My Internship

Project Summary

During the 2020-2021 school year I have interned with HANDS in Autism and I have assisted in delivering Pre-employment Transition (Pre-ETS) services to individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and related disabilities. These services include large group, individual services, small groups, and internships. Each service focuses on assisting clients with a variety of skills in the areas of self-advocacy, independence, goal creation, and social skills. Each week I develop materials for individual services; I have learned to use programs like Nearpod to develop lesson plans to focus on social skill and independent living concepts. Throughout my internship, I have gained valuable hands-on experience in working with clients and their families while getting to know their needs and personal strengths.

Through my role as an intern, I have met many goals. For example, I have further developed my leadership, communication, and collaboration skills through participating in various activities. I have also been able to relate the skills and information I learned through my internship and coursework to my future career path. I have also had the opportunity to work with a population comprised of individuals with disabilities. Ideally, I will work with the same population of individuals as an Occupational Therapist.

My Interest

I chose this internship with HANDS in Autism®, because I have always had a passion for working with individuals with disabilities. Since my goal is to become an Occupational Therapist in the future, I will work with individuals with ASD throughout my career. I like how HANDS in Autism® offers several opportunities to interact with health care professionals, individuals with ASD, and their families. All of these opportunities have given me valuable experiences for my future career.

My Talents and Strengths

This experience helped me to use and build on my skills and strengths by providing me the opportunity to work as a team in a professional environment outside of the classroom. Last year, I worked with children with challenges ranging from Oppositional Defiant Disorder to ASD. This job taught me effective ways to communicate and encourage individuals with Autism to overcome various challenges they were facing. Throughout my previous experiences, I have also learned to be patient and calm through stressful situations to encourage individuals to complete various tasks. This internship will help me to build on the skills I have already learned.

Desired Takeaways

Through my internship, I hope to gain more experience working in an environment with individuals with ASD, their families, and other providers. I hope to expand on my communication skills both in English and in Spanish to better convey my thoughts and knowledge.

I plan to contribute to the work of HANDS through completing necessary trainings, helping to develop new resources for students and families, and helping to lead and co-lead group and individual activities through the Pre-ETS services. Within each of these activities and contributions, I hope to learn several skills that will be transferable to my future career and other areas of my life. One of the skills I would like to expand upon is my leadership skills, because in my future career I will likely take the role of a leader and teach others and to encourage others to do their best. Another skill I would like to expand upon is data collection and relaying of pertinent information; this will be useful with client tracking in my internship and patient monitoring in my future career.

Connection to Coursework

The work performed in my internship fits in with the classes I am taking, because what I learn from several of my classes can be applied to my internship. For example, I am taking a class called Diversity Issues in Health and Rehabilitation Services. In this class I have learned about how language barriers can affect the quality of care an individual receives and how cultural competence can improve quality of care. In my internship, I work with some individuals who speak Spanish as their first language, so some language barriers are present. I am also took a class called Survey of Adaptive Rehabilitation where I learn about different assistive technologies and resources. HANDS provides several resources to help with both verbal and nonverbal communication, so I am seeing some of the resources I learned about displayed in a natural environment. Through observing various practices and resources used within my internship, I am able to see how what I am learning about in classes is implemented in real life.

Fall Experiences

Throughout my internship, I have had several meaningful experiences through my interactions with others. When connecting with my supervisor I have learned about her passion for working with individuals with ASD, and how much progress she has made in developing and implementing more effective and individualized services. My interactions with my supervisor and other team members have also helped me to learn more about what it looks like to have a passion for helping and teaching others. When interacting with clients, I have found it meaningful to make connections to develop trust and get to know them better.

After observing professionals in the workplace, I discovered different qualities that I want to have as a professional. For example, I have watched others treat clients and families with only kindness and understanding when working in a stressful and sometimes even frustrating settings. Learning to maintain this composure and meet clients at their level is an important skill to have. I am confident that my internship will help me improve even further in those areas.

Fall Reflections

Throughout my internship during the fall semester, I learned how important communication is within the workplace. This communication is vital in situations ranging from communication about scheduling to communication about meeting clients' needs. I have also learned more about leadership skills and taking initiative when working through materials. Lastly, I have learned how to better collaborate with team members in creating materials to best meet the needs of clients.

One of my favorite experiences as an intern so far has been creating relationships with the clients as I have gotten to know them better. Within an online environment, it is often difficult to get to know new people; however, working with the same clients each week has allowed me to develop trust and effective communication with clients. Another one of my favorite experiences as an intern has been getting to take on a bigger leadership role in planning materials and carrying out sessions, because I have begun to see where I can make a positive influence in the lives of others.

Successes

As an intern I have been the most successful in leading various services with clients over Zoom. At the beginning of my internship, the idea of leading various sessions was overwhelming as it was something I had never done before. However, as my internship continued, I became comfortable and even more successful in leading different services. Within these services, I often present materials created by other HANDS staff. At the end of each session I complete client tracking to summarize the service provided; through this I have learned to accurately document data collected.

I also help out with individual services weekly, which help equip students with various skills. Through this, I have experienced success in developing materials and resources to help the clients I work with. Over the last few months I have used Nearpod to develop materials about various aspects of attentive conversation. I am continuously looking for new ways to present information to best benefit the clients I work with.

A final success I have experienced throughout my internship is aiding in the development of materials for HANDS. For example, I am currently drafting part of a newsletter, which highlights several of the services offered by HANDS. Another project I have been able to help out with is editing REDCap Surveys to increase readability for clients. Each of these experiences has aided in the development of transferable professional skills.

Challenges

One of the most challenging parts of my experience has been learning to navigate the online world while encouraging students to participate in a hands-on environment. Each week I lead a small group with two or three students that focuses on different topics monthly; one month the Canvas modules discussed Self-Advocacy. One of the clients requires extra support from his father, who helps him to navigate both Zoom and Canvas when necessary. The most challenging part of this is finding a balance with his father to optimize the client's independence without offering too much support.

Another challenging part of my experience has been learning to lead the Community Series Large Group session each Friday. This session consists of approximately twelve students each week. I have always been a little intimidated by larger groups and I always do a lot of listening without frequently contributing my thoughts and opinions to various discussions. I never want to overstep and say too much. However, toward the end of the fall semester I was given the opportunity to start leading the large group sessions. Gaining experience in leading these larger groups has pushed me out of my comfort zone.

A final challenge that I have experienced throughout my internship is establishing effective communication with supervisors and other staff members. This is still one area I could still improve in, because sometimes there are gaps in communication between staff as the interns do not have access to everything on the server that the other staff does. In the completely virtual environment it is often difficult to frequently touch base with other staff on plans. I personally struggle with asking for clarification of or distribution of certain service materials soon enough. I never want to overstep and ask for certain materials too soon, because I like to give people the time to distribute materials on their own time. Unfortunately, this has led to lack of communication and preparation for a few sessions.

Expectations vs. Reality

Throughout my internship, I have not been surprised by anything in the day-to-day life of this work. However, I have found it empowering to assist staff members with various activities and lead a variety of sessions. My experience has been different than I originally expected, because I expected to transition in person at some point within the school year. Everything has been facilitated through Zoom chats and other online programs, so I have not yet met any of the people I work with in person.