Dear AMTA

New Blood...

I had a new intern start her internship yesterday. I am always a bit apprehensive about a new intern fitting in to the mix of characters at my facility. I tend to pace, I don't sleep well, and I am very concerned about the interns that are currently at the facility getting along with the new one. I think this one will be perfectly fine, but I still had all of the same old doubts.

My population is children and adolescents with developmental and psychiatric disorders. They are notorious for less than desirable social interaction skills, so I always warn visitors and interns that they will need to model appropriate introduction skills. My students are more likely to talk about a person rather than introduce themselves.

Two interns ago, I had just finished with my talk about how students would be likely to talk about the intern in front of her face rather than using appropriate skills such as introducing themselves, when we had to go to an inservice. We sat down in the room and the principal of the school walked in. The first thing out of her mouth was, "MJ, who's that person?" I started to laugh and explain to the intern that there was a reason we all were happy providing services in special education settings. Sometimes the staff need to work on their social skills as well as the students.

We will see what happens with intern 11. I hope the principal has learned to introduce herself to strangers in the past six months. If not, I'll have to write her a social story song to remind her of the process!!