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.