Cute kids, sad kids, scared kids and sick kids

Since we returned from Christmas Break, it seems like things have been going full force. This week alone I worked on assessments for 6 kids! We are starting to refer some of the reading intervention non-responders for special education testing and then I've got a couple 3 years to do and a couple of parent requests for testing on top of that.

I've been doing a TON of testing with one little one who we are looking at for a possible learning disability. I think she is pretty cute, but I think I am the only one in the school who feels that way. She is very socially immature. As a 2nd grade student, she is behaviorally more like a kindergartner. She tends to crack me up though as you can tell she is used to getting her way at home and she believes she should be able to dictate or negotiate everything to fit her desire - this includes the testing setting. I used a sticker chart with her during testing because I wanted to keep her engaged - it worked. I also would end our testing time with 5-10 minutes of the two of us coloring together (I set a timer on the computer so she KNOWS when we are done). I swear though, she has fabulous negotiation skills. We would do a couple subtests and she would try, "hope about we do one more of these, then color?" And I would again have to remind her of the plan. LOL, I think she's pretty cute, and she obviously has some smarts in her too.

I am loading up on my viatmin c again as everyone seems sick. One of my counseling kids and one that I had been stalking in order to test where both sick this week.  I have been trying to catch a 1st grade for a week and a half now and he finally showed up to school so I swooped in and pulled him to get his testing done. He was so sick. I tried to send him home but the poor little dude stole my heart and said, "I want to stay with you. I like spending time with you." so we did a little bit of work and then I sent him home. Poor baby.

I tried to meet with one of my counseling kiddos only to find out that she had been sent to the dental clinic for the morning. I knew my schedule was going to be extra tight this week so I figured I could just go check on her at the clinic and make sure she was having a good week and then pop out. I walk into the teachers lounge where the dental people were and see my little girl sitting in the waiting area. She avoids eye contact with me and is bouncing her foot up and down and looks completely freaked out. So I sit with her, and sit with her, and sit with her. She is only answering my attempts to get her to talk with one word answers so I am unsure if she even wants me there but I decide to stick with her. She ended up getting half way done then sent to lunch and told she needed to come back for more. So I walk with her to get her lunch and ask her if she wants me to stick around or leave and she finally speaks and says she wants me to stay. So stay I did. Poor pumpkin, I felt her pain. 

My middle school kid threw me for a loop this week. He wasn't one I planned on testing, but I got to the site and heard my supervisor lamenting how she did not want to test him. She had interviewed him the day prior and he was off the walls ADHD. As she seemed like she had a lot of other things she needed to do and didn't particularly care to have to deal with the student I reminded her that she could make her intern do it :) So I took on the kid, not bothering to ask what the assessment was for (my assumption - since it was a middle schooler - was a three year re-eval for Specific Learning Disability). I gave the kid a wisc and he spoke a mile a minute, was very much in need of positive regard, and very unsure of himself. He cracked akward jokes throughout the testing and constantly wanted affirmation that he was doing ok. After the WISC was done we did the Beery VMI (which I haven't done in a YEAR!) followed by the BASC self report. This is where things really got depressing. The kidlet read some of the things outloud and some I helped him on and in the process it became pretty clear that he was a very depressed little boy, he had no friends and believed everyone hated him. He then got to the questions about hearing voices and shared with me that he did. I asked what the voices said to him and he looked down at his hands and said that they told him that he should end it as things would be better if he was gone. This of course led to me asking him if he had ever thought about listening to them and he shared with me that he had previously had two suicide attempts, but he currently did not have a plan/intention to hurt himself. Through some questioning on my part, he was able to list a couple reasons why he wouldn't want to hurt himself and we made a plan as to how he could get in contact with me or my supervisor if he needed to talk. *Yikes* poor kid! Such a sad little one, he's had such a hard life, full of pain and abandonment. :( Needless to say, once I found out why I was assessing him it all clicked: Emotional Disturbance

A day of Chaotic Crisis Intervention

I got called in to assist at one of the middle schools today to deal with the sudden death of a teacher. We were told that today would be focused only on teachers and helping them with the grief and loss they were feeling. The news was not to be released to the students until Monday. The team was two school psychs, myself and the other intern, and three middle school counselors. The day didn't match up with any crisis intervention plans that I had read about. Instead it was kind of a chaotic mess. A teacher spilled the beans about the death to his students, so then they announced the death over the PA system so that everyone would be aware.  I guess this was the easiest way to get the info out to everyone at once, but it seemed like a weird way to do it to me.

The kids lunch period was so sad. So many sobbing children grouped up throughout the yard. I was told to go from room to room to room and no one seemed to have a real plan as to handle it. I did end up talking with a couple of children, but felt rather clueless about what to say. I've read a really good grief book, but it was focused on helping people who were close to you grieve. Since I didn't know these kids, I can't say that it was very helpful in this situation. It was difficult to say, "Hi, I'm Mrs. Z, tell me about all your feelings." Not really an appropriate time to sit down and shoot the breeze to establish a rapport of sorts, so instead I tried my best to give kids their options and thank friends for being together, helping and supporting eachother.

With all the chaos around me, my biggest worries were for the safety of the kids, they were all over the place, and were dealing with the news in totally different ways (as is typical for grief) my worry was that since  the kids were spread all over the place that someone may hurt themselves or someone else in grief and no one would know about it. Thankfully, my worries seemed unfounded and the day went by without any incidents (that I am aware of). Very sad though, it's hard to be surrounded by sobbing people - especially when you never even met the person they are hurting for.

The only thing I can say that I truly brought to the day, was a little bit of the Best Practices that I had read in Psychology Seminar (huh, guess I did learn something in this schooling!). In the pre-talking to people meeting, there was discussion of how much info to share (it is the belief of many that the deceased person committed suicide by OD'ing on prescription meds). I heard all the higher ups (superintendent folk) discussing this as if it was fact and indicating we were going to share this information with the staff today and the kids on Monday. So I spoke up, in my best I'm-just-an-intern-so-I've-got-a-question voice asked, "are we positive that he OD'd? Because I know we just want to share the facts, right?" and my simple question reminded the people around me that perhaps, it wasn't a good idea to spread the news that the guy had killed himself/OD'd before we actually knew it was a fact. So there was my contribution to the day. I was chicken to speak up in front of the other psychs and district big wigs, but I am really glad that I did.