Experience_Interview.pdf.pdf

RUNNING HEAD: Experience Interview

Experience Interview

Sarah Maine

Liberty University

1

Experience Interview

Experience Interview

Part 1: Demographics

Name of person you are interviewing: April Warder

How did you learn that Katy has a disability?

Her brother Rory was diagnosed with ADHD in kindergarten, so we were already watching Katy

closely when she started school. She could not keep up in school. She was easily distracted and

very inattentive; so she was diagnosed with ADHD at age 5 and started medication then. A few

years later, she started displaying excessive anger, which is fairly common with ADHD. When

she was said, we were told she might have bipolar disorder, so they told us to keep an eye out for

that. Spring semester of seventh grade, it got really bad. She started being very rebellious and

defiant. At first, we just thought it was puberty, but it was worse than other kids with puberty. I

remembered they told us to watch for bipolar disorder, so I started looking up symptoms online. I

took her to see a psychiatrist the month before she turned 14, and he added bipolar disorder. I had

I would use the correct terminology, but I would also use everyday examples. I think it’s

important for parents to know the terms that they are going to keep hearing, but on the other

hand, it’s new and overwhelming, and if you’re using new vocabulary, they’re going to be like

I didn’t realize how hard it was going to be and how much it was going to affect our lives. I

guess I thought we would get her on the right meds and she’ll get stable. Two and a half years

later, we haven’t found the right combo of meds, she’s not stable, and I never know what she is

going to do.

What have been the positive aspects of having a child in the family with a disability?

It has made me more understanding and patient. I think it’s made me a better teacher, too.

What have been the problems or challenges you have experienced having a child with a

disability?

One of the big frustrations with living in Idaho is there’s not a lot of treatment options available

in Idaho, and my insurance doesn’t want to cover as much as she needs.

then squeeze all that in at four o’clock at night was exhausting. I have fibromyalgia myself, so I

was already barely surviving work, and then it was just too much with Katy.

How did your other children react to learning their sister had a disability?

Oh my gosh, poor Rory. Rory has mild autism, so he’s very rule-bound, very legalistic, very

structured - so here’s Katy, who’s totally opposite of him, and he does not get it at all. It drives

him crazy. Andy is mentally six years old. He’s still very egocentric, so he doesn’t really think

about Katy. It’s obviously been harder on Rory,

What impact has Katy had on them?

Well, Rory tends to worry more about her. If she’s just in a bad mood or crying, he wonders if

she needs to go to the hospital or if she’s suicidal or if she’s going to trash the house again. He’s

There’s a thing called NAMI - National Association for Mental Illness. They do a class called

“Family to Family.” It’s a 12-week course, and that was a big help. I read books, I talk to other

parents. But every child is so unique, sometimes it helps, and sometimes it scares me more. One

time, I went to a NAMI support group, and their kids were worse than mine, and it was freaking

me out. So I quit going. My best friend, I text her a lot. Nothing my daughter does shocks her.

She’s been my best friend for 33 years, and she’s just really accepting of everything. So yeah we

have friends and counselors. Family is a little harder because there’s mental health issues on both

Experience Interview

sides of our family. I don’t tell them everything Katy does because it could just make them feel

worse, and it’s not their fault. She definitely got the worst genes from both sides of the family.

How would you prioritize your family needs and the areas in which you feel that you need more

assistance?

Katy can’t be left alone. She’s too impulsive. She’s a danger to herself and to others. I send her to

her dad’s because I’m required to by law, but he has ADHD also and lets her get away with

murder. So she’s actually worse after coming back from her dad’s. There’s not a lot of people I

feel like I can send her to in order to have a break myself. My husband is a saint. He came into

our family knowing that Rory had problems, so he already knew about that. But then three years

later I got fibromyalgia, and two years after that Katy was diagnosed bipolar, so he’s amazing -

I didn’t feel like I was getting through to the school district, and they sent me a facilitator. That’s

made a huge difference to make sure I’m being heard to. I go to the meetings, and there’s a room

full of school staff. They talk and talk and talk, and they forget to let you talk. I have a Master’s

in Special Education. Not only do I know my daughter better than them, but I know the laws,

too. It helps to have the facilitator from the State Department. Now that I’m “that parent” they

usually send someone from the district office that knows what all the district can offer and will

sometimes offer things that the school staff didn’t think to offer. They just assigned Katy a PSR

Experience Interview

Katy to rely on someone being there at all times to help her. She has to be able to learn on her

own. I’m hoping the worker will start weaning of being around Katy and that she’ll start to be

around her less and less as time goes on.

If I were to be Katy’s teacher next year, what advice would you want to give me so that he/she

has an optimal learning experience?

Actually read the IEP and follow the accommodations. It is given to you for a reason. Also,

please voice your concerns about Katy early on. Don’t wait until she’s failing your class. Just

have good communication with me throughout the year.

What would you want me to do/not do in terms of my interactions with you if I were Katy’s

teacher?

Experience Interview

I am just learning about students with disabilities and how to work effectively with them in my

classroom. What other information would you like me—and my classmates—to know about

working with children with special needs?

classroom and at home. We would begin with Universal Design for Learning (UDL) strategies.

UDL is “a teaching strategy to build flexibility into the instruction so that the products and

environments can be usable by the largest possible number of students” (Kirk et al., 2015, pp.

53). Simply put, this means the teacher would teach the content material to the class in different

ways so that the most amount of students will be able to understand it. For Katy and her class, I

would start the UDL approach by having a clear set of expectations posted in the room for the

whole class to abide by. This gives the whole class a clear understanding of the rules and give

Katy something to reference to if need be. I would also learn how to teach the same content in

different ways. For example, if I were teaching the students about a specific musical era, I would

give them a handout to fill in the blanks when I am telling them about it. I would also have some

focuses on modeling, imitating, observing, and reinforcing behaviors, which have been found to

have significant effects on learning these behaviors (Nedim & Sungur, 2015, pp. 699). Social

skills training is still a relatively new strategy but has been found to help some students with

The third strategy I believe would be beneficial for Katy and her family is known as the

cognitive strategy approach. These self-management techniques help the students to claim a

higher responsibility for their actions and behaviors. There are four common sections to these

techniques: self-monitoring, self-instruction, self-evaluation, and self-reinforcement. “....these

methods rely on the cooperation of the child and encourage the development of effective

conscious coping skills” (Kirk t al., 2015, pp. 270). These have proven to be very effective with

students with behavioral disabilities, and I believe Katy would do well with these, too. As her

teacher, I would aid her in setting an appropriate goal for herself and help her learn how to

monitor and maintain her progress herself. Once she has completed these goals, she would be

rewarded with something we both believe to be an acceptable treat (i.e. extra computer time).

really hard to make sure they get what they need for their education, even at the expense of her

own health. She is a strong and patient woman, and I respect her immensely. After hearing some

of what she has gone through with Katy, I do not know what I would have done had I been in her

situation. April has not only struggled with raising Katy with her disabilities, but she has also had

to fight the school district on several occasions and even had to go around them to get the State

Department involved. She has been with disabled students both as a parent and a teacher, and she

offered me some great advice on several aspects.

I know every student is different and learn in different ways, but I believe the teaching

strategies I recommended above would be able to help Katy with her disabilities. They can help

with many aspects of her life: distractions, communication, socialization, individualized learning,