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Reflection Paper

High Hopes Children’s Therapy

Alexandra Brand

College of Health Sciences, Georgia College & State University

KINS 4306: Internship in Public Health

Dr. Ernie Kaninjing

July 17, 2022

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High Hopes Internship Summer 2022

 Introduction

My name is Alexandra Brand, and I have been interning from May to July at High Hopes

Children’s Therapy. High Hopes is a mother-daughter-owned business that employs five

occupational therapists and four speech therapists. This organization is located in Alpharetta,

Georgia, and provides services such as occupational therapy, speech therapy, and social skills

groups for children with disabilities. Occupational therapy works on gross motor, visual motor,

fine motor, handwriting, visual perception, sensory processing, and primitive reflex integration.

In speech therapy, they work on receptive language, expressive language, oral motor/feeding

skills, articulation skills, auditory processing, phonological processing, social/pragmatic skills,

and fluency. The social skills groups work on gaining the necessary social skills to endure

interactions as well as how to greet peers while they are in a social setting.

High Hopes mainly works with children, but they do provide services up to the age of 21.

Each therapist has their own set of patients they see 1 to 3 times a week. There are very few

children that are shared between therapists. The therapists have designated days for each child

each week, so you see the same patients on those specific days. The purpose is to provide a fun

and loving environment within the children’s therapy sessions to give them a chance to reach

their full potential. Their mission is to create hope for brighter futures.

Description of Experiences

My role as an intern included a variety of things. I shadowed the children’s occupational

therapy and speech therapy sessions, assisted the therapists in anything they needed, cleaned/

organized the facility, and upgraded/renovated the rooms. Cleaning and organizing included
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wiping walls, mopping floors, vacuuming, color coding all the materials in each room,

organizing cabinets in each room, and restocking rooms/caddies. I additionally cleared out space

by removing furniture and other items from rooms, painted the assessment room, assembled new

furniture, and applied wall decals in order to upgrade and renovate the rooms.

The best part of my internship was making connections with my coworkers as well as the

patients I worked with. I never felt like I was truly working when I was at High Hopes because I

was doing things that I genuinely enjoyed every day. The therapists I work with feel like family.

The most rewarding part of my job is seeing the difference I made in these children’s lives.

There are multiple kids that I worked with that have become attached to me and will sometimes

only listen to me. Being pulled out of sessions to help with these children made me more

motivated. I felt like I was needed there. Many of the therapists have said they don’t know what

they are going to do when I am gone because their child is going to have separation anxiety from

me. It reassured me that this is what I am supposed to do as a career because I do make a

difference and I am needed.

The most challenging part of my internship was seeing the parents who were in denial,

who didn’t carry over at-home activities, and who didn’t really care about their children. As a

therapist, you are not allowed to diagnose a child or even make an assumption to the parents.

You are only allowed to highly recommend their child to get tested. This makes the therapist's

job harder because the children aren’t getting the necessary tools to help them. Their insurance

will usually only cover one session a week when they might need two or three a week. It sets

them back from reaching their full potential. The children are also getting set back by their

parents not carrying over the at-home activities the therapists provide them. Each child receives a

take-home note that has things to work on at home that the therapists recommend. When those
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activities are neglected, it sets the child back. Coming to therapy 1-3 times a week for either an

hour or 30 minutes is not going to help them reach their full potential. It needs to be practiced

every day, and some parents don’t follow through with that and you can see it in their child’s

sessions. Lastly, seeing some parents who don’t really care about their children is heartbreaking.

They drop their child off like they finally get a break and don’t actually care about what the

therapist has to say. Some children come in with clothes or shoes that are too big or too small on

them as well. I recently worked with a 6-year-old child who didn’t know their alphabet or

numbers, and he wasn’t in school either. This was definitely the most difficult part of my

internship. These children deserve the world and deserve the chance the reach their full potential

just like every other child.

I honestly don’t wish I could have done more or less of anything. I think I had the perfect

balance at work, and it made every day go by smoothly. The only thing I wish I could do is to

stay at High Hopes longer and make it my full-time job. I have to get my occupational therapy

degree first, so it is going to take me a couple of years before I am able to apply to work here.

Perception and Evaluation of the Internship

My internship at High Hopes Children’s Therapy did not only meet my personal

expectations, but it also exceeded them. I knew that this experience was either going to reassure

my decision about pursuing a career in occupational therapy or it was going to show me that this

career is not for me. Luckily, I was reassured and now know that I want to work in pediatrics.

This internship is everything that I could have ever asked for and more. I am making a difference

every single day in these children’s lives. Seeing their eyes light up when I walk into the room is

the best reassurance I could ever have asked for. I have learned more than I could have ever
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thought imaginable as well. I thought I was very knowledgeable about this career, but little did I

know how much more there was to learn.

The High Hopes staff was very open to my ideas and contributions. My advisor let me

make different crafts that I thought would be helpful for the children, and they ended up using a

few of them in a variety of sessions. She also let me take control of organizing the rooms and

choosing where each item should go. I additionally had creative freedom with the wall decals.

My advisor told me which stickers went to each room, and I was able to put them up in whatever

way I wanted. Throughout my time at High Hopes, I genuinely enjoyed being supervised by

Beth. I was aware of what was expected of me, and I had a lot of encouragement from not only

her but my other coworkers as well. All the therapists would educate me on each client that they

had, and they would explain what they were doing and why throughout each of their sessions.

They genuinely wanted to help me learn and I appreciated that. I also liked how my time was

split between all the therapists. I was able to see a variety of different kids as well as the different

ways each therapist taught their sessions. It allowed me to have a broader mindset instead of

seeing the same thing over and over.

I honestly don’t think that there is anything that would have improved my experience at

High Hopes. I enjoyed every second of being there and I have nothing bad to say. I would

recommend this setting to future interns. This organization brings you a home feeling. I think of

these individuals as my close friends now, and I plan on staying in contact with them even after I

leave. I was able to meet occupational therapists, speech therapists, OT students, and other

interns and work with each of them. There were so many questions that I had for each one of

them, and I was able to have each of them answered. I was also given resources to help me when

I apply to occupational therapy school, and multiple of them have offered to read over my
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personal statement letter to help me perfect it. This organization has individuals who will lift you

up and who will help you in any way that they can. I can never thank these individuals enough

for everything they have done for me.

I am considering a career in this setting. Like I have said previously, this internship was

either going to make my decision crystal clear or it was going to make me rethink my decision. I

have now decided that I want to work with children with disabilities. I have found my passion in

helping these individuals, and it doesn’t feel like work to me. I genuinely enjoy coming to High

Hopes every day, and I hope that I am able to work here after my graduate program.

Internship Preparedness

I feel as if I was well prepared academically for my placement. Public health is about

improving the health of individuals within the population, and that is exactly what I did at High

Hopes. I was mentally and physically helping these children with disabilities in order to reach

their full potential. I felt the most prepared/confident in my communication and abilities. I was

able to be hands-on with the children within the first couple of weeks of my internship and that

was due to the communication I had with the therapists. I felt the least confident in my

knowledge of children with disabilities. I was familiar with what they entailed, but I could have

been more prepared when coming into the clinic.

The courses I found the most helpful and used the most were Community Health and

Abnormal Psychology. Both of these classes helped me in different ways. My service-learning

site for my Community Health class was very similar to my internship. I was working with

individuals with disabilities which is exactly what I am doing now. The only difference is I

worked with adults at my service-learning site, but I am working with children at my internship.
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My Abnormal Psychology class helped me with my knowledge of disabilities which I found very

useful when working with these children.

I think that GCSU/School of Health and Human Performance can do more hands-on

activities and experiences for real-life application of public health concepts and future

employment. The most knowledge I gained was from my service-learning site and my internship.

Going out and actually experiencing what you are learning is the best form of knowledge there

is. I also think that this helps with students choosing their occupations. There are so many

different ways you can go with Public Health because it is so broad, so having these hands-on

experiences would be very beneficial for future students.

Internship Performance

There were a variety of new skills and knowledge that I acquired throughout the duration

of my internship. My patience and communication were definitely improved during the time that

I was there, but the new things that I obtained will directly influence my occupational therapy

career. I learned what tasks will help with certain goals in both occupational therapy and speech

as well as the reasoning behind it. I also learned about emotional regulation and understanding

why children behave in certain manners. I did not know how different each child would be, so I

was able to gain knowledge about every individual child and the unique things that help them

throughout their sessions. It was challenging at first because it is trial and error in the beginning,

but you eventually learn what works and what doesn’t.

I was satisfied with my performance on assignments, projects, and presentations. I had to

focus a lot on my time management, so I wasn’t overworking myself. I started to work on my

homework during my free periods at work when I wasn’t with a child, and it helped

tremendously. I would rate my overall quality of work a 9/10 because I put my all into
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everything that I did, but there will always be room for improvement. My projects were worked

on throughout the entire duration of my internship, so I was able to get more done than I

expected. I am so proud of myself for how far I have come and how much knowledge I have

gained, and I can’t wait to apply this experience in the future. The skills I would like to sharpen,

hone, and develop to be as successful as possible after graduation would be to learn more about

disabilities as I move forward. I feel like I know a lot from this experience, but I know there is so

much more to learn. I want to be as prepared as possible when going into this field, so

sharpening my knowledge of my patients and what I can do for them would be beneficial for my

future.

Personal/Professional Insights/Benefits

This internship has impacted my personal, professional, and academic goals in ways I

couldn’t even imagine. This experience personally gave me that reassurance that I needed and

reminded me that this is where I am supposed to be. I have always wanted a career that wasn’t

going to feel like work to me but instead is something that I genuinely love to do, and I feel like I

found that from this internship. Professionally and academically, this experience will help me

with furthering my academic career in occupational therapy school. It will make me stand out to

schools, and hopefully allow me the chance to get into them. I will be able to have the

opportunity to further my education and apply my knowledge as I move forward.

In regards to my personal growth, this experience has helped me gain confidence in my

abilities. The knowledge and skills that I have obtained will help me in a variety of different

ways in the future. It feels like I just completed another milestone in my life, and I have never

felt so accomplished and motivated as I do right now.

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I have gained so much insight into the populations that I worked with. My community

health education played a huge factor in this. I keep going back to the needs assessment that I

completed and seeing the vulnerable populations that I talked about, and it gave me a reference

of who I could potentially work with as well as who needs help. It was amazing to be able to

apply my knowledge from this class and see the information I learned used in real life.

Overall, I have thoroughly enjoyed my time at High Hopes Children’s Therapy. I would

not trade this experience for the world, and I am so genuinely grateful that I was able to have this

opportunity. The memories I have made will be cherished in my heart forever, and I hope that

one day I will be able to work at High Hopes as a licensed occupational therapist.