Integration and Reflection Paper
Taylor Skaggs
Oklahoma State University
Introduction
My time in this class has been well spent, and I enjoyed every moment of it. The OK AIM visits made me nervous at first but as they went on I enjoyed doing them. The first visit was better than the second and I wish they weren’t as rushed but I learned a lot from doing them and got the chance to meet some really great people along the way. One big thing that I got from this class was the word community and what that means to individuals with IDD. Community living isn’t just about the people in the community itself, it’s about being involved in and outside the home. Whether that be helping around the house or having a job, it’s a since of independence and …show more content…
Personally, I think that it is having a place to live and work in the community. However, it can also be so much more than that such as having skills to manage a living environment and navigate the community, and skills to ensure safety, self-care, and personal health. It can go even deeper than that and include being a part of the community itself and activities of interest and having a social network of friends, coworkers, and family (Hewitt, 2013). What is community living? It is all of those things. In the first visit I think we had a clear example of community living. It was a group home of all girls and there all involved in the community, most of them worked together and did things together outside of the home. Their house was personalized to fit each of the personalities and they each had their own room where they could go to be alone and get a break from the other girls if needed. They helped around the home and showed independence by cooking and cleaning and grocery shopping or even doing yard work. All their personal health seemed to be good and the staff members that were present at the time of our visit seemed to really know the girls and what they liked to do versus what they didn’t and how well they each got along, and they seemed to really know each one’s personality and traits. Our second visit was a little harder to compare to and relate to community living. With Michael being nonverbal and not having a way to communicate with us we relied heavily on the staff member that was present to answer all of our questions. He kept trying to ignore our questions or would give us two completely different answers, but we could put a little together from the information that he gave us. Michael didn’t seem to get out in the community very often and didn’t really know his neighbors or anything like that. It seems that when he does go out it might mostly be for errands such as the grocery store or the pharmacy, or even somewhere the
Taylor Skaggs
Oklahoma State University
Introduction
My time in this class has been well spent, and I enjoyed every moment of it. The OK AIM visits made me nervous at first but as they went on I enjoyed doing them. The first visit was better than the second and I wish they weren’t as rushed but I learned a lot from doing them and got the chance to meet some really great people along the way. One big thing that I got from this class was the word community and what that means to individuals with IDD. Community living isn’t just about the people in the community itself, it’s about being involved in and outside the home. Whether that be helping around the house or having a job, it’s a since of independence and …show more content…
Personally, I think that it is having a place to live and work in the community. However, it can also be so much more than that such as having skills to manage a living environment and navigate the community, and skills to ensure safety, self-care, and personal health. It can go even deeper than that and include being a part of the community itself and activities of interest and having a social network of friends, coworkers, and family (Hewitt, 2013). What is community living? It is all of those things. In the first visit I think we had a clear example of community living. It was a group home of all girls and there all involved in the community, most of them worked together and did things together outside of the home. Their house was personalized to fit each of the personalities and they each had their own room where they could go to be alone and get a break from the other girls if needed. They helped around the home and showed independence by cooking and cleaning and grocery shopping or even doing yard work. All their personal health seemed to be good and the staff members that were present at the time of our visit seemed to really know the girls and what they liked to do versus what they didn’t and how well they each got along, and they seemed to really know each one’s personality and traits. Our second visit was a little harder to compare to and relate to community living. With Michael being nonverbal and not having a way to communicate with us we relied heavily on the staff member that was present to answer all of our questions. He kept trying to ignore our questions or would give us two completely different answers, but we could put a little together from the information that he gave us. Michael didn’t seem to get out in the community very often and didn’t really know his neighbors or anything like that. It seems that when he does go out it might mostly be for errands such as the grocery store or the pharmacy, or even somewhere the