[humanser] Questions about practicum and documentation

Wed May 14 03:08:44 UTC 2014

Kaiti,

Sorry you have had a hard practicum.  This reminds me of way back when I was 
studying elementary education, and my advisor (also head of the department) 
kept sending me to yet another practicum, stating I needed to do more than 
my peers, especially since I was working toward elementary education (able 
to teach k-6th grade).  He didn't want to know of any other blind teachers 
cause they either lost sight later in life, had more sight than me, didn't 
know Braille, whatever.  Please don't let your situation get to this point! 
I think you would do well to speak to the blind music therapist for specific 
techniques, and do this whether the college person decides to speak to her 
or not.  Also, could you take turns during a session sitting by each 
resident to better monitor movement?

Best and keep at it,

Sandy

--------------------------------------------------
From: "JD Townsend" <43210 at Bellsouth.net>
Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 10:35 PM
To: "Human Services Mailing List" <humanser at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [humanser] Questions about practicum and documentation

>
> Hello Kaiti,
>
> Do not let this experience faze you.  I would suggest that you consult 
> with the Dean of the program - it is under her direction that the 
> professers work.  At your university there is, most usually, an office of 
> disability services, perhaps someone from that office might help in this 
> regard.  Some folks have invited a representative from the NFB to such a 
> meeting as well. The more folks you can pull into the discussion, 
> including the Dean of Students, the better.
>
> This is not about your skills and abilities, but about how best to 
> identify the participation of your clients during sessions.  I know of one 
> blind music therapist who handed out different types of bells as wrist or 
> ancle bracelets so each client made a different sound.  It will be your 
> challenge to determine what answers your unique needs, try out a few 
> solutions with friends or family, determine what works for you and next 
> semester you will fly through the internship.
>
> JD
> -----Original Message----- 
> From: Kaiti Shelton
> Sent: Tuesday, May 13, 2014 12:57 PM
> To: humanser at nfbnet.org
> Subject: [humanser] Questions about practicum and documentation
>
> Hi all,
>
> I saw Renee's thread, which coincidentally raised some similar
> questions to those I have been forgetting to ask on this list.
>
> I am a music therapy student who has just completed my sophomore year,
> however this year I have ran into some pretty major issues with my
> degree program professors.  Most of the issues seem to be related to
> my blindness.
>
> First, let me preface this by saying I have excellent self-advocacy
> skills, and have never really had a problem with professors until now.
> All my gen eds thus far have worked out well, and even the more
> strict or less open-minded of those professors I have for only a
> semester have come around and been willing to cooperate with me to
> make things work.  However, I have taken most of those classes before,
> or classes very similar to them, so it is easy for me to say, "I'll
> need all printed materials converted into an electronic format or
> braille," because I know that is the drill and what works.  I have
> never taken anything with experiential learning like a practicum
> before, so this is new territory for me.  I feel like I don't really
> know what I don't know in terms of accommodating in this type of
> situation, and my professors have obviously never had to work with a
> blind student either.
>
> I was hoping that my professors and I would be able to work as a team,
> and collaborate to find reasonable acomodations for course
> requirements.  Additionally, I know a blind music therapist from my
> hometown, and she agreed to consult with my professors by telephone so
> that we might be able to have the best of all three worlds working for
> a solution---the student who knows their personal vision issues, the
> professors who know which standards need to be met and where I'm
> lacking, and a blind professional who has been successfully practicing
> for years.  At first, my supervising professor seemed very eager to
> call the music therapist to seek her advice, and she even said she
> knew of another MT-BC who was blind as well who could be of
> assistance.  I went into the semester and the first weeks of my
> practicum thinking everything would be great, and as I started to get
> more confident in sessions I thought I was doing a really good job.
> The feedback about my interaction with the nursing home residents in
> our session s was getting better, and I was getting stronger musically
> as well.
>
> However, an area where I had issues was in the documentation.  I was
> really unsure of how to do it, because a lot of our residents did not
> really talk or make much noise.  Obviously I thought to use auditory
> cues for evidence, but there were still some issues in specificity.  I
> might say, "The residents participated in the receptive experience,"
> and struggle to say much more because I didn't know what they were
> doing visually.  My observations were significantly limited during
> this particular experience, because they were just moving to
> pre-recorded music, and the movement is what is important to document
> in order to judge whether or not range of motion has improved.
>
> What was frustrating was that I had to walk a fine line between
> advocating for my needs and being annoying to my professors.  I backed
> off in my advocacy efforts because they seemed annoyed that I was
> pestering them to call the music therapist I knew to get her input so
> much.  I trusted that if they were that annoyed with my reminders that
> they would do it.  I was wrong, and only received the family education
> rights and privacy act (FERPA) form to sign on the last day of the
> semester.  By that point, there was nothing that could really be done.
> I The forms which would have allowed me to give my professors
> permission to speak to this other woman were not served to me until it
> was too late, and I still wonder why they were given to me at all
> since the professors could have talked to her in general terms without
> breaking confidentiality laws.  I would have much rather have had that
> happen and been a little fuzzy on what was said, and had professors
> that had an idea of what to do or some way to help me, than to not
> have anything happen at all.  The worst was that as a result, I was
> given a failing grade on the practicum for the issues I had in my
> documentation, and I was told "The difficulty for us lies in
> reconciling your accomodations with professional standards," by one of
> my professors.
>
> I really am unsure of what to do next.  Having to take practicum again
> will keep me in school for an additional year, which I have no clue
> how I am going to pay for, and I am now scared that the same thing
> might happen again.  They don't want me to remind them, yet they don't
> follow through with their end of helping to come up with
> accomodations.  When I do come up with my own accomodations, there is
> always something clinically wrong with them.  For example, to allow me
> to see what the residents were doing one day late in the semester, I
> decided to lead movement while walking around the group.  My
> documentation was a lot better that week, however I was told that by
> standing up I was no longer on eye level with the residents, and I
> failed to encorperate foot movement, because I needed to use my feet
> to stand and walk around.  I don't want to annoy my professors,
> because I need them to be in my corner and willing to help, but I
> obviously can't leave them to their own devices and expect they'll do
> as they say they will as evidenced by this past semester.
> Furthermore, I feel like I'm being held back because my musical skills
> and interpersonal skills have grown significantly, and I think in
> those areas I am more than ready to go on to subsequent practicum
> courses.
>
> Has anyone had experience in practicums?  How did you accommodate for
> visual information in documentation, and what accomodations were
> helpful for you and your supervisor to use?  Any suggestions at all
> would be appreciated.
> -- 
> Kaiti
>
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> JD Townsend LCSW
> Helping the light dependent to see.
> Daytona Beach, Earth, Sol System
>
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