INTERVIEW WITH SUPERVISOR 1

Interview with Supervisor Summary

CYC 310- Supervised Practicum 2

University of Victoria

Shae Mellors

October 13th 2016

INTERVIEW WITH SUPERVISOR 2

Interview with Supervisor Summary

The opportunity I received to meet with Alexandra and discuss her passions and

experience in the field was full of information that will inform my practice. Her time in

the field has contributed to thirty years in the public school system working as an

educational assistant. She has been working at Little Steps for the past eight years as an

interventionist.

Assessment and Intervention

While an intervention is being conducted with the child and the interventionist, a

few other roles occur during the process. Depending on the childs age will depend how

often therapists visit for a consultation on the child progress to review the current

programs the child is working on. It is important to understand the interventionist is

working under the supervision of the therapist as they assess the child, create the

programs and review the data on the programs. Thankfully, at Little Steps, there is a

collaborative approach offering interventionist opportunities to ask questions, feedback

and resolve problems when they arrive rather than waiting the three months until the

therapist is scheduled with that child again.

When I am taking part in this process it is important to have clear written and

verbal communication with all parties involved so that I am up to date on the childs

programs and progress. Data collection needs to stay up to date and be very clear as it is

used for reviews of the childs program progress. Data collection is an area I will be

participating in and need to understand the importance of this task in an intervention.

Alexandra mentioned the importance of understanding your role, as an interventionist the

tasks are to encourage the child in participating in the programs. It is the therapists job to
INTERVIEW WITH SUPERVISOR 3

assess the child, create the programs and evaluate the data. Interventionist can work

collaboratively to ask questions about the program and share experiences with the child

regarding the programs. This needs to be in a respectful way as each member is working

in a team towards the same goal of benefitting the child to be more functional in their

community.

Contributions to Practice

Alexandras practice is influenced by a developmental theory approach as she

reviews where the child should be and works backwards to locate where the child is

developed. Alexandra does an excellent job at meeting the child where they are; this is

also the same for parents. Meeting the family where they are is highly important for this

organization, as they want the family to work collaboratively with the interventionist to

maintain the progress of the programs in all context of the ecological model of the child.

Alexandra conducts a strength-based approach in order to use the childs abilities rather

then focusing on the deficits. If a child really likes horses, then Alexandra will base the

teachings of the programs around horses to the best of her abilities.

Alexandra bases her practice from a child-centered philosophy as the therapy is

always attending the childs needs and wants. Each child will be different and as an

interventionist, we are required to attend to each child differently. Another philosophy

would be play-based therapy, as Alexandra wants the child to represent therapy with

having fun and playing. Little steps wants the child to enjoy the time they spend doing

therapy programs and not focus on the emphasis of the play with the child as it stimulates

the development with the child.

INTERVIEW WITH SUPERVISOR 4

The abilities of the child is what Alexandra values most about her practice as she

focuses on their strengths. While being aware of their limitations is highly important to

understand what they are capable of, however we need to focus on what they are able to

do and use that as a major strength.

Alexandra has multiple strengths as she has been in the field for thirty-eight years,

however, her main strength that everyone sees is her passion for the children and their

abilities. Her passion communicates in her avocation for children, keeping up to date with

her education and her collaboration with team members. Alexandra ensures that every

child is advocated for as falling through the cracks of our human services system is not

occurring on her watch. She educates herself to stay up to date with all the current

research that is being conducted. Alexandras personal strengths such as an outside of the

box thinker, detail oriented, and the love for teaching are all area that are strengthening

who she is as a practitioner. Recognizing her areas to develop she believes there is always

room to increase your knowledge as new studies and research informs new approaches

that are benefitting our society as it grows. Society is consistently evolving and if the

approaches do not improve with new research the organization will not be helping clients

be functional in the community. Currently, Alexandra is updating her knowledge in social

thinking, as she tends to read during her down time.

When asking Alexandra about protecting herself from burn out she mentioned is

all lies with balance. Balancing everyday activities to create variety and balance your

challenges. For example, having an two aggressive children that are both non-verbal can

create for an exhausting day. However balancing it to attend to a child who is non-verbal

with no aggression behaviours, completing office tasks, and then tackling the child who is
INTERVIEW WITH SUPERVISOR 5

verbal and shows aggression creates for more variety in your activities and a balanced

workload in ones day. Alexandra also mentioned the importance of finding something

that relaxes an individual, for example, she enjoys running or reading her book. She

emphasized the importance of this being individualized for everyone and it needs to be

scheduled in ones day.

In the Community

Little steps takes many children out into the communities for life skills programs

and teaches them how to be functional in their community. Children are also adventuring

into recreation centers and public playgrounds with little steps and creating more

conversation about the agency. This agency picks children up from schools, pre-schools

and daycares allowing for lots of exposure about the agency to many different people in

the field. Little steps is a family and community based therapy service allowing children

to gain the skills they require to be more functional in their various contexts in life. This

relationship connects Little Steps to real life situations in the community. It creates

opportunities for conversation within the community. Providing resources for the agency

to utilize and recommend for future clients. However, the negative aspect from working

with the community that Little Steps has noticed is how their neighbours do not like how

the agency is not in a professional building away from the communities houses.

Other social service organization that might be serving the children may benefit in

our work and rather should benefit, as the goal for Little Steps is to have the children

functioning in society in a normalized approach. These services are public schools,

other social programs, and simply our community as a whole. The work this agency does

is impacting the entire ecological model of a child from empowering their self, to
INTERVIEW WITH SUPERVISOR 6

communicating with their families, benefitting the relationship with their teacher and

parent, and being more functional within the community. The childs family is the one

who is greatly impacted as daily activities, regular tasks and communicating become

easier and more functional for both parties.

Feedback and Consultative Relationship

The relationship I have created with Alexandra has been very professional

however, also consists of regular feedback and suggestions on how to improve. The first

session I observed Alexandra I was participating and receiving feedback. This created an

understanding that she believes in my abilities and is willing to provide some guidance to

me. All the senior interventionists that I have an opportunity working with have provided

me feedback and I have been willing to correct and obtain the information. My response

to feedback is to first obtain the information thoroughly to ensure I do not have any

questions before correcting it. Then I think of how I could do it differently and try to

analyze many possible solutions in case one fails with the specific client. Moving forward

I then review the feedback on my own after the session and ensure if I still have questions

that they are addressed right away.

Conclusion

Overall, this interviewing process allowed me to fully understand Alexandras

passion and way of thinking while observing her work. I look forward to working with

Alexandra knowing more about her professional practice philosophy and start connecting

more pieces to critically analysis the observations I create. Alexandra has also inspired

me to have such a passion behind the work I do and advocate for the individuals I work
INTERVIEW WITH SUPERVISOR 7

with. I appreciate Alexandra for sharing her philosophies with me and will cherish

throughout my practice.