Working on Presentation

Tomorrow, I will rehearse my presentation, stating all the key points that need to be said, the mission, my experience working at the adoption center, as well as an excerpt of a video which explains what the Kinship Center is about. I will spare some time for questions afterwards.

Video About Kinship Center

About Today

For service learning today, Mrs. Shank attended my visit to the Kinship Center to watch me at work on the developmental screening results (results of how a child is developing) of one of the adopted children (whose name I will not say for identity reasons). She got to meet my godmother, who is the regional executive director of kinship center. They mostly likely talked about my work there and how it's for service learning (I am not exactly sure what they talked about, since I was working on the developmental screen results at the time). After, I finished working on the file, Tyler De Leon, the child assessment specialist who I accompanied to visit the adopted child's house in January, invited me to have lunch at Wahoo's and grab a frappachino at Starbuck's with two interns, since it was their break.    

Service Learning Day Tomorrow

Tomorrow is my next service learning day. I am going to work on site, but I am not exactly sure what I will be doing until I make it there tomorrow morning.

Learned more about Kinship Center

So today I learned more about what Kinship Center does. I learned about questionaires that they use for the kids to take to see if they how developed they are in certain areas, such as fine and gross motor skills and such. I even got to meet more people who work there and what their jobs are. One of the tasks I worked on was to print out the pictures I thought were best for the brochure for a camp that the organization hosts.

Last Night was fun

Went into a room with a group of adopted children watching "Despicable Me". We mostly played Jenga and Uno, and the kids had a lot of fun (and so did I)!

Working (Playing) with group of Kids

Tonight, I will be going to the Kinship Center to basically play with a group of kids. We will have some games for them to play and we will make sure that the kids have fun, but not rough house. I will be sure to take pictures.

Some Photos of the Kinship Center

Here are a few pictures of the organization itself. I will post more pictures in the future.

What Happened Today with Child Assessment Specialist

So today I followed Tyler De Leon, the Child Assessment Specialist of Kinship Center, as he showed me what he does. We went over to an adopted child's home to see how he behaves to his parents and how the parents are controlling the child. No names will be said for identity reasons, but the child I went to see today has ADHD, and is an extremely hyperactive individual. When Tyler first greeted the child, he showed him a "cool five", which is a slower and more relaxed "high five", just so the child will not be aroused by the sprightly flow of a regular "high five". Among other things, the child's favorite activity is to pretend that he is Peter Pan and sword-fight with his parents. He will often be so into the role as Peter Pan, that he may lose control and become aggressive. Tyler talked to me about a few of his methods for keeping the child under control, such as having the child solve puzzles to make him focus. The guardian has one method of having him sit at a table in his room and start drawing. These are his alternatives to a "time-out", because he is prone to having temper tantrums, probably as a result of the difficult time he is having moving form one home to another. When we began sword-fighting, Tyler set a limit for the child to play for five minutes, so that he will calm down and let some energy out of his system. He is also prone to interrupting me in the middle of my conversations with Tyler, so he told me to just ignore him and continue talking, because the child will know by instinct that what he is doing is not polite. Afterwards, I followed him back to the Kinship Center to see him fill out some paperwork and turn in his notes about our little excursion. He asked if I had any questions, but I was satisfied with what he told me. I thanked him and headed back home.

Shadowing Specialist at Adoptive Family's Home

It has been confirmed that I will meet with a specialist by the name of Tyler Daliano. We will meet on site at the Kinship Center and I will shadow him at an adoptive family's house to see what he does. I will update more on this when I come back.

Meeting With Spcialist

Here is my first post of the new year! Tomorrow, I will meet with a specialist on site who has been working with the Kinship Center for a while now. I am not sure what exactly I will be doing, but I will update my blog when I find out.