Professional Documents
Culture Documents
University of Victoria
Shae Mellors
The opportunity I received to meet with Alexandra and discuss her passions and
experience in the field was full of information that will inform my practice. Her time in
the field has contributed to thirty years in the public school system working as an
educational assistant. She has been working at Little Steps for the past eight years as an
interventionist.
While an intervention is being conducted with the child and the interventionist, a
few other roles occur during the process. Depending on the childs age will depend how
often therapists visit for a consultation on the child progress to review the current
working under the supervision of the therapist as they assess the child, create the
programs and review the data on the programs. Thankfully, at Little Steps, there is a
and resolve problems when they arrive rather than waiting the three months until the
When I am taking part in this process it is important to have clear written and
verbal communication with all parties involved so that I am up to date on the childs
programs and progress. Data collection needs to stay up to date and be very clear as it is
used for reviews of the childs program progress. Data collection is an area I will be
tasks are to encourage the child in participating in the programs. It is the therapists job to
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assess the child, create the programs and evaluate the data. Interventionist can work
collaboratively to ask questions about the program and share experiences with the child
regarding the programs. This needs to be in a respectful way as each member is working
in a team towards the same goal of benefitting the child to be more functional in their
community.
Contributions to Practice
reviews where the child should be and works backwards to locate where the child is
developed. Alexandra does an excellent job at meeting the child where they are; this is
also the same for parents. Meeting the family where they are is highly important for this
organization, as they want the family to work collaboratively with the interventionist to
maintain the progress of the programs in all context of the ecological model of the child.
Alexandra conducts a strength-based approach in order to use the childs abilities rather
then focusing on the deficits. If a child really likes horses, then Alexandra will base the
always attending the childs needs and wants. Each child will be different and as an
would be play-based therapy, as Alexandra wants the child to represent therapy with
having fun and playing. Little steps wants the child to enjoy the time they spend doing
therapy programs and not focus on the emphasis of the play with the child as it stimulates
The abilities of the child is what Alexandra values most about her practice as she
focuses on their strengths. While being aware of their limitations is highly important to
understand what they are capable of, however we need to focus on what they are able to
Alexandra has multiple strengths as she has been in the field for thirty-eight years,
however, her main strength that everyone sees is her passion for the children and their
abilities. Her passion communicates in her avocation for children, keeping up to date with
her education and her collaboration with team members. Alexandra ensures that every
child is advocated for as falling through the cracks of our human services system is not
occurring on her watch. She educates herself to stay up to date with all the current
research that is being conducted. Alexandras personal strengths such as an outside of the
box thinker, detail oriented, and the love for teaching are all area that are strengthening
who she is as a practitioner. Recognizing her areas to develop she believes there is always
room to increase your knowledge as new studies and research informs new approaches
that are benefitting our society as it grows. Society is consistently evolving and if the
approaches do not improve with new research the organization will not be helping clients
When asking Alexandra about protecting herself from burn out she mentioned is
all lies with balance. Balancing everyday activities to create variety and balance your
challenges. For example, having an two aggressive children that are both non-verbal can
create for an exhausting day. However balancing it to attend to a child who is non-verbal
with no aggression behaviours, completing office tasks, and then tackling the child who is
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verbal and shows aggression creates for more variety in your activities and a balanced
workload in ones day. Alexandra also mentioned the importance of finding something
that relaxes an individual, for example, she enjoys running or reading her book. She
emphasized the importance of this being individualized for everyone and it needs to be
In the Community
Little steps takes many children out into the communities for life skills programs
and teaches them how to be functional in their community. Children are also adventuring
into recreation centers and public playgrounds with little steps and creating more
conversation about the agency. This agency picks children up from schools, pre-schools
and daycares allowing for lots of exposure about the agency to many different people in
the field. Little steps is a family and community based therapy service allowing children
to gain the skills they require to be more functional in their various contexts in life. This
relationship connects Little Steps to real life situations in the community. It creates
opportunities for conversation within the community. Providing resources for the agency
to utilize and recommend for future clients. However, the negative aspect from working
with the community that Little Steps has noticed is how their neighbours do not like how
the agency is not in a professional building away from the communities houses.
Other social service organization that might be serving the children may benefit in
our work and rather should benefit, as the goal for Little Steps is to have the children
other social programs, and simply our community as a whole. The work this agency does
is impacting the entire ecological model of a child from empowering their self, to
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communicating with their families, benefitting the relationship with their teacher and
parent, and being more functional within the community. The childs family is the one
who is greatly impacted as daily activities, regular tasks and communicating become
The relationship I have created with Alexandra has been very professional
however, also consists of regular feedback and suggestions on how to improve. The first
session I observed Alexandra I was participating and receiving feedback. This created an
understanding that she believes in my abilities and is willing to provide some guidance to
me. All the senior interventionists that I have an opportunity working with have provided
me feedback and I have been willing to correct and obtain the information. My response
to feedback is to first obtain the information thoroughly to ensure I do not have any
questions before correcting it. Then I think of how I could do it differently and try to
analyze many possible solutions in case one fails with the specific client. Moving forward
I then review the feedback on my own after the session and ensure if I still have questions
Conclusion
passion and way of thinking while observing her work. I look forward to working with
Alexandra knowing more about her professional practice philosophy and start connecting
more pieces to critically analysis the observations I create. Alexandra has also inspired
me to have such a passion behind the work I do and advocate for the individuals I work
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with. I appreciate Alexandra for sharing her philosophies with me and will cherish
throughout my practice.