D004 Task 1 Collaborating for Success PDF

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Task 1 Communication barriers assignment d004 collaborating for success...

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Drew Holland Task 1- “Sophia’s Scenario” A. Choose one of the scenarios attached below and explain three potential communication barriers. Include a specific sensitivity issue from your chosen scenario that may influence or interfere with successful collaboration (e.g., differences in culture, language, religion, gender, disability, socioeconomic status, sexual orientation). 1. For each identified barrier from part A, discuss a strategy to successfully navigate it. A total of three strategies are required, one for each barrier.

Barrier #1: The first potential communication barrier in Sophia’s scenario is the communication style differences between her father and mother. Sophia’s father has an individualistic communication orientation which means he values the individual’s autonomy, uniqueness and self-expression over the group’s. People with this communication orientation believe it is more important to take care of themselves and their immediate families and use direct, assertive talk when communicating (Friend 2020.) Sophia’s mother on the other hand, has a collectivist communication orientation. She believes the group to which one belongs is the most important social unit and that loyalty to the needs of the group is vital. People with this communication orientation often speak more indirectly and value silence (Friend 2020). Problem’s may arise when collaborating with school professionals due to their different values as Sophia’s mother may be more apt to listen and go along with the suggestions of the group while Sophia’s father, believing that his daughter does not need a “special plan”, will be more likely to reject the ideas of the group. As an individualistic communicator, Sophia’s father will also probably express himself in a direct, low-context manner and will not appreciate the high-context communication from Sophia’s mother. In the same aspect, Sophia’s mother will most likely not appreciate Sophia’s father’s assertiveness. Strategy #1: A strategy to help navigate a communication barrier potentially caused by Sophia’s parent’s differing communication styles would be for stakeholders to come up with and utilize a communication plan that entails aspects of both collectivistic and individualistic orientations with a main focus on shared goals for Sophia. It is important to reach both parents by communicating in ways that they are each comfortable with. For example, setting a time at the beginning of the meeting in which a parent could openly and without criticism express their thoughts or concerns would appeal to Sophia’s father as he prefers to communicate directly and assertively. Later in the meeting, having members of the team openly voice potential solutions to these concerns in an open group discussion without rigid turn taking would appeal to Sophia’s mother, as she prefers to think and hear the group as a whole when communicating. Having aspects of both of their preferred communication styles embedded into team meetings would allow for smoother collaboration.

Barrier #2: The second potential communication barrier may arise due to the Ms. Thomas, the pushin paraeducator’s, high-context communication style. With high-context communication “ most or all of the meaning is implied by the physical setting or assumed to be something already internalized by the individual” (Friend 2020). This could be why there are several blocks of time each day that feedback is not being recorded. Ms. Thomas may assume that information about Sophia is implied from previous data or that it is unnecessary to record in-depth data for each section of the day. This could potentially lead to confusion and frustration with the other stakeholders as they will want to have detailed data to help support what plan of action they take next with Sophia. Strategy #2: A strategy to help navigate Ms. Thomas’ high-context communication style with regards to her incomplete data tracking sheets would be to implement a training for paraeducators about what is expected of them in terms of recording data. Ms. Thomas would not need to be singled out but rather all push-in paraeducators would attend a brief but direct training about what is expected of them when it comes to collecting significant data on the child they are observing to be used for team collaboration. The training would be sure to stress that data needs to be recorded during each block of time and at the present time the observation is taking place, not filled in later. Using this strategy could prevent Ms. Thomas’ high-context communication style from interfering with successful team collaboration without singling her out or ostracizing her. Barrier #3: The third potential communication barrier is the lack of support and denial Sophia’s father is in about Sophia’s struggles and need for special education. Sophia’s father believes Sophia is just acting out in a similar way he did as a child and blames teachers and the school for her challenges. Sophia’s father may think in this way due to the specific sensitivity relating to his culture; specifically, his work culture. Sophia’s father is a shift worker at the local paper mill and has a blue-collar lifestyle in comparison to the educated professionals who are handling planning of Sophia’s educational future. These cultural differences may be leading to the dissonance about Sophia’s future. Sophia’s father is still in the “denial” stage of learning about a child’s disability according to the Kubler-Ross grief cycle model. Sophia’s father has not accepted that Sophia has any significant problems therefore, he cannot successfully collaborate with stakeholders about support for her. Sophia’s father is also unable to attend many of the school’s meetings due to his work shift during the day which furthers him from being present and able to comprehend and collaborate on Sophia’s future. Strategy #3: In order to help Sophia’s father better understand her struggles in school and why implementing support is necessary, the stakeholders should first ensure that they schedule their collaboration meetings during a time when Sophia’s father can attend. Sophia’s father has not been present at most of her meetings due to his job schedule and therefore has not been provided with as much information about Sophia’s academic progress and struggles as her mother has. He

has been left out of much of the collaboration process in the past and ensuring that meetings are at times he can attend as well as encouraging him to attend is the first step in dealing with his denial. The second part of the strategy to handle Sophia’s father’s denial is the idea of “restorying.” Sophia’s father is in denial about Sophia’s disability and this often prevent parents from constructively addressing their child’s educational needs (Friend 2020). Re-storying assists families in moving away from focusing on the “problems” by instead focusing on the possibilities for their child (Ivey, Ivey, Zalaquett, & Quirk, 2016; Petrina, Carter, & Stephenson, 2015). Since Sophia’s father does not want to accept Sophia’s specific problems at the moment, the team can instead focus on goals and possibilities for Sophia in school without specifically addressing problems. In this way, they can encourage Sophia’s father to communicate and collaborate with them more about Sophia’s educational future.

B. Discuss two strategies you could use to facilitate a collaborative relationship with the stakeholders from your chosen scenario. Strategy #1: One strategy that could facilitate a collaborative relationship between stakeholders would be the determination of a mutual goal for Sophia. According to Interactions, “professionals do not have to share many or all goals in order to collaborate, just one that is specific and important enough to maintain their shared commitment.” A shared end goal for Sophia facilitates a collaborative relationship as everyone on the team, regardless of their different values or communication styles, will be working towards the same goal for Sophia. Strategy #2: A second strategy that could facilitate a collaborative relationship, specifically between Sophia’s parents, would be the establishment of a specific, organized communication plan during team collaboration that utilizes communication styles used by both Sophia’s mother and father as mentioned above. Sophia’s parents are divorced and do not have positive interaction in a shared space. However, establishing ground rules about communicating that includes features which please both parties could boost the efficiency of their communication and make their collaborative relationship stronger

1. Discuss one possible stakeholder response that could result from the strategies you discussed in part B. Response #1: One possible stakeholder response that could result from the strategy of determining a shared goal could be Sophia’s father’s resistance to agree upon a goal for Sophia. Sophia’s mother has been a continuous collaborator when discussing Sophia’s needs in the past and uses a collectivist communication style, which means she is more eager and willing to side and think

like the group majority. This means the team has already probably discussed goals for Sophia in the past and knowing this and how Sophia’s mother is, Sophia’s father might be resistant to agree upon a shared goal for Sophia quickly. Sophia’s father, as a more recent collaborator, could react poorly to the strategy of facilitating collaboration by coming up with a shared goal. C. Discuss two strategies you could use to facilitate a collaborative relationship with the paraeducator from your chosen scenario based on the student's needs. Strategy #1The first strategy I could use to facilitate a collaborative relationship with the paraeducator, Ms. Thomas, would be an extension of my previously stated strategy for navigating through potential communication barriers in part A. In part A strategy #2, I discussed adding a training for paraeducators about proper data collection and recording. In order to facilitate a collaborative relationship with the paraeducator, I would extend this training to include helpful information about properly relaying and communicating their data with stakeholders. I would also include a training for all stakeholders about properly collaborating and communicating with paraeducators. By adding these trainings, both paraeducators and the stakeholders could learn or be reminded about how important their information is to one another and collaborating about the goals of the student. Strategy #2The second strategy I could use to facilitate a collaborative relationship with the paraeducator, Ms. Thomas, would be to allow the use of a key in order to better decipher her feedback recorded on the daily tracking sheets. Ms. Thomas uses high-context communication style in which “ there is a strong emphasis on verbal shorthand or nonverbal codes in communicating information that is known by the communicators but is not explicitly stated in the verbal message” (Friend 40 2020). Rather than force Ms. Thomas to use a low-context communication style she is not comfortable with, having her provide a key that decodes her shorthand would allow her to continue to track data in her preferred style and myself to decode these messages in the terminology I am more comfortable seeing.

D. Discuss how you would collaborate with the student or parents from your chosen scenario by teaching the student or parents to monitor and advocate for each of the following: 1. the student's educational accommodations Monitor- I will collaborate with Sophia and teach her how to monitor her educational accommodations by having her write down in her classroom journal when and why she used one of her accommodations. Through this process, she will begin to better understand the reasons for her accommodations, how they help her, and for what activities using them could benefit her. Advocate- I would teach Sophia’s parents to advocate for Sophia’s educational accommodations by holding parent meetings once every two weeks through a webcam meeting and asking them

specific questions in regards to how they believe Sophia’s accommodations are helping or not helping her progress. The webcam parent meetings can be done separately at different times with Sophia’s mother and father to adhere to their schedules and so their potentially conflicting views don’t interfere with the meeting. At this time parents can voice positive and negative critiques of their daughter’s accommodations that I can then reflect upon and take into consideration for possible changes. 2. the student's involvement and participation in general education Monitor- I will collaborate with Sophia’s parents to monitor her participation in general education classes at IEP meetings. At IEP meetings I will be sure that both her parents are aware of her specific involvement in gen ed, her success/abilities in these classes, and what accommodations she may use in order to participate successfully in these classes. I will teach her parents that is important to understand what is expected of student’s to be in these classes and how Sophia can be included. Advocate- I will collaborate with Sophia’s parents and teach them how to advocate for her involvement in general education classes by encouraging them to set up student centered webcam or in person meetings with myself advocating for placement in gen ed classes if/when they believe Sophia is ready. Through teaching them previously how to monitor her participation in gen ed classes, they should be able to understand what is expected of her and what supports she may need and advocate for proper gen ed placement. 3. the student's involvement and participation in extracurricular/nonacademic activities Monitor- I would collaborate with Sophia and teach her to monitor her involvement in extracurricular activities by having her complete an online survey about her interests, dislikes, strengths and weaknesses that would help to narrow down potential extracurricular activities she may like to participate in. By taking the survey she would better be able to monitor and determine what after school activities she should consider joining. Advocate- I would collaborate with Sophia’s parents and teach them to advocate for Sophia’s participation in extracurricular activities by presenting them with information about multiple clubs/organizations/teams that in the community that I believe Sophia would enjoy and prosper in. I would be sure to specifically include clubs which may have special accommodations for children with disabilities or other peers involved that may be similar to Sophia. I would encourage Sophia’s parents to not only enroll her in at least one of the extracurricular activities but become active supporters; attending, watching and/or cheering on Sophia whenever possible. 4. the student's progress Monitor- I will collaborate with Sophia and teach her how to monitor her own progress by holding quarterly progress meetings with her. Before these meetings, Sophia will fill out a questionnaire with specific questions related to strengths and weaknesses in different areas throughout the quarter including areas she believes she has improved in and areas she believes

she must improve in. She will provide evidence or examples to support her statements about her improvement. I will add to her self-analysis with anything I think is necessary and be sure to praise her for her areas she has improved in. At the end of the meeting, we will together talk about reasonable improvement goals for the next quarter. With my guidance, Sophia is selfmonitoring her progress for the entire school year. Advocate- I will teach Sophia to advocate for her own progress by using her quarterly progress self-analysis from her meeting to set a reasonable goal statement for the next quarter. She should be able to support her goal with evidence or past examples of why she thinks she will be able to achieve this goal by the end of the next quarter and what she will do to ensure this. e. Identify five resources for services, networks, or organizations that could provide additional support and opportunities for the student and parents from your chosen scenario.

1. 2. 3. 4.

The Fathers Network (FN) (www.fathersnetwork.org) Kids Together, Inc. (www.kidstogether.org) Beach Center on Disability (www.beachcenter.org) Center for Parent Information and Resources (CPIR)

(http://www.parentcenterhub.org) 5. Parent Advocacy Coalition for Educational Rights (PACER) (www.pacer.org) 1. Explain why the five resources you identified in part E are relevant to the student and parents from your chosen scenario.

1. The Father’s Network will provide Sophia’s father with the support he needs to come to terms with Sophia’s disability. He will be able to receive support and guidance from other single fathers who also have children with special needs in similar situations and access educational assistance services.

2. Kids Together, Inc. will foster inclusiveness for Sophia as she comes to terms with her special needs as she will be able to connect to other children and their families in similar situations.

3. The Beach Center on Disability web site will provide support for Sophia’s parents throughout her entire academic development. It will provide resources to her parents for help not only during her elementary years but as she gets older, eventually transitions and finds unemployment.

4. The Center for Parent Information and Resources is another resource that Sophia’s parents will utilize for many years at different times. The website contains important information and resources for parents of children with disabilities in one location so parents have easy access to many helpful resources at all times.

5. PACER will provide Sophia’s parents with the opportunity to get advice and support from other parents who have gone through similar situations. It also provides helpful workshops to parents. 2. Identify five additional resources that could be helpful to students with exceptionalities other than the student in your chosen scenario. 1. Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (CHADD) https://chadd.org/ The Children and Adults with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder website can provide evidence-based strategies and support for raising a child with ADHD. This website could be a helpful support system for parents and families who feel isolated. 2. American Society of Deaf Children https://deafchildren.org/parents-and-families/ The American society of Deaf Children’s website provide numerous resources for parents raising deaf children. It also allows for parents to connect and get to know other parents with deaf children so they can establish a support system. 3. Autism Now https://autismnow.org/ Autism Now is a website that provides the latest news and research about autism. Parents of children with autism can use this website to learn more about the spectrum disorder, and find out about strategies used in the classroom, home, and in the community. 4. It Gets Better https://itgetsbetter.org/

It Gets Better is a resource for teens in the LGBT community who feel confused, misunderstood or alone to find support in other teens like them and learn from personal stories. It is an online community support system for students. 5. Brain Line https://www.brainline.org/people-brain-injury/community-support Brain Line is an online supportive community for people who have experienced traumatic brain injury and parents of those who have traumatic brain injury. Through this website, one can learn more about TBI and can connect with others going through similar situations.

F. Acknowledge sources, using in-text citations and references, for content that is quoted, paraphrased, or summarized. Friend M., & Cook L. (2016). Interactions. [Western Governors University]. Retrieved from https://wgu.vitalsource.com/#/books/9780134256740/ Ivey, Ivey, Zallaquett, & Quirk. (2016). Essentials of Intentional Interviewing: Counseling in a Multicultural World (3rd ed.). Cengage Learning. Petrina, Carter, & Stephenson. (2015). Parental perception of the importa...