Being an intern to the Speech- Language Pathologist at the South Kingstown Inclusionary Preschool exceeded all of my expectations. I was not sure about how much freedom I would be granted or how much responsibility I would be given, but I was pleasantly surprised. From the start, I established a great relationship with my supervisor, which made me feel comfortable asking questions and making recommendations. I also quickly felt like I had become part of the "team". The team at this preschool consisted of the teachers, speech pathologists, occupational therapist, school psychologist, and more. At the beginning of the semester I was mostly observing my supervisor, her interactions with faculty and the children, as well as her strageties. As I became more familiar with all of these areas, I began to organize materials for activities, create worksheets that the students could glue into their speech notebooks, and even help facilitate activities.

 

      My first assignment as an intern was to choose a child that I was most interested in. My supervisor explained that it can be overwhelming to keep track of all of the students, so she recommended that I spend a week with the kids and then choose one child that interests me most. I chose a child with a developmental disorder known as Childhood Developmental Apraxia. We will call him Michael. This disorder affects his ability to articulate his speech. Although he knows what he wants to say, the difficulty comes from his brain's inability to properly assist him in moving the articulators of his mouth (lips, teeth, tongue, etc) in order to effectively produce speech. This child interested me the most because he is significantly unintelligable (difficult to understand), but his efforts to speak clearly and for people to understand him are relentless. I documented his daily progress, learning that he is stimulable for most sounds, meaning that he is able to produce them, but only does so correctly when reminded and modeled. Being able to mainly focus on one child helped me to get the most out of my experience. I did some homework, tailoring my knowledge of apraxia from previous classes to new research I conducted. I was able to have a clear understanding of where Michael's difficulty was coming from and that although the progress is slow, he has come a long way from having almost no speech last year. One of my objectives for this internship was to learn how to gather data and document progress. I chose to fulfill this objective using Michael's therapy sessions.

 

      Throughout not only his, but all of the children's therapy sessions, my supervisor explained the activities step by step, while also explaining why certain activities were being used for certain children. With her assistance, I was introduced to many children with different behavioral and development disorders. I not only took part in therapy sessions, but also meetings and observations outside of the classroom. For example, I accompanied my supervisor to early intervention home and clinic visits to observe children who were being referred to the preschool once they aged out of early intervention. I was also able to attend a few Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings where the team met with the parents of the child to plan the child's services and goals for improvement. 

 

      In addition to working with the speech-language pathologist, I had the opportunity to sit in and assist in the inclusionary classroom, where I could see the children who receive speech services in their normal classroom environment. Over the course of the semester I was able to get a glimpse at what every member of the team does. From classroom activities, to occupational therapy, and even psychology, I was able to get a wholesome look at what factors play into the lives of the children at this preschool.

 

      This internship was a wonderful learning experience. It certainly helped to reinforce that this is undoubtedly what I want to pursue as my career. It also helped me to get a feel for the everyday routine of a speech pathologist. Being able to see the progress the children have made over the past few months was such a rewarding experience. I had the opportunity to see and assit with many children with different speech and language disorders. Overall, I was so glad to have had such a rewarding experience as my first internship. I will certainly be able to apply the skills I have obtained to my future graduate school and career endeavours. 

 

By clicking the links below, you can access my completed objectives and evidence.