As a mentee of Mrs. Marman's, I was given the opportunity to attend a meeting for one of the many organizations she was involved in last Spring. At this meeting, Deb Tibor (a special educator in early childhood) was demonstrating the DIAL-4 Preschool Screening that she does for Head Start programs in the surrounding areas. Through this contact I was able to attend a screening process in Cannonball, ND and administer the language and concepts sections of the screening. During this experience I was able to screen 6-7 preschool students, ages 3-5, and participate in the scoring and referral process of screening as well. I found this experience to be extremely beneficial because I have never been to such a highly Native American populated school before and the culture and diversity was extremely clear in the screening of the students and the collaboration with the teachers. I had also never been exposed to an early childhood environment either so to be able to administer a screening in Cannonball was quite the diversity experience.
Family Mentorship Program:
In my Cognitive Language and Development class with Mrs. Prussing we were grouped with Nursing and Physical Therapy students from the University of Mary and assigned a family who had a child with a disability. The family my group was assigned to had a teenage daughter with muscle atrophy, which caused her to be restricted to a wheelchair. Our group visited this family's home and saw the adaptations throughout the house to better accommodate this girl (open rooms, wider door entrances, a swing to help her in and out of bed). We engaged in conversation with the family on the girl's daily life and her accommodations at school and home. This was my first experience in a home setting with a student who has such high physical restrictions
Additional Diversity Experiences - Jamestown Anne Carlsen Center: Summer 2015 - Diversity Practicum: Dorothy Moses Elementary Spring 2015 - Special Education Practicum: Centennial Elementary - Professional Mentorship: Legacy High School, Emotional Disorders Resource Room Fall 2015-Spring 2016 - Antone Treuer: Indigenous Spirituality Convocation Fall 2016