I am interested in pursuing psychology as a career. Hence, to understand what practical work in this field actually looks like, I took up this internship at a child development center. Some of the skills that I have for this experience is creativity, adaptability and empathy. The experience included working 4-6 hours a week. It included working with toddlers and children (aged 7-10) on different aspects of their development such as communication, creativity, thinking skills, motor skills, etc. I also helped organize workshops and the annual function.

LO1 – Identify own strengths and develop areas for growth

One of my strengths was creativity. Creativity was important to come up with ideas and plan fun learning activities for the kids, especially during workshops and annual function. For instance, for the annual function, I came up with the topic ‘Navarasa’ which ended up being the theme of the event and also employed creativity during story telling sessions so that the toddlers reamined interested. One of my weaknesses was that since dealing with my emotions is challenging for me, it was also difficult to help the kids when they were experiencing difficult emotions. With time, observing how other employees comfort and help the kids helped me get better with this difficulty. However, I would like to get better at this, so that I am able to better help others.

LO2 – Demonstrate that challenges have been undertaken, developing new skills in the process

Something that was challenging was my underconfidence and struggles with interpersonal skills. My underconfidence led to me being a little quite in class, only doing what I was supposed to do. However, with encouragement and responsibility given to me by the center’s founder (referred to as ma’am from here on), I was able to give my input regarding the creative activities that could be conducted in class and helped in planning and executing workshops and the annual function. I developed my interpersonal personal skills by interacting with the kids, fellow interns and employees and ma’am. I was required to interact with the kids to develop their communication and interpersonal skills which pushed me to work on my interpersonal skills. I was also given opportunities and responsibilities during my internship like conducting 15 minutes of the class time and leading storytelling and game times. This helped me develop my confidence and leadership skills.

LO3 – Demonstrate how to initiate and plan a CAS experience

Since with time, I was given leadership opportunities by ma’am, I was able to demonstrate this learning outcome. I enjoyed being organised – this included sometimes making plan of action lists as directed by ma’am for everyday classes and workshops. For the annual function, planning was more challenging than initiating as we had to come up with ideas that were possible to execute with kids but also unique and wonderful. I was not great at planning what performances to do, however my responsibilities also included managing the backstage. I was able to do planning for managing the backstage very well – I made detailed colour-coded notes of the props, costume changes, time constraints and performance of different kids. During initiating, a month before the function we practiced the dance, drama, anchoring and mime with the kids. The initiating and teaching part was personally less challenging as until the function, I had already learnt how to teach and be with the kids. What was easier to plan than the annual function was the workshops. For instance, I helped plan was the space camp, for that I was able to come up with ideas such teaching the star life cycle and crafts to be done. I also inquired at the science center regarding our camp.

LO4 – Show commitment to and perseverance in CAS experiences

Initially, I had planned to do the internship for a month. However, with my growing interest and the opportunities and encouragement provided to me by ma’am, I interned at the center for 6 months. These 6 months were very fruitful for me wherein a gained a lot of knowledge and skills. Personally, it was not very challenging to commit as this was something that I was interested in, I enjoyed working with the kids and the people there were welcoming and kind. Because of my interest and the people at the center, I was able to persevere in this experience.

LO5 – Demonstrate the skills and recognize the benefits of working collaboratively

In the beginning, it was difficult to work collaboratively as I felt unconfident. However, with time as I got to know the people and the kids, I felt more comfortable. For that reason and ma’am’s encouragement, I was able able to demonstrate this learning outcome. Working collaboratively included coming up with ideas, dividing work such as coming up with ideas and doing prior work for crafts, then dance, storytelling, leading games times. Working collaboratively allowed us to be more productive and get our work done on time. Working collaboratively also improved my interpersonal and leadership skills.

LO6 – Demonstrate engagement with issues of global significance

Through this experience, I engaged with the global issue of mental health and developmental challenges in children. Access to mental health facilities is very important, even more so for children as early intervention can be very helpful. At the internship, I was able to work with kids on the developmental challenges they were facing as directed by ma’am.

LO7 – Recognize and consider the ethics of choices and actions

The ethical issue in this activity was that my actions, beliefs, struggles shouldn’t negatively affect the kids. For eg, me not being good at managing my emotional health may affect the kids and although there can be some mistakes, something I say or do musn’t majorly affect the kids. The center should be a safe place for kids to learn and grow. For this, ma’am guided how to be with the kids and teach them things and if we did something wrong, she would guide us. Since ma’am followed the montessori education method, I also educated myself about that by reading books about that so I learnt a lot of new things regarding kids and how to positively and ethically help nurture them.