This is why we do what we do.....
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>Date: Mon, 13 Apr 1998 09:12:41 -0700
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>From: Michelle Winner <[log in to unmask]>
>To: Multiple recipients of list <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Re: Work in the Schools
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>One more thought on the schools thing....
>
>Last week I had an amazing experience.  I have worked with a boy, now
>almost 18, for the past 3 years.  I have worked with our Psych to
>determine he is "Aspergers".   He has been VERY receptive to social skills
>therapy as well as alot of work on executive functions.  He has made a lot
of
>improvement.  He now has a friend he talks to....etc....
>
>Last week he went in search of me....when he found me he was crying and
>wanted to talk (he had never cried before).  He had just read a book about a
>violent crime (gang rape) where the offenders got off,,....he was very
>upset that things "did not turn out happy the way they are supposed to in
>books"....this then reminded him of his mother's death from cancer that
>happened when he was 8.  He never mourned her death or cried about it.
>Now he was crying , he said he was in such pain and he had all these
>emotions he had never felt before. ...This went on and on with him talking
>and crying for over an hour....he talked about his desire for relationships
>with people and he wondered why he had to wait until he was 17 to start to
>seek them.  He worried about the future....I cried with him....but I told
him
>that he had done something wonderful that day...he had become an emotional
>person.  That now he could go forward, that the pain of missing his mom
>would always be there but if he could talk to people about it, it would
>lessen somewhat.
>He lives with his dad and step-mom....but he never really talked to his dad
>just to talk (the apple doesn't fall far from the tree).  He came back to me
>after lunch saying he felt too weak too stay in school the rest of the
day.  I
>had him call dad to come get him...and then I helped him learn the words to
>use to start to talk to his dad.  I reminded him that this time he was
talking
>to his dad because he wanted to talk, not because he had done something bad.
>..I called home later in the day and found they had talked and cried a lot
>more....
>This is the beginning of a new course for this young man.  He and I working
>together made the difference.
>
>Working in the schools allows us relationships over time that few clinical
>settings allow.  We can bitch and moan about certain conditions, but when I
>worked in medical setting I bitched and moaned too.  I have never felt
like I
>contributed so directly to so many peoples lives as I do from my job
>working in the high schools....and only seeing the students one time a
>week!!
>I am becoming more convinced that Small group and individual time goes as
>far as 5 days a week in a large classroom.....and in 8 weeks I have the
>summer off to emotionally recharge to start again next year.  ....and I was
>one of those who SWORE I would NEVER take a job in the schools when I got
>my C's!  Michelle Winner
>
>
>
Fofi Constantinidou, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor &
 Director of Graduate Studies
Speech Pathology and Audiology
Miami University
Oxford, OH 45056
(513) 529-2507
(513) 529-2502 (fax)
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