Week 6: Challenges I have encountered + Midpoint Assessment

Sandhya S -

Hi everyone! Welcome to week 6 of blog posts! Last week, I mentioned how I was supposed to meet with my advisor on 3/13 to take the midpoint assessment, measuring clients’ progress. However, unfortunately all 3 of the clients I was supposed to meet that day cancelled their sessions.

New challenges I’ve encountered:

Throughout this research process, I have realized that realistic results of a study are not usually what is expected. In fact, unexpected findings or any obstacles encountered are one of the most valuable parts of research and can lead to new insights. One of the main challenges that I am facing now that I hadn’t experienced much during the beginning stages of my study is therapy session cancellations from clients’ families. Though I still believe that working with children is very rewarding, I have now gained a deeper understanding of the many difficulties that also come with it. Firstly, all the clients involved in the study are kids and are thus dependent on their families. If the family has work obligations, then their child might be unable to attend their therapy session. Kids can also be busy themselves with school and other educational pursuits so being able to create a consistent schedule with families for therapy can be difficult. My advisor has actually faced this challenge where the therapist and family are unable to find a mutually convenient time, so they need to switch to see a different therapist. This happens especially during the summer, since most kids go to summer camp or other programs.

Additionally, the other problem is that children are the most susceptible to sickness, since their immune systems are still developing. This was the main reason why 2 of the 3 clients’ families cancelled their sessions last week. This is the reality of working with kids and I wanted to share a glimpse of what these realistic experiences look like.

This week: 3/18 and 3/20

Today (3/18) I went to the clinic to take the midpoint assessment of 5 of the clients. Four of the families reported -2 for their midpoint assessment. Some of those 4 clients have still show progress in between, but not enough to move up to -1. However, one of the families reported progress from -2 to -1. It’s important to keep in mind of this short timeframe being only 8 weeks. I plan to go this Thursday (3/20) to the clinic again to finish up the midpoint assessment for the remaining 3 clients. Hopefully, there are no cancellations, but again, that is something I have no control over. I hope to see some improvement on the other clients’ goals later this week!

Thank you so much for reading and stay tuned for the next post!

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Comments:

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    anita_m
    Hi Sandy, I love your insight into the realistic challenges child therapists face. How could excessive cancellation affect the results of your project?
    March 21, 2025 at 9:41 am - Reply
    sandhya_s
    Hi Anita! That's a great question! So the cancellations has made the weeks between the baseline, midpoint, and final assessments using the GAS method inconsistent. The expectation was for there to be 2 weeks in between each assessment so that everyone has the same amount of time to work towards improvement with their goal. However, due to some of the cancellations, I have had to postpone some of the client's midpoint assessments. Three weeks have passed between the first two assessments of the study for 5 of the participants and 4 weeks have passed for the remaining 3 participants, so I will have to take this into consideration if some of the participants show little to no progress.
    March 21, 2025 at 1:36 pm - Reply
    camille_bennett
    Hi Sandy, thanks for sharing! Have you found any strategies in your research to work around the impact of cancelled sessions?
    March 25, 2025 at 11:15 am - Reply
    Brittany Holtzman
    Hi Sandy! I'm so glad that you are having this experience and getting a better understanding of the obstacles of research as well as working with children! I love the positive attitude you have towards it and how it has led you to some new insights. This is not just a valuable research lesson but a wonderful and essential life lesson as well! It's all in how we perceive these obstacles and grow from them! Keep up the learning process! :)
    March 26, 2025 at 9:15 am - Reply

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