Blog Assignment 4

1) Choose two principles that relate to your internship position.
The two principles that I have chosen that relate to my internship position are:
-I will advocate for children and youth and their best interests at the same time that we work with the parents and other family members.
-I will support the right of all children and youth to have access to quality education, health and community resources.
2) List these principles and then describe how they relate to your position (use examples if possible).
The first principle I listed is that I will advocate for children and youth and their best interests at the same time that we work with the parents and other family members. This principle relates heavily to my internship because I help out in the classrooms and also because I play language encouraging games and use classroom activities to encourage the development of speech and language. Since I do not currently have any degrees or certifications in speech and language pathology, I can only do the bare minimum, and come up with games and activities that encourage the use of language. One thing that happens sometimes when I am working with certain students is that their language delays or language abilities need help that I cannot give since I do not currently have the knowledge or skills that a licensed speech language pathologist has. When this happens, usually I discuss the child's needs that I have observed with the teacher, and the person who is in charge of parent and family relations to see if the child can be evaluated by speech pathologists or professionals so that they can receive the help that they deserve so that they can continue to stay on track with their development. Sometimes parents feel as though their is a negative stigma to their child needing speech therapy, occupational therapy or any sort of services. While the games I create and activities that I do with the children do help to encourage language development, they are no replacement for the work that a speech and language pathologist can do.







The second principle that I chose is that I will support the right of all children to have access to quality education, health and community resources. Since I intern at a school, sometimes I see children who come in who are very privileged in all of the things that they have, and sometimes children are less privileged, or their parents may be less knowledgeable about certain things that would help their child to succeed or learn more in school. For example, I was working with one child one day and she kept telling me that she was so tired and that she could not think because she was so tired. I asked her if she had eaten breakfast that morning and she said no, so I reported that information to my supervisor to see if we could get her something to eat in case for some reason she did not have access to food at home for breakfast and just so that she could have a more successful school day. Another example of how I have applied this principle is by helping with lunches during the day. At lunchtime, all of the children set up their lunches and eat. While tons of kids have very healthy lunches and have enough food to eat, there are children who come to school with lunches that consist of just cupcakes, sugary snacks, and multiple juice boxes. Usually when I notice students have poor eating habits like this, I observe them over the course of several days to see if their lunch is always that way or if it happened to be a one time thing. When I find students who consistently have unhealthy high sugar lunches, I usually like to talk to the person who is in charge of family and parent relations to see if there is anything that we can do to talk to the parents and see if they can possibly improve the child's diet as it often greatly affected their ability to behave in school, the way they handle situations and their ability to learn throughout the day. This has only happened a few times throughout the course of my internship but I am a firm believer in children needing a healthy diet and healthy meals to be able to learn and have a good day at school.

3) Next write a few sentences about why these principles are important for protecting and /or respecting your internship population.
These principles are important for protecting the children at my internship because early childhood education is very important for child development and it is important to make sure that children have the tools and resources to be successful during their early childhood education. For example children who do not have quality food at home or school, or children who do not have food at all will probably have a rougher time learning and absorbing the information and knowledge they need to have a strong early childhood education. Children who are lacking language ability, whether it be the ability to communicate with their peers or the ability to understand language will also experience significant setbacks during their early childhood education that could prevent them from gaining valuable knowledge or even being able to be an active participant in their class. These principles are important because they give children the best chance for success and help them to develop and establish a bright future, which is one of the main purposes of my internships site.