ASSIGNMENT TWO (PART B)

Assignment: Assignment Two (Part B)

Name: Kate Morden
Instructor: Aurrora De Monte
Course: Case Management COUN 80
Date: Sunday, February 21st, 2016

ASSIGNMENT TWO (PART B)

Brief Description of Placement Agency

The placement agency I am working at is Prince of Wales Public School, which is
located in Peterborough, Ontario. This elementary school, ranging from Junior
Kindergarten to Grade 8, is part of the Kawartha Pine Ridge District School board.
Intake
The child whom I am (co-)case manager for will be referred to as MG. MG is
five years old and is currently in Senior Kindergarten at Prince of Wales Public School.
MG is developmentally delayed as a result of drug use during gestation. She has a strong
risk of having a Learning Disability and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, though,
as yet has not been diagnosed. MG requires psychiatric medication (Antipsychotics) in
the morning and at night to assist her in: reducing some of the symptoms she experiences,
increasing her concentration, sleep and appetite, and balancing her emotions.
Assessment
As stated above, MG is developmentally delayed, and thus, has not been reaching
the expected developmental milestones within her age range. Physical signs, such as
gross motor skills, are one component that demonstrates MGs developmental delays.
MG walks and runs clumsily, often losing balance, tripping, falling, or bumping into
furniture. In addition, she experiences difficulty in changing positions, jumping, climbing
stairs, and throwing a ball. While gross motor skills is difficult for MG, fine motor skills
such as holding and manipulating objects, as well as completing daily activities such as
eating, (un)dressing, playing, writing and drawing, is proven to be less difficult; though,
it is still a challenge for her.

ASSIGNMENT TWO (PART B)

MG will have entire days in which she is very angry, upset and defiant, and does
not respond well to any redirection. She will also have good days, in which she requires
less redirection and prompting. Her moods play a big factor in how her day goes. MG
experiences difficulty in regulating and expressing her emotions in an appropriate
manner. When MG first appears to be angry, upset or frustrated, she will fold her arms,
clench her fists, look down at the floor, growl, yell, or cry. She will often say phrases
such as, You make me angry/sad, Im angry/sad/scared, Im angry at you, I dont
like you, You hurt me, and so on. If the situation escalates, her emotions become more
intense, and her behaviour becomes more aggressive and unsafe. When MG is feeling
highly distressed, she presents behaviours that are of a safety concern, as she can become
verbally and physically aggressive towards self, staff and other students. This is
demonstrated through behaviours such as running away, throwing objects (particularly
shoes and class items), being unaware of surroundings while moving and striking out,
dropping and throwing herself to the ground, hitting her head, growling, screaming,
crying, stomping, hitting, punching, kicking, biting and scratching. The frequency of
these behaviours occurs daily at varying degrees, though typically the durations last
between 30 seconds to 15 minutes and the intensity is from moderate to severe. These
behaviours are often displayed when MG is triggered. Precipitating factors that trigger
MG are transitions (lining up, cleaning up, getting ready for outside and coming in from
outside), experiencing task frustration, feeling fatigue, and staying with a task/activity for
any length of time. During transitions, MG requires constant redirection and physical
prompting. Despite these challenges, MG is usually able to calm down, become
emotionally stable, apologize for her behaviour, and transition back into class activities.

ASSIGNMENT TWO (PART B)

MG also requires support and redirection with her academics, as she has speech
and language delays, including a very short attention span. When working on a specific
task/activity, she experiences difficulty understanding and completing the task and/or
staying on task. Thus, she becomes frustrated, does not complete the task, or spends a
very short time on the task, quickly moving to another. MG is always eager to learn,
appears happy when completing tasks (unless tired or frustrated), and has a lively spirit.
Socially, MG struggles with interactive play. Typically, she will play alone or
parallel to someone else, rather than interact and socialize with her peers. However, MG
does socialize with a friend outside of school. This friend attends Prince of Wales P.S. as
well. The two of them sometimes get together during recess, but the majority of their time
spent together occurs outside of school, at home, community events, or activities within
the community, such as swimming.
Overall, MGs challenges are attention skills, transitions, personal safety, gross
motor skills and expressive language skills. Some of her strengths include: that she is a
kinesthetic learner; musical/rhythmic skills; sensory play (water); and empathetic.
Goal Setting
Based on the assessment above, the identified SMART goals to incorporate into
program and planning for MG are: 1) to increase her ability of appropriately expressing
and communicating her feelings prior to emotional outbursts, 2) to decrease the
frequency, duration and intensity of her emotional outbursts, and 3) to reduce the amount
of verbal/physical prompting needed to transition.
To increase MGs ability to appropriately express and communicate her feelings,
she will learn how to: recognize when she becomes triggered, communicate with

ASSIGNMENT TWO (PART B)

someone about it, and cope with her emotions. This will prevent her from having severe
emotional outbursts, and thus, lead to the accomplishment of the second goal, which is to
decrease the frequency, duration and intensity of her emotional outbursts. Lastly, as
transitions are difficult, stressful and anxiety provoking for MG, with the hope that she
will learn new healthy, positive coping skills and experience an increase in her ability to
regulate her emotions (from the first goal), transitions will then become easier. As
transitions become easier for MG, the amount of verbal/physical prompting from staff
needed to transition will thus be reduced.
Treatment Planning, Programming, or Plan of Care
To work on achieving the SMART goals identified above, the plan is to create an
individualized booklet for MG. This booklet will contain the following: a reward system,
handouts on the Emotional Regulation Zones, including moods and coping strategies,
visuals, and a day planner/schedule.
The plan is to install a reward system with stickers, wherein she earns a sticker for
successfully completing a task and/or transition. These stickers would accumulate until a
pre-determined number has been reached. When this number is reached, she will receive
praise and a desired item/activity, such as water play. There will not be consequences put
into place for this system, other than MG not receiving a sticker and/or prize. This reward
system will provide a sense of accomplishment for MG and help track her days/progress.
The handouts on the Emotional Regulation Zones will include sheets that
demonstrate pictures of facial expressions and words to describe feelings, and that will
help MG differentiate between the different mood zones blue, green, yellow, red. With
this, I will have MG choose on a daily basis in the morning, mid-day, and afternoon

ASSIGNMENT TWO (PART B)

facial expressions, words and zones that best describe how she is feeling at a particular
moment. This will increase her ability to recognize how she is feeling and become aware
of certain emotions. In addition, this section will include a list of healthy coping
strategies that MG can turn to when/if she is feeling distressed. This will assist her in
learning how to appropriately cope with and express her emotions.
In addition to the individualized booklet, the plan is also to take MG out of class
for 10 to 15 minutes a day to the resource room. Here, I will read social stories to her,
specifically those that emphasize how to deal with conflict, emotions, etc. In turn, this
will model healthy communication, friendships/relationships, coping strategies, problemsolving techniques, and so on; thus, increasing the likelihood of the goals being reached.
To reduce the amount of verbal/physical prompting needed for MG to transition, I
will provide MG with many verbal warnings, while also making use of specific timers, so
that she is well aware of how much time is left before moving onto another activity. I will
also create an individualized, visual day planner/schedule for MG; this will provide her
with a sense of consistency, predictability, safety and comfort.
To continue to evaluate the effectiveness of these goals and to assess MGs
progress, I will partake in observational documentation, such as note-taking of my own
observations and experiences, and completing charts, such as an Antecedent-BehaviourConsequence (ABC) chart and an Intensity-Frequency-Duration (IFD) chart.