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Acknowledgements
It is with a grateful heart that I thank Dr. Ghool Ghadiali , the principal of Gopal Sharma Group of School for giving me this invaluable opportunity to intern with the school counsellor. I would also like to thank Miss Jaya Goyal , the counselling psychologist at Gopal Sharma School and my supervisor for the duration of one month, for helping and aiding me throughout the internship. I sincerely thank her for always guiding me and teaching me various concepts as well as sharing her methods with me. I also express my gratitude to Miss Vasavi Katrak , the co-ordinator of Gopal Sharma School for always helping me through any difficulties. It would have truly been a difficult and unenjoyable internship without the help of these teachers.
Preface
I chose to intern with the counselling psychologist at Gopal Sharma Group of Schools, Miss Jaya Goyal. Her job profile mainly includes counselling children between the age groups of 5 to 18 who are diagnosed with learning disabilities, ADHD or ADD or any other mental disorders or illnesses. She also counsels the parents on how to effectively help and behave with their children, and also helps the children with their dietary needs. Through my internship, I observed and interacted with a few children, and through the method of case studies, I became more acquainted with their individual problems and the methods that they used to tackle with these issues. I also helped older students learn better methods of studies and helped them cope with their exam anxiety. From this internship, I came out with a better sense of how to handle children and young adults with various mental disabilities and also how to interact with the patient’s families.
Introduction
Gopal Sharma group of Schools started in the year 1999, with a state board curriculum, with the ICSE curriculum introduced soon after. The foundation stone was laid by Smt. Sunita Devi Sharma. “Educate A Child and Discover A Personality” was the motto of the school’s founder, Shri Gopal Sharma, an educationist and philanthropist from Jaipur. Currently, the Gopal Sharma Group of Schools consists of the Blooming Buds Kindergarten, Gopal Sharma Memorial & International Schools (State board- SSC and ICSE board respectively) and Chandrabahn Sharma Junior College (HSC board). They have branches in Mumbai and Jaipur. The school’s trustees, Mr Prashant Sharma and Mr. Dikshant Sharma are continuously working hard to make sure that the schools are consistently above average. The aim of the school is to provide the best high quality education with a friendly and supportive environment so as to give shape to a promising and confident young breed of future citizens. The school emphasizes on building values, nurturing talents and developing strong academics among students. Their motto is “Empower to change, educate to excel”. The School’s vision is to provide a learning environment that encourages children to bring out the best in themselves and which supports their all-round development, through discovering the joy of learning, awakening and illuminating their intellect in multi- dimensional ways, and instilling abiding values in themselves. Their main objectives are:
- To make children be aware and appreciative of their history, culture and traditions,
whilst being open to other cultures and alternative views of the
world.
- To encourage children to learn sports, culture, and service to the community and thus
promote peace and friendship.
- To encourage all children to develop the qualities of self-discipline, positive self-
image, resourcefulness, teamwork and leadership.
- To inculcate attributes of courage and capacity to articulate their beliefs and take
appropriate actions.
- To provide learning opportunities which appeal to children’s multiple intelligences
and trigger in them a multiplicity of perspectives through an eclectic mix of activities,
intellectual accomplishments, aesthetic appreciation and sporting success, and thus
encourage them to participate fully in the richness of school life.
The school has always believed in providing an all round development for the student and has provided counselling and remedial teaching since its inception. The school heavily believes in helping the child to overcome any difficulty they may have, and provides all the help they can, to make it easier for any child with learning disabilities to actively work through their problems and be academically strong. Miss Jaya Goyal has been working as the school counsellor since the past 9 years. She works with children aged 5 to 16, and deals with a plethora of problems, such as learning disabilities, behavioural impairments, depression, suicidal tendencies, stress and anxiety.
Counselling Cell at G.S.S
I worked under Miss Jaya Goyal, the counselling psychologist who works full time at Gopal Sharma group of Schools. Often times, children are not able to cope with the demands that the school curriculum places on them. No matter how hard they try, they are just not able to keep up with the syllabus and may feel extremely stressed due to this. Other times, children may find it difficult to adhere to the social norms, and behave in socially unacceptable ways. At Gopal Sharma Group of Schools, a child’s mental health is given as much importance as their physical health. Children are referred to the school psychologist and remedial teacher by their class teachers. The children and their families are guided to proper institutions for testing for learning disabilities and other mental disorders. The child is given counselling in school, and is helped to the greatest extent. Counselling is given to children who:
- Are diagnosed with LDs
- Have behavioural issues
- Have a rough family environment
- Cannot adjust to the stress of exams
Responsibilities designated to you during the internship by the organization
An internship is a trained and supervised experience in a professional setting, in which the student is learning and gaining essential experience and expertise. It is meant for introducing the candidates either full-time or part-time to a real world experience related to their career goals and interests. It is generally related to the field of study. It is also an excellent way to build important connections that are invaluable in developing and maintaining a strong professional network for the future career. The responsibilities designated to me during the course of the internship were:
- Observation of the cases handled by the psychologist (I observed around 50 cases)
- Interacting with the children & overlooking their activity sessions
- Making PPTs and conducting workshops on how to study more effectively
- Attending workshops and seminars with known dignitaries on studying and how to
deal with children who have mental disorders.
Learnings from the organization
There were many crucial things I learned from my internship. The most important was how to interact with any child who has a learning disability and how to interact with the parents. This helped me understand a proper counselling setting and proper doctor-patient manners. Since I observed many cases, I learned more about the different learning disabilities (such as dyscalculia and dyslexia) and other mental disorders (such as anxiety and autism) and understood the symptoms they present and the changes they cause in people’s behaviours. I also learned how to take a case history, filling out all the necessary details and asking the children all the important history questions, specifically pertaining to their case. Finally, I also learned how to interpret scores from various intelligence tests.
- Memory training & Brain gym- Working memory refers to the memory you can
consciously hold in your mind at any one instant. The memory training focused on
ways to improve the working memory. Brain gym refers to a specific set of
movements, processes, programs, materials, and educational philosophy. The patient
was asked to do the “lazy 8” daily as a part of her brain gym training to improve her
memory.
Case 2.
Age: 8 Gender: Female Marital Status: Unmarried Religion: Hindu Socio Economic Status: Lower Middle Class Student Domicile: Urban Informant: Class Teacher & Parents Reliability: Reliable Chief Complaints:
- Difficulties in writing and many spelling errors
- Difficulties in math (inability to understand symbols and multiplication)
- Lack of attention
History of Present Illness: The above symptoms have been noted in the patient by the informants for the past 3 years. The patient shows no signs of behavioural problems. History of Past Illness: Nil Personal History: The patient is an only child. She is from a lower middle class joint family, currently residing in Powai, Mumbai. Her medium of instruction is generally Hindi, and she shows problems understanding English. She had full-term normal delivery with no complications. The developmental milestones are age appropriate. She has had no major trauma or illness. She has no problems with speech, vision or hearing. She seemed friendly and the rapport could be established very easily. The patient shows no signs of emotional disturbances and is friendly with everyone in the class. She does not particularly enjoy studying, however she especially despises mathematics and is very poor at it. The patient was asked to appear for the Wechsler’s Intelligence Scale for Children test and was also asked to do the Human Figure Drawing Test. Her WISC scores were as follows:
- Verbal IQ: 110 (Average Intellectual Functioning)
- Performance IQ: 127 (Superior Intellectual Functioning)
- Full Scale IQ: 120 (Superior Intellectual Functioning)
She was seen to have difficulties in expressive language, computational skills, low functioning in factual memory and numerical reasoning and computation. The patient was seen lacking general knowledge skills. The Human Figure Drawing tests reveal feelings of inadequacy, insecurity and dependency. It also indicates poor co-ordination. There is a particular need to be aggressive that is also seen.
Diagnosis: The profile was suggestive of dyslexia accompanied by Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) Treatment:
- Psycho-educational testing- Psycho-educational testing refers to the psychological
tests used to analyse the mental processes underlying your child’s educational performance.
- Remedial Teaching
- Occupational Therapy & Counselling- The sessions should be tailored to the patients
needs. The main goal of occupational therapy for the patient would be to help her
Case 3.
Age: 15 Gender: Female Marital Status: Unmarried Religion: Hindu Socio Economic Status: Lower Middle Class Student Domicile: Urban Informant: Class Teacher & Parents Reliability: Reliable Chief Complaints:
- Anger Management Issues
- Extremely Shy and Introverted
- Trouble remembering and memorizing concepts
History of Present Illness: The above symptoms have been noted in the patient by the informants for the past 1 year. The patient gets violent with her family and often cries due to mis-managed anger. History of Past Illness: Nil Personal History: The patient is the first child. She has three younger sisters and one younger brother. She lives in a joint family, currently residing in Ghatkopar, Mumbai. She belongs to an orthodox Hindu family and reports not feeling loved by her parents. She also reports not being able to fit into any group and having very few friends. She has been bullied by her classmates about not doing well in her examinations. The patient is extremely introverted, and reports liking reading books over socializing. She reports having trouble remembering concepts that she can understand easily. She likes math and science, but does not particularly enjoy history or geography. She is an average student, scoring about 50% in her exams. Diagnosis: The profile was suggestive of a learning disorder accompanied by behavioural issues.
Treatment:
- Changes in diet: The patient is recommended to not have any junk food, and include
vegetables and green tea in her daily diet. The changes in diet are to help her reduce
her emotional outbursts by providing her a healthy body.
- Occupational Therapy: Suited to the patient, physically stimulating activities such as
rope climbing are suggested. Other than this, mentally stimulating activities such as
finding the coloured ball or solving puzzles may also be helpful.
- Counselling: A major part of the counselling focuses on the dysfunctional nature of
the patients family and how she can better cope with them. She is also taught various
methods of reducing aggression and how to deal with emotional outbursts. The
counselling also focuses on bullying and how to deal with it.
Case 4.
Age: 15 Gender: Male Marital Status: Unmarried Religion: Hindu Socio Economic Status: Middle Class Student Domicile: Urban Informant: Class Teacher Reliability: Reliable Chief Complaints:
- Stress and Anxiety, specially during exams
- Low marks in all tests and exams
- Frustration and anger issues
- Suicidal tendencies
History of Present Illness: The above symptoms have been noted in the patient by the informants for the past 2 years. The patient has been involved in many fights with classmates and is known to have some behavioural issues. History of Past Illness: Nil Personal History: The patient is a second child. He lives in a nuclear family situation, currently residing in Ghatkopar, Mumbai. Both the parents are working and are divorced. The patient’s brother is diagnosed with ADHD. The patient reports having no interests except football and plays football every day. He reports being bullied by his classmates for his weight. The patient often feels bad and does not know how to deal with his emotions. The patient, in the past, has self harmed and also reports having suicidal ideations. The patient has not come to terms with his parent’s divorce and mentions being troubled by his parents fights. The patient reports not being able to do well in any exams, and feeling extremely tensed and stressed about it. The patient was asked to attempt the WISC, and his scores were as follows:
- Verbal IQ: 98
- Performance IQ: 107
- Full Scale IQ: 99
The patient was seen to have average intellectual functioning with poor concept grasping skills, low scores on vocabulary tests, low expressive language skills, poorly developed verbal abstract reasoning and low social alertness. Diagnosis: The profile was suggestive of depression and general anxiety disorder. The patient is also diagnosed with dyslexia, dysgraphia and dyscalculia. Treatment:
- Psycho-educational testing
- Remedial Teaching- Focusing on the mental capabilities of the patient, the remedial
teaching should focus on an overall development of the patients academic strengths.
- Counselling- The counselling sessions should mainly focus on the patient’s
depression and anxiety. The patient should be given various tips to lower the suicidal
tendencies and should also be given proper counselling to reduce the depression
symptoms. The patient should be acquainted with methods to cope with stress and
Case 5.
Age: 14 Gender: Female Marital Status: Unmarried Religion: Hindu Socio Economic Status: Upper Middle Class Student Domicile: Urban Informant: Class Teacher Reliability: Reliable Chief Complaints:
- Poor handwriting
- Low scores on tests and exams
- Very bad concentration
- Trouble speaking
History of Present Illness: The above symptoms have been noted in the patient by the informants for the past 4 years. The patient shows no behavioural abnormalities. History of Past Illness: Nil Personal History: The patient is an only child. She lives in a nuclear family setting in Powai, Mumbai. She is friendly and it was very easy to build rapport. Though she understands English, she finds it extremely hard to verbalise her thoughts, so building rapport was quite difficult. She does not have any issues with her classmates, and is very social and friendly with everyone. However, she finds it extremely hard to study and concentrate on any tasks. She has not been doing well in any tests. She does not feel stressed or upset by the exams or receiving a low score. The patient is a very good artist, and also has a keen interest in dance and music. She also reports playing many sports and taking part in extracurricular activities. Her WISC scores were as follows:
- Verbal IQ: 92
- Performance IQ: 79
- Full Scale IQ: 85
She shows a low average intellectual functioning. Her oral language skills are very low. She showed difficulties in an ability to apply academic skills and her fluency with academic tasks were low. Her scores in basic reading and writing were low. Diagnosis: The patient is diagnosed with Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD) and dysgraphia, dyscalculia and dyslexia.
Treatment:
- Remedial Teaching- Focusing on the mental capabilities of the patient, the remedial
teaching should focus on an overall development of the patient’s academic strengths.
It should also focus on verbal language skills and help with academic skills.
- Occupational Therapy- Occupational therapy should be provided to help the patient in
increasing her concentration and memory. Activities such as puzzle solving, finding
the coloured ball, and memory tasks should help the patient.
