Jennifer Celtrick

February 22, 2015

Lyle Torrant Center

Provider of Care
The majority of students in the classroom I was in had cognitive impairments resulting
from Cerebral Palsy, a neurological condition that largely results from an abnormality of the
portion of the brain that controls muscle movement with signs and symptoms that appear
before age 3. Children have poor muscle control and tone, exaggerated reflexes, walking on
toes, scissors gait, to name a few. Seizure disorder was also present for a few of the students
and was related to their primary neurological disorder. They ranged from brief episodes of
absence seizure, where the student would stare off into space and there may be a slight head
twitch to other episodes of full body stiffing, involuntary urination, and difficulty breathing.
Another condition in the classroom was Mitochondrial Myopathy, which affected the muscles
at the mitochondrial level which resulted in muscle weakness, poor coordination and balance,
exercise intolerance, seizures, and learning deficits. Other complications include impaired
vision, heart defects, diabetes, and stunted growth. There was also an example of Echolalia, a
condition of saying the same word or phrase repetitively, which is often seen in children with
conditions such as autism, Aspergers, blindness, and cognitive impairment. Another condition
was Autism, which is a neurologic disorder that is characterized by social impairments,
communication difficulties, and restricted, repetitive, and stereotyped behavior. It can range
from the mild form of Aspergers to very severe cognitive issues.
Manager of Care
I was so impressed with how the staff worked with the students and how the students
behaved amongst themselves. Meaghan was the teacher and there were 3 additional staff, I
cant remember who were nurses and then 8 students. Meaghan is an amazing teacher. She
told me that one time another teacher said to her what is the point to teach them life skills,
its not like any of them will ever have a job. Meaghans response was beautiful. She said that
they will be out in the community, and while they may never have a job they need to know how
to act, with manners and acceptable behavior. And also give them something they can take
pride in, whether it is shopping and being able to pick out a shirt or a pair of shoes to even
being able to get the mail or fold laundry and help at home. She wanted them to be able to
function at their most optimal potential possible and teach them proper skills and behaviors in
an environment where if they did do something it could be addressed and corrected without
legal implications i.e.. taking something that didnt belong to them. This philosophy was
evident in the room. It had a kitchen area, a couch/sitting area, and a quite area. The room just
felt very calm and safe. The students had 3 stations, were divided into 3 groups and went
round robin to all the stations for about 10 minutes. The themes for Tuesday in station 1 were

Commented [JW1]: Wonderful work here Jennifer! You

have done an absolute SUPERB job of discussing the
pathologies within your classroom and the symptoms
associated with them. This is exactly what I am looking in
your write up. It is obvious that you took concentrated time
to truly understand these disorders and this my friend is just
what you are supposed to do in the science of nursing! Well
done!

Commented [JW2]: Wonderful reflections again Jennifer!

You have written the MOST about the functions of this
room that anyone has the entire academic year! I especially
loved your writings about the personal feelings the teacher
had toward her role as an educator of the children. I agree
with all of it and as Im sure that her words touched you,
they gave me something to think about as well. Nicely done!
An area for growth in communication practices with the
family would be to utilize the advantage of cloud based
computing to share documents back and forth with the
parents. This way one document is live all the time and
feedback can be updated in real time rather than having to
wait until the end of the day and rely on a back and forth
mechanism. I am only speaking for myself, but I forget
things all the time. I wonder how many loose documents get
shared when one forgets to send the folders home or return
them? I believe that technology can help in this area..

Jennifer Celtrick
February 22, 2015

signs in the environment such as stop, danger, door open, and door close. Station 2 was
awesome. It was a story that featured a disable girl in a wheelchair just like some of the
students were in and how she communicated her needs and went shopping with her mom.
Afterwards the students glued pictures of answers about the story such as what did the girl buy,
what face looks like the happy face, and how she communicated to her mom. Station 3 taught
life skills, they glued 3 pictures in order of first to last the steps of how to brush your teeth,
wash your hands, and fold laundry to name a few. The staff also had a list of jobs for the
students, some could do them without help and included walking down the lunch cart, laundry,
getting the mail and taking around the lunch sheets. The students also had a binder to take
home with them to show their parent(s) or care giver what they did in class that day and also
information how to reinforce the material learned at home. I accompanied the students and
staff if needed, as they went and did their daily task and I helped with the lessons in Station 3. I
worked with the girl with severe Autism, giving her one word directions and lots of praise. She
needed breaks often and was rewarded with a puzzle to put together for finishing her work.
Member of Profession
I did get to look at an IEP and found online in essence the mission statement of the
center and information from 2008 on the Michigan government website strategic guidelines
and also the guidelines for Childrens Special Health Services information relating to making
education and care affordable and accessible. The guidelines in general states the process
should be collaborative between the parents and the education center, ancillary staff on site
such as PT/OT, Speech, and Psychiatry and helps the student progress to an optimal level of
functioning through goal setting and periodic testing to check if goals are met and readjust
accordingly. The Torrant Center meets these standards by utilizing the IEP to set a series of
educational and therapeutic goals that incorporates the parents, teachers, and ancillary staff to
help the student reach their optimal level of functioning through structured lesson plans using
the Smart Board and other resources to teach skills about environment, manners, basic life
skills, independence, trips out into the community to reinforce the skills learned in the
classroom, and also informing the caregiver of what they can do at home to help reinforce what
is learned in the classroom. I also noted where there were regular evaluations to check the
students level of progress and to determine if the educational and therapeutic plans were
working or if they needed to try another path.

Commented [JW3]: Excellent work. This is the first time

that anyone has really showed me that they are thinking
teamwork according to process in this section. Most talk
about the teamwork in Manager of Care. However, you
have a really profound understanding of the mechanism of
team in the overall function of the facility and the
evaluation of progress within it. Kudos to you Jennifer. I
applaud your amazingly wonderful work on this document
and will be using many of your references in the feedback
paper I am planning to give to the center as a reflection of
your learning during our time there this year.
Thank you for taking such excellent care of the children this
week and putting so much effort into creating such a well
written reflective document about your experience! YOUR
AWESOME!!