In this article, I would like to share my experience of last year’s internship with a school psychologist. To quickly introduce the profession, the psychologist intervenes with children with learning difficulties and those with disabilities. I wanted to find out how she could act in favor of the psychological well-being and socialization of students to facilitate their learning and integration. One of the things I like about this profession is the role she plays as a mediator between the child, his peers, the educational team, sociomedical establishments and the family.
This article will allow me to review my feelings and how I experienced this first step in a psychologist’s practice.
First of all, my position as a close observer has made me realize the importance of popularizing psychological terms and adapting one’s language to the public : you must have a good grasp of your tool in order to be able to reformulate the cognitive functioning of the child and his difficulties.
Moreover, I have been responsible for creating my observation grids about language and motor skills in order to observe kindergarten children. Once these observations were completed, I was invited to give feedback to my supervisor about the children who had aroused my attention, which allowed me to improve my synthesis and analysis skills. Nevertheless, this mission allowed me to identify some of my weaknesses. It was difficult for me to find the proper posture to adopt with young children. I had to interact with the children to understand their language skills while keeping in mind that observing a whole class required a certain distance and neutrality. During my first observations, I tended to “hide” behind my observation grids and to be more passive. As time passed, I learned to explain to the children why I was there and for how long, in order to establish a safe environment for them.
This internship taught me that I still need to work on my ability to step back from situations full of emotions for my future professional practice. My discussions with the psychologist on this subject made me realize that it was essential not to feel responsible for what may or may not happen to the children after having done as much as possible.
Then, it seems essential to talk about my sense of lack of legitimacy during this internship : I sometimes did not dare to give my point of view because of a lack of certainty about my knowledge.
Finally, this internship confirmed my decision to work with children with learning difficulties. It also allowed me to highlight the points I needed to work on. However, the socioeconomic context of the sector where I did my internship led me to question myself on the necessity of a more global accompaniment of the child. Indeed, it seems essential to me to work on the main places of life of the child in order to apprehend its development and its evolution more globally. Thus, this year, in addition to my internship with this same school psychologist, I will carry out an internship with a psychologist who moves on the places of life of the child (school, family, sports and cultural associations…).
Key terms : internship, school psychologist, learning difficulties, observation
Words I have learned : grasp (l.8) = maîtrise ; to dare (l.21) = oser