INSTRUCTION:

As part of Touro’s requirement, a 10 minute video must also be submitted of the highlights of your final paper, findings, and/or research.  The video should be a video of you presenting your project with all supporting materials.  The parent is not expected to be in the video.  

This is your chance to be creative.  You should be in the video as well. It does not have to be a dry overview it can be creative and fun. Remember you are teachers and engaging the viewer is important in any classroom.

Family-Focused Interview and IFSP Project

Family Report

The family-focused interview conducted in this study is for the Jones Family. The family involves divorced parents, John and Kathy, who are parents to Tim, who is eight, Michael, who is six, and Lauren, who is three. A challenge exists in the family as they divorced two years and are now struggling to raise their three children while living in separate homes. Another challenge is that Lauren got diagnosed with ADHD during the time of the current interview. Analysis of family dynamics involved in the Jones family is required to determine how they are already coping with new issues and provide guidelines on better management of their statuses.

Family Characteristics

Before divorcing, John and Kathy were married for 8 years and lived in Brooklyn, where John worked as a chemical engineer for an oil company while Kathy worked as an administrator for the company her husband worked for. They are an upper-middle-class Irish-American family whose values were routed in connectedness. Before their divorce, Kathy took two years off from work to concentrate on raising their children. After the divorce, the government agency involved awarded Kathy alimony and child support that John pays timely every month. Dealing with the new family structure has proven difficult for the family, as they acknowledged in their interview. They are faced with a dire situation as it has never dealt with a child affected by a disorder before, which worsens as the parents are recently separated. Many stressful scenarios are evident in the family as they had never been affected by the disorder, yet they are concurrently dealing with their new divorce.

As a newly divorced couple, John and Kathy stated they feel strange about their new family dynamic. They also feel responsible for their youngest daughter’s diagnosis of ADHD, as it got discovered after their divorce. The timeline of the divorce being two years ago and Lauren’s diagnosis being this year influences the parents to consider themselves as the cause of this new problem. Due to this, a change in family management got involved as the parents took up a responsibility to always be available for their children regardless of their separation. Lauren’s ADHD diagnosis influenced a significant change in the mental processes of the family as they ensured to always pay attention to her and be involved in their other children’s lives. A crucial need exists to improve children’s academic performance and ensure they have personal growth in different aspects.

Temperaments and frustrations can hinder a child’s social and academic performance. Studies have shown that children with challenging characters raised in dysfunctional families are likely to have temperament problems, unlike children raised in a positive family environment who are not expected to have behavior problems. Temperament affects how the child reacts to things surrounding her, like not getting things their way or exciting events. It also affects how children can control their feelings in any situation. It also affects how a child can associate with new people (NAEYC, n.d.). While handling family interactions, there were moments when Lauren got observed playing with other children in the playground. She does not get into fights, and he is ready to interact with other children without any hesitation. In school, when Lauren is told to go outside for a nature walk, Lauren observes everything that surrounds her and does not get distracted by what others are doing when the time for the nature walk comes to an end stroll following other children to class.

In the presence of pertinent instructions, Lauren goes with the flow by following all the school routines with a positive approach. Because the child is adaptable, has a positive mood, and is also approachable, she smoothly learns to sleep through the night, has a regular feeding routine, knows how to interact with new people, and adapts to change quickly.

Family Interaction

The issue of time affects the family’s interaction as they need to provide much attention to their children, yet the existent separation reduces this capability. Even though affected by this interaction challenge, the Jones family has ensured it ignores dynamics that separate them to focus on assisting each other. The existence of closeness and trust among them allows the adults to support their young children regardless of no romantic connections among them. The family ensured their separation did not deter them from providing their children with pertinent instructions, which then influenced them to improve support for Lauren. An issue occurred in this regard since Lauren started getting more attention from her parents causing Tim and Michael to feel ignored. There are moments when the boys become hostile to Lauren, but this issue gets resolved quickly as they become aware of her needs. Lauren’s social life has not gotten adversely affected as she is extroverted.

Family Functions

John and Kathy noticed that their family function had been substandard since Laruen’s teacher suggested that she might have ADHD. There was a conflict among the parents as they did not believe their child could be affected by the condition. After this initial denial, the parents started wondering why they did not realize the issue their child had been subjected to. This information had a drastic impact as the parents took up the opportunity to be more involved in their children’s lives, especially after Lauren’s diagnosis. School participation, behavior, and performance improved in the Jones family as the parents realized their critical role in improving existing family functions.

Being newly divorced caused John and Kathy to become emotionally disconnected, but this issue did not reduce their focus on their children’s needs. Her school psychologist initially assessed Lauren’s needs in the presence of her parents. A primary care physician performed a follow-up assessment and offered professional advice about managing the existing condition. A family support system is the critical component John and Kathy notice when managing their children (Yang et al., 2022).

Lauren’s condition has been managed using behavioral modification and therapy as suggested by her doctor, who does not view the need to prescribe her medication. Lauren’s school psychologist concurred with the treatment plan as she commented on the positive use of behavioral management procedures. Implementing behavioral management concepts like eliminating distractions, family connectedness, and using “we” statements positively improved Lauren’s behavior (Lynch & Hanson, 2011). There has been a chance for her to communicate well with her parents and peers, which are proper considerations for improving her ADHD diagnosis.

Recommendations

Suggested family outcomes for managing the child’s needs include interaction with her service providers at school, improving any relationship problems, being engaged in more family sessions, and avoiding conflict at all times. Improvement of the family environment is a crucial consideration since adults can impact the growth quality of a child (Claussen et al., 2022). Family members, in this case, parents, who observe a child have a crucial need to assess the behavioral factors of the targeted child since this process is proper for handling various behavioral needs depending on all their diversity requirements. Finding out the descriptions of behaviors that reduce a child’s attention can validate her education sessions based on the structured approach of the intervention plan. Further, it is imperative to determine how preventative strategies would be used to assess how a child with ADHD can get handled using preventative strategies. Creating a productive individualized family service plan is crucial to facilitate valid improvement of the child’s condition.

As an educator, teaching the child to be more obedient and learn more about dealing with different situations with a positive attitude is imperative. There is no good temperament or bad temperament. All the children are born with different temperament and personality, which builds up the child. An easy temperament child is the opposite of a feisty child because they have an irregular schedule, which changes with time. You can handle them by just waiting them out; for slow to warm children, you should not pressure them to do something (NAEYC, n.d.). Students with behavioral disorders must get connected to society due to their critical needs, which require supervision at all times. It is imperative to facilitate the development of valid solutions for the problems as they affect the possibility of creating suitable solutions for affected persons.

Inclusive education is imperative to facilitate proper improvements in students’ after discovering how they get affected when working with students in similar learning environments. Making sure children with learning disabilities get included in general education is imperative to facilitate societal improvement. This is possible by determining the students’ characteristics, abilities, and needs to ensure they get placed in the proper environment. Inclusion of students requires teachers with a positive attitude towards all students regardless of any barriers to their learning. This would get facilitated after accessing instructional strategies and targeting them to the proper students. Learners have diverse behavioral disorders like inattention and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) (Barrington, 2019). Issues develop in the entire learning environment when there are problems for learners who do not feel that their issues get addressed. There is a strong need to promote equality in the entire learning environment after performing and discovering how learners get affected by internal learning improvement barriers.

There would be a reliable teaching environment once learners understand diverse instructional strategies and how they get focused on all learning management procedures. Creating a dependable method to assess all learners’ needs is the best process for educators to develop productive learning environments. The application of collaboration is a crucial activity that facilitates internal educational improvement after accessing students’ needs and using the knowledge to facilitate the attainment of full learner potential. Some students with behavioral disorders often feel discouraged due to appearing to be different from other learners. This affects required development as it gets hard for the students to reach their full potential. In this case, limited access to learning resources affects learners’ improvement as it gets difficult for them to display how their unique activities facilitate full educational improvement.

Inclusive education strongly depends on teachers’ attitudes, as students depend on them to facilitate learning improvements. Students with disabilities get affected due to difficulty in promoting sufficient educational resources. Resources can include technological tools, departments that deal with disabled children, learning supervisors who assess students’ needs, and sources of funding for the learners’ issues. John and Kathy can ensure they purchase these resources and place them in their homes so that she is presented with proper learning resources whenever Lauren visits them. All these problems affect sufficient change management for learners’ issues, as it can be challenging to facilitate proper internal changes without transforming the learning environment’s needs. Cate et al. (2018) mentioned that developing a positive relationship between teachers and learners is the best way to enhance valid knowledge development.

From this perspective, analysis of diverse educational improvement methods is crucial for an affected child to receive holistic learning. All the procedures of enhancing valid educational improvements require frequent assessments to determine the best outcome for learners’ issues. This paper shall perform research to determine the best outcome for learners by accessing valid knowledge in all areas to determine the best solutions for learners’ problems. John and Kathy’s involvement is the main need that influences complete behavioral change in their child. Ensuring the child adheres to treatment and observation would be mandatory. Engagement with service providers would be required to ensure a holistic analysis of the child’s requirements since their interaction with other persons in their environments would generate accurate observations. Planning meetings and educational settings and validating all learning requirements in the area would further increase reliance on the productive outcomes for the child affected by ADHD.

Relying on technology for communication among all adults and service providers involved in improving Lauren’s condition are suitable considerations. The use of emails for communicating with Lauren’s parents would be an accurate method. After collecting data from different recommendation stages, the following requirement would involve accessing cost-effective procedures for validating child improvement processes. All these methods would offer better change after involving the behavioral management processes since the technique generates better adherence to current methods of increasing accuracy during ADHD management. Technological developments are crucial during diverse stakeholder interactions since they all work collaboratively to increase accuracy in communicating a child’s needs. Focusing on a child’s care needs would improve after knowing how better behavioral improvement would secure the child affected by ADHDs future.

Accessing current skills to ensure proper change is crucial in increasing proper child improvement capabilities. Accessing accurate knowledge is crucial in serving the child affected by ADHD better since there is an increase in expertise based on their knowledge and ability to find out how their changes would get submitted. Working with stakeholders would create the best outcomes since all children affected by ADHD needs would become structured to offer productive support based on the capability of accessing skills tailored to create proper mental health management. Technological components facilitate access to productive skills since all these would get equipped to generate better healing. All stakeholders would access an accurate method of coaching children affected by ADHD to receive an improvement in required standards of care.

Regulation of the relationships among all service providers would be possible using a session where they all discuss their professional duties for the child’s care needs. It would be possible to promote better model improvements when the service providers are teachers and school psychologists and develop a program that would operate effectively by discovering how behavioral improvement processes generate proper outcomes since all these methods would validate ADHD management capabilities. It would be possible to generate policy implementation capabilities once the service providers realize how their improvements would generate productive outcomes.

Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP)

The family will benefit from an IFSP tailored to their existing structure since they do not have such a plan yet. An IFSP plan has the potential to increase engagement among family members, which is imperative in ensuring advanced discussions are performed when trying to solve issues (DeSpain & Hedin, 2020). The IFSP plan below, with four family outcomes, will be suitable.

· The family will plan meetings with different service providers at school to discuss Lauren’s progress.

· The family will perform adjustments to their relationship so that they ensure the improvement of any relationship problems,

· The family will be engaged in more family sessions where each member can be free.

· The family will always avoid conflict by discussing issues until a solution is reached.

Using the IFSP plan above will be a suitable consideration for ensuring advanced changes are noticed in the life of Lauren. The intervention plan involves creating a setting where teachers, a school psychologist, and Lauren’s parents would receive productive educational improvement. Children require constant support since this would create holistic improvement for their conditions. There would be productive changes once a child affected by ADHD is provided with treatment methods suitable for their recovery processes. All methods tailored to create better child outcomes are possible since when a child is presented with behavioral management sessions, they can be more welcoming to the idea. All areas where families of the child affected by ADHD cannot operate on their own would be managed by assisting them in any areas that need improvement. The service providers would create better behavioral outcomes by advising families on methods to attain all their needs.

The IFSP plan will generate a supportive family system for all child requirements as any noticed bad behavior increases their chance of getting the full treatment, and this would be the best outcome of the intervention plan. Research on the outcome of the intervention plan would validate the children affected by ADHD needs based on adherence to high-quality behavioral management procedures. Using interviews to evaluate the intervention plan shall validate all activities created to promote better children affected by ADHD treatment. ADHD disorders usually affect a child’s concentration levels and thus should get improved using evaluation interviews that produce effective progress after finding out areas that require change.

Adhering to school psychologists’ treatment plans shall promote productive outcomes for children affected by ADHD improvement exercises. All these methods would validate better outcomes since their caregivers would become highly motivated to increase the reliability of their learning processes. Offering assistance to the child’s needs would become highly influential in ensuring the adults realize how their improvement requires personal changes. All these educational improvement exercises would validate healthcare management procedures without causing limited access to treatment improvement. Offering assistance after any issues get develop would create a productive technique to handle treatment increases without causing the wastage of any resources.

During implementation, each stakeholder shall perform their duty in the required capacity and based on their expertise. School psychologists would use their expertise to improve childcare delivery while at the school. Involvement of nursing leadership activities would be the outcome structured to validate the treatment techniques and how they all work proactively to achieve mental health management goals. Accessing physicians’ expertise can also strengthen outcomes during the school facility management process since all these activities deal with a child’s internal needs. Management of mental health would validate collaboration with stakeholders by offering a proactive method of sharing resources and expanding the treatment network. Creating proper program development activities is possible since all these opportunities would validate the proper handling of a target population.

Service providers would use their roles to submit proactive change improvement without causing any adverse outcomes for a child’s objectives while guided by their parents for their improvement. The fact that mental health children affected by ADHD require constant engagement for care results in the need to share a vision while delivering implementation activities. Using technological methods of supporting care, like interviews for assessment after implementation, would promote better outcomes for the child’s outcomes without causing problems. Accessing unique tasks for promoting proper change would be a strong requirement in a healthcare environment based on finding out how instructions can create better planning of better child affected by ADHD outcomes.

Interview Questions and Responses

1. When was your child’s disorder initially suspected?

John and Kelly did not recognize any behavioral change in their children that would make them notice she was affected by a disorder. Lauren’s teacher is the one who noticed a problem with their child and then immediately informed the parents.

2. Please discuss who brought it to the parents’ attention. If it was the parent who first suspected it, what was the cause for this suspicion?

Lauren’s teacher spent much time with her during the day, causing her to notice attention and concentration issues in her. The teacher noticed that Lauren was affected by anti-social behaviors, having a temperament, being feisty, getting easily irritated, and being frustrated.

3. Please share your experience with the initial testing process. Also, be sure to discuss the child’s experience and how it may have changed during additional testing over time.

Testing of the children started with a visit to her primary care physician in the presence of her parents. Using the teacher’s comments was an imperative method that allowed her doctor to diagnose properly. A follow-up session got performed between Lauren and her school psychologist. The two professionals stated that the symptoms displayed by Lauren were for ADHD.

4. What was your level of involvement during the IFSP development? Be sure to discuss thoughts on how the process could be changed (if applicable).

Lauren has not been presented with an ISP.

5. Please share with me the various forms of therapy, treatment, and support you and your child have received.

Behavioral management therapy has been implemented to manage Lauren’s ADHD. The method was appropriate since Lauren was only 3 years old at the time of the treatment suggestion prompting the professionals to agree that prescribing her medication would not be appropriate. Her main issues were irritability and frustration, which involved handling different therapy sessions.

Lauren also met with her school psychologist once every week to get presented with a proper method of dealing with her disorder.

6. How would you describe the relationships with the various service providers? Be sure to include the ability to understand and meet your needs by service providers.

Service providers involved in improving Lauren’s life are her teachers and the school psychologists. Records of Lauren’s progress are made by all providers who interact with her, and this creates a well-documented treatment process. Providing timely reports has been performed to her parents, and John collects the reports to observe any improvements or laxity in Lauren’s needs.

7. Discuss both the joys and frustrations that you have experienced with your child.

There had been frustrations due to the recent divorce, and Lauren’s diagnosis of ADHD appeared to be influenced by the parents’ divorce. Frustration is expected as the family must support Lauren’s needs and be available for their other children. Finding joy in this situation is possible as the family realizes that progressing in life while positively dealing with issues promotes a better future.

8. How has the fact that your child has a disorder affected others in your immediate family? Be sure to focus on the siblings, spouse, and grandparents.

Michael and Tim started feeling left out as their parents gave Lauren more attention. John and Kathy acknowledged giving Lauren more attention since he had a disorder. The boys resent Lauren but change when they notice she needs support.

9. How has this experience affected the establishment and maintenance of friendships that the child has had over time?

Lauren has displayed an extroverted nature regardless of her disorder.

References

Barrington, K. (2019). Common Behavioral Issues in School-Age Children and How Alternative Schools Can Help.
https://www.publicschoolreview.com/blog/common-behavioral-issues-in-school-age-children-and-how-alternative-schools-can-help.

Claussen, A.H., Holbrook, J.R., Hutchins, H.J. 
et al. All in the Family? A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis of Parenting and Family Environment as Risk Factors for Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) in Children. 
Prev Sci (2022).
https://doi.org/10.1007/s11121-022-01358-4.

DeSpain, S. N., & Hedin, L. (2020). IFSP child and family outcomes: Creating clarity with a team-based approach.
Young Exceptional Children,
25(4), 171–183.
https://doi.org/10.1177/1096250620972716.

Lynch, E. W., & Hanson, M. J. (2011). 
Developing cross-cultural competence: A guide for working with young children and their families. Paul H. Brookes Publishing.

NAEYC. (n.d.). Core Considerations to Inform Decision Making. Retrieved 31 August 2023 from
https://www.naeyc.org/resources/position-statements/dap/core-considerations.

Yang, C., Gao, H., Li, Y., Wang, E., Wang, N., & Wang, Q. (2022). Analyzing the role of Family Support, coping strategies and social support in improving the mental health of students: Evidence from post covid-19.
Frontiers in Psychology,
13. doi:10.3389/fps.2022.1064898