Monday, October 28, 2013

Blog 8 Chapter 10


I feel that when we discussed this chapter in class, our group was divided about the opening vignette.  Some of our group was concerned about the interaction between Yer and Peg, feeling that they were not being collaborative with each other.  Some felt that Yer was dumping on Peg and that Peg was not showing compassion for Yer’s feelings.  I feel that this is important because this chapter is all about collaboration and consultation and they were both professionals from school districts.  After looking at the questions after the vignette our group was able to come together and answer the questions without further disagreement because the authors wanted to know our opinion about the being put into Yer’s position and her feelings about the teachers, students and where to go from here. 
            Collaboratively we discussed Yer reaching out to other member’s of the staff to help her in her efforts with the students and the teachers.  It was also discussed that Yer does need to observe the students in these classrooms to obtain the necessary data to take the next steps, if that is required.  Specifically, Yers’ next steps after collecting the data would be to address it with the teacher, then the administration if the teachers were unwilling to change their teaching styles to accommodate the students or for Yer to come up with a behavior plan to help the students focus on the lesson.
            I found the article by Kahn to be interesting and relevant to this chapter along with to my everyday life as a TSS.  The assumption is that exploring the problem only tells the consultation team more about the problem and not necessarily about the solutions (Kahn, 1998).  Exploration of the past focuses on exceptions, times in which the problem did not occur (Kahn, 1998).  These are things I look at when working with clients everyday, what was the trigger, is the trigger always the same, does time of day matter, what coping skills are used, how long has this been an issue, have there been exceptions when the trigger happened and the client didn’t react, if so what was different and how can we duplicate that and the list goes on.  Then my job turns into positive reinforcement for every single positive thing, good job ignoring, nice job using your words, or a token economy like tickets that can be earned for prizes later or immediate rewards like stickers or a piece of candy.
            Our treatment plan goals for each client are also very specific, based on percentages given a location and noting all the people present.  The treatment plan goals often include social skills; eye contact, looking up when walking or talking, safety; looking for cars before crossing the street, not talking to strangers to coping skills; when you are angry you will ask for a time out, use “I statements” to get your needs met, all the same things Kahn listed in the article. 

Reference
Dollarhide, C.T., & Saginak, K.A. (2012). Comprehensive school counseling programs (2nd Ed.). New York: Pearson, Inc.

Kahn, B. (2000). A model of solution-focused consultation for school counselors. Professional school counseling,3(4), 248-254.

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