Clinical Journal

This week for clinicals I went to the potential development center for elementary school

kids. This place is for kids with severe learning disabilities or kids that have genetic problems

such as autism. They have three different schools- a school for preschool aged kids, a school for

elementary/middle school aged kids and a school for highschoolers. When I first got there I was

assigned to a classroom of eight kids that had a mixture of fifth and sixth graders. The first thing

we did to start the day was perform proper hygiene. Since a lot of these kids were not getting

proper hygiene at home, the school provided them with basic materials. These materials included

a toothbrush, toothpaste and deodorant. After this, we did a grammar assignment where the kids

had to complete sentences by differentiating between “who” and “when”. After this, we moved

on to doing different kinds of tracing assignments to develop their fine motor skills and

strengthen the muscles in their hands. We then took a fifteen minute snack break to allow the

kids time to rest. After snack, we came back and went into doing math where the kids had to

differentiate between even and odd numbers. We then went into reading, here the teacher read

the book-The Magic Treehouse- aloud to the class while the kids sat at their desk and listened.

Next came a 30 minute gym break to let the kids expel some of their energy that they had built

up. The last thing they did while I was there was an assignment where they had to find the

differences between four types of environments- a tundra, desert, ocean and a rainforest. Some of

the things that they had to differentiate between included the weather/climate of these

environments, types of animals that are found, the description of each environment and what

kind of clothing would be used in these areas. When they completed this assignment they went

onto their lunch break. Since they were on their lunch break and it was close to the time for me

to leave, the teacher of the class told me that I was allowed to leave a few minutes early.
 Some of the roles that the teacher had in aiding these kids included acting as an educator,

disciplining the kids when they got out of hand, teaching them proper manners and hygiene and

displaying patience with the kids. Some of the physical and psychological health needs of the

children included having a hard time focusing, difficulty learning new topics, weak hand muscles

due to their lack of writing ability, difficulty sitting still/following directions and there was one

kid who suffered from echoling- A condition where he would repeat your words and phrases

back to you. He was difficult because he didn’t understand the things you were saying to him,

instead he would just mimic things back to you. These kids were around the ages of 11-12 years

old but had no ability to read, could not write, had a basic understanding of numbers and had a

hard time following basic directions. I would say they had the educational level of a first grader

despite their age. For therapeutic activity, I played with the kids during gym class. I also played

with one of the kids during their break time. We used these building cubes to create various

different structures. Overall, my experience this week was positive. I got a first hand experience

of children with learning disabilities as well as learning how to deal with kids with these

disabilities. This center is very important because so many kids suffer from a variety of learning

disabilities. My only problem for this week was that the classroom I was in had a teacher and

two aids for a classroom with eight kids. Since there were so many adults and such few kids,

there wasn’t as much hands-on activity that I was expecting to have.