The Hope Institute for Children and Families/Springfield Public Schools
www.thehopeinstitute.us
www.theautismprogram.org
www.springfield.k12.il.us
Hope Institute for Children and Families
The internship provided by the Hope Institute for Children and Families site provides the opportunity for supervised experience in clinic, school, and residential environments. Interns have the opportunity to practice skills best suited to support the needs of both preschool and school aged youth.
Interns spend 3 days per week working at The Hope Institute for Children and Families and The Autism Program during the entire internship year and a two days working at Springfield Public Schools. The full stipend is $18,000 and the additional benefits offered by The Hope Institute for Children and Families to all employees, including health insurance, paid vacation time off, personal days, holidays and sick time. The work day typically begins at 8 am and ends at 5 pm with an hour off for lunch at mid day. Whenever evening activities, such as clinics, consultations, or seminars, are scheduled, the time may be flexed from other activities.
Dependent upon individual goals of the intern, a typical week may involve providing diagnostic, assessment and treatment services, individual and group therapy and multidisciplinary meetings, as selected by the intern in conjunction with the Chief of Behavioral Health at The Hope Institute for Children and Families. It could aloso include participating in the diagnostic clinic, multidisciplinary feedback meetings, and social skills groups within The Autism Program or within the Neuro-Behavioral Health Clinic monitoring of psychotropic medications and behavior management programs. Additional times during the week will be flexibly designed to meet the intern’s interest areas with time to manage or keep up with ongoing projects and activities such as preparation of diagnostic reports, development of training materials, school consultation, or research. The intern will spend 2 days each week within a school setting. Training in the classroom at The Hope Institute for Children and Families will emphasize development and practice of behavioral intervention skills such as conducting analogue Functional Analyses, writing behavior intervention plans and training direct care staff in their use, participating in multidisciplinary tram meetings, consulting with and training teachers and classroom staff, developing data collection systems to monitor treatment effects, analyzing data and providing interpretation of treatment effects to parents and treatment team members. For their school-based experience, interns in Track 2 provide assessment, consultation, and intervention within the self-contained public school classrooms for children with behavioral and emotional disorders located on the campus of The Hope Institute.
The Hope Institute for Children and Families
A detailed description of the history and current activities of the Hope Institute for Children and Families can be accessed at www.TheHopeSchool.org The Hope Institute for Children and Families internship is based on a practitioner-scientist model providing experience in best practice techniques and evidence-based approaches. Interns may share office space, but will have personal computers, telephone and e-mail, as well as testing equipment, office supplies, and support from the clerical staff and data analyst shared by the Behavioral Health Department. Audio and video access is provided to all classrooms in the school to support therapeutic interventions, monitoring of treatment effects and research activities. A minimum of two hours of individual clinical supervision are provided each week by licensed clinical psychologists with expertise in applied behavior analysis, cognitive-behavioral therapy, management of psychotropic medications, diagnostic assessment of autism spectrum disorders, and management of educational environments. Additional support and informal supervision is available from the pediatric neurologist, from two Board Certified Behavior Analysts, and from licensed Masters level therapists who regularly provide group and individual therapies to children at The Autism Program. Experience in multidisciplinary team consensus building is provided through participation in child support teams whose membership includes psychologists, behavior analysts, speech therapists, teachers, occupational therapists, nurses, direct care staff, program coordinators (i.e. qualified mental retardation professionals), parents, the client child, and representatives of the funding agency.
The Autism Program
The Autism Program provides varied and unique experiences to the intern with interest in developmental disabilities and ASD. The Autism Program is a statewide program, funded through legislation and responsible to DHS, that is charged with building the system of care for children with autism and their families throughout Illinois. The intern will have the opportunity to train at The Autism Program’s Central Illinois Regional Training and Service Center which is housed in Springfield. The statewide administrative offices for The Autism Program are also located in the same facilioty as the Central Illinois Center. The Autism Program center is part of a larger medical center that houses several partnering agencies, including the Mental Health Centers of Central Illinois Children’s Services and SIU School of Medicine Department of Psychiatry. Clinical training includes screening and comprehensive diagnostic evaluations of children referred for assessment of potential ASD. This includes the intern obtaining certification and proficiency in reliably administering, scoring, and interpreting the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS). The intern may also participate in intake interviews, social skills groups, ABA clinic, family focus consultation, functional assessment for treatment planning, new diagnosis orientation program, and summer camps for children with ASD. In addition, the intern will have the opportunity to work with families calling the Family Resource Coordinator and to provide orientation to families to the Central Illinois Center’s Family Resource Room and Communication Clubhouse. The Central Illinois Center, in addition to providing a Family Clinic, is also responsible for collaboration and service networking and support throughout 51 counties in central Illinois. As such, the intern will have the opportunity to work with parent groups from around the region, to develop and design programs and services, and to conduct program evaluation and participate in clinical outcomes studies. In addition, The Autism Program provides substantial training to parents, providers, physicians and educators around Illinois. The intern will have the opportunity to develop trainings, to participate in delivering trainings to various groups and to assist in The Autism Program’s Annual Conference. The intern will also have the opportunity to participate in a variety of autism and developmental disability trainings hosted by The Autism Program.
Springfield Public Schools
The school psychology staff of Springfield Public Schools has worked cooperatively with several universities over the years to provide a quality internship experiences. Our district has also served as a popular internship site for students completing internships in school social work. Given \ the district’s regular involvement with field training programs, interns typically have the opportunity to work with interns completing experiences in other disciplines, therefore, accessing a unique peer support opportunity that may not be typical of other sites. Springfield Public Schools takes pride in offering a variety of programs and internship experiences involved in meeting the needs of a diverse, urban student body, a large private/parochial student population in the community for which special education diagnostics and services are provided by the district. The district is committed to progressive, research-based practices designed to improve achievement for all students. Interns become involved in diagnostic, consultation, prevention, direct service and crisis intervention roles while working in coordination with their school psychology supervisor. Throughout the year, activities are designed to promote increasing independence of the intern as deemed appropriate by both the supervisor and the intern. Experiences are also designed to offer a rotation of activities with other school psychologists in the district, therefore offering the opportunity to observe a variety of service models and professional styles. The intern can expect the following responsibilities/activities to be evident in his/her experience with Springfield Public Schools:
*consult with teachers and other school personnel in relation to behavior management, learning problems, and interventions
*provide individual psycho-educational examinations and/or curriculum based assessments, interpret those findings, generate recommendations which will lead to meaningful experiences for the child
*participate as a team member in multidisciplinary educational staffings for determination of educational objectives and need for special education placement and/or supportive services
*provide direct service as appropriate to the needs of the students individually or as a group
*participate in parent education and the development of parent understanding of their child’s needs and academic/behavioral objectives
*become familiar with Response to Intervention/Flexible Service Delivery models
*become familiar with PBIS (Positive Behavioral Interventions & Supports)
*demonstrate professional growth and development through internship experiences, observation, and individual study
*demonstrate understanding and application of ethical and legal aspects of the practice of school psychology
*demonstrate effective organizational and record keeping skills,
*demonstrate effective oral and written communication techniques
A typical work day in the Springfield Public Schools is from 8:00 a.m. to 3:15 p.m. with time varying slightly depending on building assignments. Throughout the district, schools are in session from as early as 8:00 a.m. to as late as 3:30 p.m. Administrative staff of special education services is housed at a centralized location within the district. School psychology staff also operates from this central location and follows a daily schedule of time devoted to individual buildings. The staff of 12 school psychologists are typically assigned to 2 – 3 buildings each and operate on a weekly schedule that reflects full-days assigned to individual buildings. The typical school psychologist also has one day per week assigned for time in the central office. School social workers operate from a full-time site-based model for some practitioners and a traveling schedule for others on staff. The school psychology intern has assigned office space in the central office, computer access, and testing materials. Within the public school setting, a typical work week involves:
15 hours assessment (traditional and CBM) and report writing
2 hours supervision
6 hours consultation in buildings
8 hours counseling
1 hour training/research
4 hours observation