team that works at a couple of schools. 

 

10/21 9am-12pm

 

            My first day was an interesting experience. After I was introduced to everyone, I got to shadow Amy and watch her assess one child who is about 8. This child is suspected to be in the mildly mentally retarded range, and he lacks many basic skills, such as the ability to remember his phone number.

            This child is in a special education class, which is designated as a 15:1 class.  This means the ratio of students to teachers is fifteen students to one teacher. We observed the boy inhis classroom setting, and we talked to his teacher.  They discussed what he can and can not do and eventually he was given part of the WISC IV where he had to choose the picture that best fit the situation.

 

 

10/28 9am-12pm

 

             When I arrived I found out that a brawl had occurred after I left on 10/21.  Another negative note is that one ofthe middle school kids is suspected of selling and doing drugs.  This is the older brother of the child who does not know his phone number. While I have not met the mother of the two boys, it is suspected that she is also mentally retarded.

            I got to observe the WISC-IV being administered to one boy who Amy suspects is autistic.  The thing that sets this boy apart is he says things that are irrelevant to the topic at hand.  An example of this occurred while we were administering the WISC.  After being asked to answer a question he said something along the lines of  “Chucky is coming.”

 

10/30 9am-12pm

 

            I started off the day by reviewing the test results of a girl who has high levels of anxiety and depression.  Amy suspects that this is partly due to her having difficulties in her school.  Amy wanted to put her in a 15:1 special education class, but she adamantly refused because of the label that being in such a class carries.

            I also got to observe a CSE meeting, and it became clear that very little was accomplished in the 2 hour meeting. Basically the meeting consisted of Amy asking for a change, and the district representatives saying they can’t do it or they’ll look into it.  I’m not sure I should go into much more detail than that, but the meeting was pretty much a stalemate.

 

11/13 9am-12pm

 

Today was an uneventful day, and the one thing of note occurred when I reviewed the Behavioral Assessment Scale for Children (BASC) II.  The test consists of a number of different questions in the Likert format (Ex: Strongly agree, agree, neutral, disagree, strongly disagree. 

I have noticed that most of the kids we see do not have a stable set of parents.  In many cases the parents of these kids are around my age.  One such parent came into a classroom and threatened the entire class.  I believe she said something along the lines of "Your just jealous...you wish you were me and my daughter."  Other parents don't have all the lights on upstairs.  Amy has mentioned parents who are probably on crack, and she has also mentioned that a couple parents are not as smart as their kids...who are in need of special education classes.  Another common trend in parenting that I have seen is that the parents do not have enough time to help their kids.  Many such parents are working long hours and just don't have the time to help their kids academically.

 

11/18 9-12

 

 Today I met a boy who apparently has behavioral issues which are affecting his classroom performance.  An example of one of these issues occurred when he left his classroom unannounced.  He had already been given the Woodcock-Johnson test, which is an achievement (measures what you have learned) test.  His results were average-above average in the language related sections, but below average in the sections relating to math.  Amy hypothesized that he may have performed worse on the math sections because she saved them for last, so she decided to give him the The Test of Early Mathematic Ability(TEMA).    

His results for the TEMA were below average, and he has a lot of trouble doing basic subtraction problems.  After the test Amy told me that he had a rough experience in his first grade math class, and he did not get along well with the teacher.  She also said that he was having behavioral issues with his current math teacher.  

When we finished administering the test I got to grade his TEMA.  I did this by first adding up the questions he got correct. As soon as the test taker gets 5 consecutive incorrect answers, you stop administering that section.  Once you get a raw score (number of questions answered correctly), you convert it to an ability score.  The ability score is listed in the test booklet next to the corresponding raw score.  After you get an ability score you convert that to a t-score, which is listed in a separate grading booklet.  There is a verbal, non-verbal, and a spatial section in the TEMA.  Each section consists of two parts.  Therefore, you have 6 t-scores to calculate (2 for each section).  Once all this is done you add up the two t-scores to get a score for the section.  You can also determine a final score by adding up all three sections and looking up the equivalent score (which is given in the grading booklet).

 

11/20 9-12 

Today I got to administer part of the Woodcock Johnson to an8^th grade boy.  I gavethe Calculation, Math Fluency, and Spelling section to him.  The calculation section consists of anumber of math problems ranging from addition and subtraction problems toproblems in which fractions are multiplied and divided. 

The math fluency section is a timed section (3 minutes), inwhich the test taker is asked to do as many basic math problems as possible withinthe time limit.  The spellingsection started with me asking the boy basic words such as hat, yet, andthe.  Eventually the problemsbecame more difficult with the most difficult words being camaraderie, andbouillon.

As with most psychological tests, there is a set script ofinstructions and responses you can give (as the test administrator).  The one criticism I got from Amy wasthat I did not follow this script well enough.  I gave some judgmental statements such as “good,’ and “welldone” when a correct response was given. These judgmental responses can affect the outcome of a test and shouldbe avoided.  One piece of advice Iwould give is to review the instruction manual for whatever test you might begiving as thoroughly as possible.

 

11/25 9-12

 I finished administering the Woodcock Johnson today byadministering the applied problems section.  This is another math section, and it consisted mainly ofword problems, but there were also some pictures.  These problems ranged in difficulty and the hardest problemsgiving me trouble.  One suchproblem was worded along the lines of “You have $10,000 into your account with2% annual interest.  You deposit $1,000each year for 10 years.  What willbe your final total after the ten years is up?”

When administering the test, I had to read the problems tothe student.  The problem was alsoavailable for him to read, but he preferred to have me read him the problem,for a reason I will get to later in this post.  When I finished giving him the Woodcock Johnson, Amy had meadminister an unrelated Sentence Completion Test.  This test gave a uncompleted sentence such as “I liketo_________.”  The goal of thistest was to have the student fill in the blank with a subjectivestatement.  After he finishedcompleting the sentences (all of which were answered in a normal way), Amy hadme ask him additional questions such as “If you had 3 wishes what would theybe?” I also asked him questions about his family life.

After this was over I graded the Woodcock Johnson with Amy.  We used an online program to grade the test, and the results were printed out.  The results had his raw score, a grade equivalent, and anage equivalent listed.  We determined that this 8^th grader performed at his grade equivalent for the mathrelated sections, but he performed at about a 4^th grade equivalent for the reading, spelling and writing sections.  His spelling was particularly of concern because he spelled at about a second grade level. This explained why he needed me to read most of the applied problems tohim.

 12/17

Today was relatively uneventful, and I spent the day reviewing a few kids files.  Two of the kids had hearing disabilities, and one had a learning disability.  Amy had me write out the disabilities for each kid, the treatment each was receiving, and the test scores that each had.  

 1/28

 For the 28th I spent the entire day in CSE meetings.  For these meetings the parent, a GE teacher, SE teacher, Amy (school psychologist), and the school counselor met to discuss a plan for the child in question.  During the meeting we discussed what difficulties the child was having, and what should be done to correct these difficulties.  We also went over the past plans to see if any progress had been made.  If progress was made, we continued to use the same plan.   

 I also learned that there had been several brawls since I had last been at the school.  This is a constant concern for inner city schools like 36.  Inappropriate sexual contact is also a huge concern for Amy.  In one of the CSE meetings we discussed one boy who was touching a girl inappropriately.  The solution we came to was to discipline the boy in several ways.  The first way was to call the boy's father, because the father was the only one who seemed to put any fear in the kid.  The second was to discipline the boy immediately after an infraction occurred by sending him to the principal's office.  The last solution was to seperate him from girls whenever possible.

 

 2/18 8-12:00

 

Today was relatively uneventful, and I helped Amy fill outprior written notices.  Priorwritten notices are needed if any change to a child’s special education isneeded.  My job for the day was tofind out what each child’s disability was, what kind of treatment they werereceiving, and what type of tests each had received

 

2/20 8-12:30

 

I spent pretty much all of my time working with akindergarten girl.  This girl has anumber of behavioral problems along with adhd.  Amy and I observed the girl as she was in a classroomsetting, and we noticed that whenever the girl was reprimanded, she appeared tobecome angry.  When we had a talkwith her teacher, she said that the girl had difficulty taking orders.  The teacher also stated that the studenthad her good days, and her bad days.

 

Amy decided to test the girl, and we gave her a test to seehow well she knew her alphabet.  Ishowed her the letters of the alphabet, and she did a good job of recognizingeach of them.  She then went on toform words with the letters, some of which were real and others weremade-up.  One puzzling thing thatthe girl did was she talked to her stomach.  While Amy and I were in the room she decided to have aconversation with her stomach.

 

3/4 8:30-12:00

 

I shadowed Amy as she went through her routine, and we endedup talking to a number of people. These people included students and teachers.  When talking with the students the conversation usuallyrelated to improving in a behavior related area.  Most of the students we talked to are kids that Amy hasalready dealt with before.  Onething I have noticed is that much of Amy’s time is dedicated to “repeatoffenders.”

 

When we talked to the teachers the discussion usually leadto how the kids were behaving, and how they were performing in school.  The last thing we did was we gave asentence completion test to a 6^th grade girl with a learningdisability and some serious family issues.  This girl was not able to answer any questions that requireda subjective answer, but she was able to answer questions that were notinfluenced by her opinion.

 

3/6 8:30-2:30

 

For most of the morning I sat in on a couple of CSEmeetings.  For one of the meetingswe discussed how to improve the behavior of one boy who acts up a lot in class. A couple of the ideas (forimproving the child’s behavior) were to give him food treats and to call hisparents.  Food serves as a powerfulinfluence in this boy’s life because it was not always available to him. 

 

The other meeting I witnessed was for a boy with mild MR.This boy has been struggling in school, and everyone agreed that he was bestsuited by being placed into a 6:1:1 setting.

 

After the CSE meetings were finished, I observed an 8^thgrade classroom.  This class wasout of control, and the kids were throwing stuff, talking, being defianttowards the teacher, and they were not paying attention.  The boy I was observing was actuallyone of the better-behaved kids, and I filled out a “classroom observationrecord” on him.             

 

3/11 8:30-12:30

 

The first thing that Amy and I did was we tested a fourthgrade boy who has behavioral issues in the classroom.  We gave him the second half of the Woodcock Johnson.  Amy had given him the first half theprevious day, but due to the fact that the child has ADHD, she decided that itwould be better to give the test in halves.  Despite the fact that the test was given over two sessions,this boy still had difficulty staying on task.  He would play with his pencil, and he would get fidgetyoften.

 

When talking with the child it was clear that he hadproblems forming friendships.  Heeven described Amy as being his best friend.  Another thing that struck me about this kid was that he waseasily agitated when things did not go his way.  An example of this occurs in the classroom when he actsout.  Both the teacher and Amyagree that the boy acts out when he feels like he is not getting enoughattention

 

3/13 8-2:30

 

Today I sat in on a classroom for a fourth grade girl.  This girl is speech impaired, and sheis very low functioning as well. She still does not have all her abc’s down, and she has trouble withbasic math skills.  When weobserved her in the classroom she needed numerous prompts to do something asbasic as pulling out a notebook. She was also unable to count by three’s, and she needed instruction tocomplete the math assignment.

 

The next thing I did was I graded the Woodcock Johnson ofthe boy that I mentioned in my last entry.  He performed in the average range, which means he scored atabout the 50^th percentile on this achievement test.

 

The last thing I did was I copied the cumulative records andthe standardized test results for a number of kids.  This helped the psychology team at school #39 prepare forkids who were up for (re)evaluation.

 

 

3/16 9:00-3

 

I spent most of the morning shadowing Amy through herroutine.  She spent a lot of timetalking to teachers about their kids, and the concerns they had.  One problem that Amy has with theschool is that they are “old school.” By this I mean that they do not promote positive behavior enough, andthe large number of out of school suspensions illustrates this.

 

The next thing I did was I observed the lunchroom, and oneboy in particular whose teacher said he clowned around a lot.  This proved to be very true and Iobserved the boy throwing food whenever the lunch monitors were notlooking.  He would also hide behindthe chairs as he moved himself into better position to launch his next attack.  For the last portion of the day Icopied the last of the cumulative records and standardized test results forkids who were coming up for their reevaluations.

. 

3/25 8-12:30

 

Today I helped Amy do research on a number of articlesrelated to school psychology. These topics included anxiety, depression, and OCD.  School psychologists will often look athow other psychologists in the field have successfully handled a problembehavior.  Amy made sure that Imainly looked at journal articles that had an outcome.

 

I also looked through several case files to view the psychologicalevaluations, and the IEPs for kids with different deficits (ranging fromhearing and speech to behavioral and cognitive).  It was a quiet day overall though.

 

3/27/09 8:30-1:30

 

On Friday I gave a Sentence Completion Test to a 3^rdgrade boy. This boy is low functioning, and he had a lot of trouble reading thesentences, and he needed help with almost every sentence.  His spelling was also very poor and Iended up reading the statements, and writing in his response to facilitate theprocess.

 

After I had completed the test, I watched Amy give the WISChim.  He did not do well, and heappeared to become more and more frustrated throughout the testingsession.  As his frustrationmounted (over incorrectly answering test questions) so did his indifferencetowards the test.  We stoppedhalfway through the administration when it was clear that no effort was beingput in on his part. 

 

I then sat in on a CSE meeting.  This meeting was for a child who had behavioral, speech, andADHD problems.  It was determinedthat the child was a great kid, but he just could not control some of hishyperactive impulses.  This wasillustrated when he frequently left his seat during class.  He also was very fidgety when he didmanage to sit in his seat.  Boththe mother, and the child’s teachers noticed that his behavior worsened as theday went along.  This is importantbecause the child is on a medication for ADHD and he takes it very early in themorning (6ish).  It was determinedthat the medication was probably wearing off after noon, and that the child’sprescription should be increased. No one really wanted this increase to happen, but everyone agreed thatit was the best option (based on the child’s inability to control himself attimes).

 

I don’t know if this is a trend for other schools, but I amnoticing a lot of the kids we see have a speech problem or are OHI (otherhealth impaired).  Kids who areclassified as OHI usually have ADHD.

 

3/30 9-2

 

On Monday I helped Amy administer the last half of the WISCIV(for the boy from my last entry). Once again, the boy became restless as the testing session progressed,but we did manage to finish it. After the test was completed Amy had me grade it on my own to see how Icould do.  I graded everythingcorrectly except for one comprehension question where I incorrectly marked offa point in the similarities section. In this section you can get a total of two points for a correct answer,and 1 point for a partially correct answer.  The results were troubling seeing that he scored higher onan IQ test when he was in kindergarten. His test results actually put him in the mild MR range, and he scored inthe bottom 10^th percentile for all the sections.

 

After I finished grading his WISC, Amy had me write up amock report on how the boy acted during the testing.  After I was finished Amy gave me some constructive criticismon my report.  One thing I left outof my report was whether or not I establish rapport with the child beforetesting.

 

The final task of the day was sitting in on the classroom toobserve the boy I had just tested. He behaved well overall, but occasionally he would talk with aclassmate, and he left his seat twice. He also needed a lot of assistance from the teacher and his classmatesin order to finish the class assignment.

 

4/3 9-2

 

Today I watched Amy administer the Dolche list to a 2^ndgrade boy.  The Dolche listconsists of basic words such as “the,” “I,” and “a.”  Amy then tried to administer the WISC IV to a 1^stgrade boy, but she was unable to gain correct answers for anything (includingthe sample) questions.  Shesuspected that this could have occurred due to her inability to gain rapportwith the child.  Due to thisfailure to gain rapport, the test results were thrown out.

 

My last task of the day was to grade the Vineland II.  The Vineland rates a number ofbehaviors, and it’s 4 main sections are communication, daily living scales,socialization, and motor skills. The Vineland is relatively easy to grade, and it gives straight-forwardinstructions on how to score it. The problem we had with it was that the person who administered itfailed to gain a basal of 4 correct answers.  Luckily, the Vineland is administered to an adult familiarwith the child, and Amy was familiar enough with the kid to complete the basal.

 

5/11 8:30-2:30

 

My first task of the day was to observe a classroom of a 3^rdgrade boy.  This boy is a very slowlearner, and much of this is due to his missing a lot of classes due to aseizure disorder.  In the classroomhe was very well behaved, but he failed to remain focused.  When the teacher called on him toanswer a question that the majority of the other kids answered correctly, hewas unable to come close. 

 

My second task of the day was to interview a 2^ndgrade girl.  This girl will bementioned frequently in future logs, so I will call her Amy II.  Amy likes to ask the kids questionsabout themselves.  Some of thesequestions are “What is your phone number?”  “Where do you live?” “If you could change anything about your mom/dad, what would youchange?”  While there were nonoteworthy responses during my administration, often times there is a positivecorrelation between the responses and a problem.  For example, one child said that if he could change onething about his dad, he would make him stop hitting him.  Also, if a child is unable to say wherehe/she lives, he/she has an increased likelihood of having a learning problem.

 

After the interview, the rest of the day was uneventful, andI ended up helping some of the staff with grunt work.

 

5/12 8:30-2:30

 

The day started with Amy administering the RobertsApperception Test (RAT) to Amy II. The RAT consists of pictures, that are to be described by thechild.  It was sad to hear thegirl’s responses, since virtually all of her responses consisted of the person(in the picture) missing their mom. This was due to the fact that she was recently put into foster care dueto her mother being a crack addict.

 

The aforementioned girl was brought to our attention becauseshe had behavioral problems in the classroom.  Another problem that Amy II had was that she was unable toarticulate her words well, which made it difficult to understand her at times.  One thing that Amy does, is she allowsthe kids she sees to have lunch with her on Tuesdays.  She also sees one girl more frequently, and they talkprivately about who knows what.

 

By the time lunch was over Amy had completed her dailyworkload, and once again I helped everyone out with busy work.  At about 1 a fight broke out and theschool was put in lockdown.

 

5/14 9-2

 

Amy was at school #69 today, so she left a task list forme.  The first task I had was toobserve Amy II in her classroom. During this observation, Amy II was completely noncompliant with all ofher teacher’s requests.  She didnot complete any school work during the observation, and she just sat at herdesk with an angry look on her face. The teacher did not really push her though, and I learned later it wasbecause Amy II would become even more hostile when confronted.  I also learned later that Amy II wasactually more compliant than usual because she was being observed.

 

My next task was to call parents to gain consent fortesting.  In order to test a childyou must gain consent from a parent first.  The exception to this is that if the parent ignores yourrequest 3 times, you are allowed to test their child.  The consent form is mailed to the home, or it is given tothe parent through the child.  Myjob was to try and reach the parents via a phone call to see if they got theconsent form.  It is important tonote that a parent can decline testing for their child.

 

While I was trying to get into contact with some parents,the principal brought in a 1^st grade boy who was caught wanderingthe hallways.  Usually Amy wouldtalk to the child, but since she was at another school, I had a little chatwith the kid.  Basically I told himto stay in his seat, listen to his teacher, and to ignore kids who tried tostart a fight with him.  It wasobvious that the boy had ADHD seeing that he could not stay focused, and hecould not sit still for more than a second.

 

5/18 8:45-2:45

 

I arrived just in time to watch Amy give Amy II part of theWoodcock Johnson.  The sectionbeing given consisted of Amy asking Amy II questions such as “What does a______ do?”  Amy II easily becomesfrustrated when she is unable to figure out an answer, and this was the casetoday.  After giving several wronganswers Amy II just shut down, and we were unable to test her further.  Due to this short tolerance level fortesting, Amy is forced to test her frequently for short periods of time toinsure the greatest accuracy of the tests.

 

After we had finished testing her, I graded anotherVineland. I previously mentioned that the Vineland consists of 4 mainsections.  The four main sectionsare further separated into subcategories. The communication section is made up of receptive, expressive, andwritten subgroups.  The dailyliving skills section is split into personal, domestic, and communitysubsections.  The socializationcategory is separated into 3 parts. These 3 parts are interpersonal relationships, play and leisure time,and coping skills.  Finally, themotor skills section consists of gross and fine sections.

 

5/19 8:30-2:30

 

Once again, I observed Amy giving Amy II a test.  This time it was the Dolche list.  Amy II’s articulation problems wereclear during this administration, and she over-articulated every singleletter.  She would also confuseshort and long o’s, and a’s.  Afterwe were done with this, Amy II was given part of the Differential AbilitySkills test.  The sections thatwere given consisted of word definitions and pattern recognition.

 

After this was completed, Amy had me observe a 5^thgrade boy.  This boy is a slowlearner, and he had already been held back at least one grade.  You could tell he was older than hisclassmates because he was a foot taller than the next tallest class member, andhe was more physically mature than most of the girls (girls hit puberty fasterthan boys).  Unfortunately, thisboy was unable to stay focused, and he was observed circling part of thequestion in a multiple choice assignment (This is disturbing because he couldnot tell the difference between the question and the answer).

 

One observation I have made is that there are behavioralproblems are far more prevalent in the older kids.  This was illustrated in the fifth grade classroom where manyof the children were acting up and not listening to their teacher.  When I observed the younger kids (K-3^rdgrade), the vast majority of the kids were not behavioral issues. 

 

Once I had finished my observation, Amy had me bring thefifth grader to her for testing. She gave him two sections (pattern recognition and route finding) of theWoodcock Johnson, and he was unable to answer more than one or two questionscorrectly for each.  Unfortunately,this was consistent with his class work, and he has already been categorized asMR.

 

5/20 8:30-2:30

 

Today was a CSE meeting day and I observed meetings for AmyII, and the 3^rd grade boy with the seizure disorder.  The first meeting was for the boy, andhe was classified as Other Health Impaired (OHI).  This classification was reached because his seizures clearlyinterfered with his learning.  Itwas determined that he needed 45 minutes of tutoring per day for social studiesand science.  When he was out ofschool, home instruction was deemed necessary.

 

For Amy II, an agreement was reached that she had speech,learning, and behavioral issues.  Anumber of issues were brought up including her family issues, and how she justhad a tough life in general.  Themain issue for Amy II, was the inability to confront her due to her hostilenature.  It was decided that thebest way to deal with her behavior was through positive reinforcement ofpositive behaviors such as being compliant and paying attention.  She was also given preferentialseating.  For her articulationproblem, 30 minutes per day of speech therapy was deemed necessary.

 

5/22 9-2

For my last day I spent most of the time reading psychologyarticles.  Many of these focused onspecific disabilities such as depression, OCD, etc.  I also looked through an autism test.  For the rest of the time I did busywork such as copying.