Jenna OMalley

SPED 414

Family Routines Assignment

In an effort to better know and understand a particular child at my practicum, I have
selected a young girl who I will refer to as Rachel for this Family Routines Assignment. Rachel,
who recently turned 5 years old, was born on September 18, 2008. Rachel attends the Urbana
Early Childhood Center in Urbana, Illinois and is in Miss Jamis preschool class.
To better piece together Rachels behaviors at school, I first had to understand things she
is interested and not interested in as well as other behavioral/ developmental aspects of her life
from her parents perspective. In order to find out this information I spoke with Rachels father,
whom I will refer to as Mark Richards. Mark and I spoke at length about Rachel at the Urbana
Early Childhood center for just under two hours. During that time I was able to gather some
valuable information pertaining to Rachel and her home life that allowed me to get a better
understanding of Rachel from a different perspective, other than her teacher.
During our conversation, I asked questions that were made available from the Getting to
Know Your Child, How Can We Help, and The Familys Assessment Focus worksheets.
Among these questions included prompts about the childs interests, favorite things, fears,
worries faced by the parents, and challenging aspects faced, along with many other topics. In
addition to the provided questions, I also asked about any other details of Rachels attitudes,
behaviors, and interests she shows at home during her and Marks time together. The
conversation questions were open ended and, because of this, extended into deep and meaningful
explanations.
From the interview, I gathered as much that Rachel is a very bright, adventurous, and
compassionate child. She interacts well with others and is quick to show affection through
giving hugs, holding hands, or flashing a warm smile to the people around her. Rachel is also a
social child-- often playing and interacting with others when she has the opportunity, but will
often lose interest in the activity rather quickly. One of the things that pleased Mark the most
about his daughter Rachel was her social and compassionate side and her ability to interact well
with others.
Rachel loves the outdoors and animals, especially exotic animalswhich she has an
extensive vocabulary of and can name several different kinds. Given the opportunity, Rachel
would run around outside, play on swings, and climb around all day. This was something that
concerned Mark, as he has some physical impairments due to an injury he sustained at work.
Since Rachel does like to run free, Mark worries that this might translate into trouble for Rachel
as she might run or wander into a dangerous situation. Furthermore, Mark described Rachel as
having a lack of a fear factorhaving no sense of when she is in danger or not. For this
reason, Mark often worries that Rachel will stumble into a hazardous situation accidentally and
not realize the severity of the danger until it is too late.
Due to Marks injury, he has been unable to work, and since has been at home with
Rachel. During that time, Mark describes a true bond and connection that has formed between
the two of them, thanks to the additional time they now have together each day. Mark explains
that Rachel has a sort of open-ended schedule at homeone in which she is free to do as she
pleases in the house. However, Mark does detail that Shelby typically comes home from school,
washes up, watches TV or plays with her iPad, does flashcards or plays with her other toys, then
has dinner, takes a bath, and gets ready for bed on a day to day basis. Mark explains that some
of Rachels favorite shows include Paw Patrol, Oobi, Umizoomi, and Wonderpets.
Mark describes that he is often amazed when Rachel verbalizes information she has retained
after having watched these programs.
Mark also described certain rituals he and Rachel take part in each day. Among these
include her ritual of playing with her duck collection. Each day, Rachel will load up her toy
duck collection that is kept in her room onto a wagon and bring them out into their family room.
She will then lay down multiple pillows and blankets in order to make a sort of cozy fort to play
with her ducks in. A particularly interesting point that Mark shared was Rachels tendency to
play with her ducks in pairsa trend that Rachel carries over into her interaction with other toys;
as Mark describes Rachel as fascinated with pairs.
Mark explains that Rachel is primarily independent, with the exception of bathing and
toileting which she needs some assistance with. Rachel will feed herself, but is often picky with
what she chooses to eatoften times rejecting food at meals and instead grazing and having
little bits of food periodically throughout the day.
In reference to goals specific to Rachels development, Mark describes having a tendency
to not make specific goals for his daughter. He feels as though Rachel operates on a day to day
basis, often changing her moods, interests, and abilities with each passing day. For that reason,
Mark feels as though he is setting himself up for failure if he was to find Rachel not adhering
to any specific goals he made for her. That being said, Mark would, however, like to see his
daughter make progress towards becoming fully potty-trained in the near future as it seems as
though she has made some regression in this area. According to Mark, Rachel was fully potty-
trained by the end of last year, and, over the summer she began to have accidents which became
so frequent that they had to put her back into diapers. Since then, she is wearing pull ups and
using the potty but is still having accidents, although they are not as frequent. In addition to
becoming fully potty-trained, Mark would like to see his daughter continue making
improvements with following directions. Since the beginning of this school year, Rachel has
shown improvements in her ability to not only hear and follow directions but to vocalize when
she wants or needs somethingan important aspect in becoming aware of her surrounding and
her needs and gathering information and direction in relation to the world around her.
Rachel is an intelligent young girl with an extensive vocabulary and refined fine and
large motor skills. Mark describes his daughter as having such potential and ability to learn, but
lacking the ability to consistently verbalize what she knows. Mark also describes some fears of
his daughter regressing in terms of things she has already learned and shown mastery in-- like
how she showed regression with potty training. Mark worries that she will lose words she has
locked in her vocabulary if she doesnt get a chance to vocalize these words often.
After having this experience of conversing with Rachels father, I would suggest moving
away from the traditional filling out worksheet procedures of getting to know someone and
instead translate those questions into a real, in-depth conversation; as I believe there is only so
far written responses can elaborate on. Instead of using that approach, I asked the questions and
jotted down Marks responses but also elaborated on certain questions and focused on certain
information in my own words rather than relying on the paper. Furthermore, I would propose to
continue to follow this approach in future meetings with Rachels parents. I would suggest
jotting down some notes or direct questions I would like to have prior to the meeting than asking
them face-to-face during an opportunity that allows ample time to discuss, as conversations of
this nature often lead into fully developed discussions. Another way I propose to keep in touch
in between meetings is via email or phone calls just sending little updates on any progress or
regression I have seen, and points of interest to highlight, or any resources that have come into
my path that I feel necessary to share. Furthermore, as I am lucky enough to see Rachels father
most days when he drops her off at school I often get the chance to chat briefly about how her
day was after school, any new information or concerns that have arose, or any other pressing
information important to share.
In the future conversations with Rachels family I would like to know more about how
Rachel is improving with her ability to follow routines as often times she will show ability to
stick with following an activity flawlesslyfor example walking to her car from school; while
other days she will seriously struggle with walking to the car without running around the parking
lot or all around the car before getting buckled in. I would like to know more about how the
strategy put into place is working for Rachel on sticking with this routine and really following it
appropriately. Furthermore, I would be interested to know more about if Rachels parents have
made any interest in forming and implementing specific goals for their daughters. If so, I would
like to know what these goals are, what they are doing to work towards these goals, and if there
is anything that can be done at school to aid in achieving these goals.
Overall, I felt that this was a great, enriching experience that allowed me to not only get
to better know my target child, but to better understand her home life and family as well. I felt
that the questions provided and elaborated on were relevant and enlightening as to who my target
child was. I believe Rachels father also felt that this conversation was successful because he
was able to voice his concerns or comments and I was able to respond appropriately, providing
insight or opinions when necessary. I dont think that I would do anything different in future
conversations because I believe that the open, non-threatening environment and questions
created an atmosphere that allowed free flowing conversation which added to the success of the
experience.