Observing and Interacting with Families and Children in Your Setting:

 

The child and family that I have been observing this past week were “Shawn” and his mom “Dawn.  Shawn is an 11-year-old that has Cerebral Palsy (CP).  Shawn has been at the center since he was 2 months old and started Early Intervention while at the center.  I thought that talking with a child and parent that were older and have used the Early Intervention (EI) program would be a great way to find out if it worked for them and how the center dealt with the EI program even 10 years ago. 

Shawn and his parents were told that he would never be able to walk and that therapy would not help him.  However, the staff at the center and Dawn did not believe this for a minute.  Dawn with the help of the owner, Michelle, got into contact with an area EI program and had the therapists come out and evaluate Shawn for themselves.  I learned from Dawn the importance of making sure that as an educator I work with the parents and make sure that I am there for them when they are going through the EI process.  I understood that parent need our support but after talking with her and finding out how much she appreciated the support of Michelle throughout the process was outstanding to me.  From my understanding, Michelle was doing an assessment on Shawn when he was still an infant and noticed that he was not responding to sounds and his eyes were glazing over and mentioned this to mom.  At first mom did not want to believe this information but after going to the doctor she came back and told Michelle that she was right and that they diagnosed him with CP.  Since then they have worked together to get him the EI help he needed and when he started kindergarten he was part of one of the first inclusion classes in his school.  Shawn is now in fifth grade and not only does mom thank the services of EI for the therapy he was getting but the center for supporting her.  Shawn also walks and even plays basketball with his friends when the doctors told him he would never be able to walk.  Everything about this family showed me that Michelle and the family advocate EI services for Shawn and that it definitely helped him became the confident young man that I observed in the after-school program with his friends. 

The first insight that I learned this week was to make sure that I work with the parents and support them throughout the whole process and not just the beginning by helping them get the services but by being there for the family.  I saw that the center and the family were also advocating the services for other families that may need the services.  If Michelle saw that, someone might need services but were not while to learn about the EI program she would asked if the families would be willing to talk to Dawn.  I really thought that it was great that Dawn was so willing to be an advocate herself for the EI services.  I learned from her how important it was to stay up-to-date on the services and even though her son was not getting EI services, anymore she is a big advocate for their services.  The second insight was to never give up on the families even if they are not sure about the services.  To make sure that I am there for them if they have questions and be willing to just be a sounding board if they have questions or concerns.  Sometimes the best thing that families need is someone to listen to them and their concerns about their child and the EI services without an opinion.  I have to thank Dawn and Michelle for showing me that listening is a big part of being an advocate and not just talking about the services.