[humanser] Non-visual observational skills in therapy.

[Kaiti Shelton]

Hi,

Yes, my disability office knows about it, but again I won't have a
notetaker or someone to assist me when I hit the job market.  I need
to learn how to do my job independently.  I know from talking to other
music therapists who are blind that I will have more flexibility in
how I choose to document, and the one I am in regular contact with
said the forms I have to complete are way more in depth than anything
she has to do as a professional, but still, I can't rely upon someone
to tell me these things when the point of the class is to help develop
these skills in me.  My professors know I won't be able to document
visual information; I'm just asking for other methods I can use to
find the same information.

I do keep a cane with me all the time.  I can't really use it in
sessions because my hands are usually both full playing a guitar or
piano, or assisting a client to play their instrument, but I do have
it with me in plain sight, usually strapped onto my backpack if not in
my hand.

On 10/5/14, Serena Cucco via humanser <humanser at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> Hi Kaiti,
>
> First, Karen makes a great point.  Does your disability services
> office know about this?  What have they told you?
>
>
> Also, do you use a cane?  Or at least carry one with you?  This would
> probably also help with your prof.'s understanding how much you can't
> see.
>
> Serena
>
> On 10/5/14, Karen Rose via humanser <humanser at nfbnet.org> wrote:
>> 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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>>
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>
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-- 
Kaiti