[humanser] Non-visual observational skills in therapy.

[Karen Rose]

Hi – I am not sure but wouldn't ADA require that you're disabled student services program provide you with a reader/notetaker who could function as an observer in this situation? Karen Rose MFT

Sent from my iPhone

> On Oct 5, 2014, at 10:24 AM, Kaiti Shelton via humanser <humanser at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hi all,
> 
> As some of you know, I am an undergraduate student working towards a
> degree in Music Therapy.  Last semester I had some issues in my first
> practicum sequence course.  I was unable to adequately complete
> clinical documentation because I simply did not have the level of
> information the supervising professor wanted to see on the form.  I
> know it was substantially less than I needed to have, and she has told
> me the information I gathered would have not been enough to
> effectively carry out treatment.
> 
> I am working with her and two other music therapy professors of mine
> to solve this problem, because although my musicality and
> therapist/client interaction were great, I have to repeat the class so
> I can get better at observing, gathering data, and completing
> documentation.  Much of the problem seems to stem from a lack of
> understanding of what I can and cannot see from my professors.  I had
> a meeting with them this past week in which I actually demonstrated
> what I could see my professor doing from 4 feet away, so that they
> would get an idea of what I realistically can tell using sight.  That
> seems to have helped.
> 
> One of the problems last semester was that my group was quite large.
> My partner and I had between 10-20 people in each session, but as both
> of us were responsible for completing our own documentation, this
> proved to be a challenge for me.  The first accommodation we came up
> with, at least for the time being, is that I will be able to focus on
> 3-4 clients per session and focus on providing quality information on
> them.  This way I will have a lower quantity of clients to
> specifically target, but can get the information and the depth of what
> my professors are looking for.  I will also do other things like use a
> rolling stool like what doctors use to keep myself on eye level with
> the clients, and I will have documentation time immediately following
> the session.  To help me document things I didn't see, my team will
> meet for 15-20 minutes to do basic documentation together and discuss
> what we individually noticed.  This way, although I won't see visual
> elements of the session, I can document that someone else did.
> 
> I am also setting up a conference between my professors, myself, and a
> music therapist I know who is blind.  My hope is that by bringing us
> together on a call, the professors who know the standards I need to
> reach, the student who knows the challenges I have in practicum, and a
> professional who knows practically how to mediate the two, we can find
> more solutions.
> 
> I am curious to get as much input on this topic as I can though, so
> I'm wondering how some of you in other fields use nonvisual techniques
> to observe for documentation.  If you haveparticular experience doing
> this for things like range of motion improvement, that would be great.
> 
> -- 
> Kaiti
> 
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