During my second term placement, I had the amazing opportunity to meet and support a child in a Childcare Centre I was added to. I felt very included as part of the team and was able to provide resources and ideas that directly supported the goals of the OT and the SLP that had already been supporting the child and family before entering childcare. It was also helpful to be able to add these goals the the ELSP I had created for the child through the agency processes that I was working with. I was able to provide the Centre Staff with a simple Picture Exchange System that also supported all the children in the room. I was able to bring my experience with emotional regulation and emotional literacy building skills into the classroom with the addition of visuals of real children displaying emotions through their facial expressions. I then added some simple songs and games for the Educators to practice with the children at any time in their day to build the word recognition and connect it to the visuals around the room. I was greatly impressed by the Educators ability to adapt and immerse themselves in this new work. It was a great experience and I was able to practice my role with great detail and support.

This placement gave me an opportunity to work on a child’s case with the support of my Placement Supervisor if needed. I was apprehensive at first, but with gentle support I was able to come up with a good plan, gained confidence in my relationship building skills and realised that a good Resource Consultant always values the input of other childhood experts when moving forward with goals and aspirations for the child. I also learned that without the valuable collaboration of all parties things can be missed sometimes. A big part of the parent meeting was learning that community partners were already involved with the child, before entering childcare. It was then a possibility to input those same goals from home and create supportive interventions in the childcare program.