Clinical Psychology Internship in Developmental Disabilities and Pediatric Psychology

Major Rotations

Interns participate in three four-month rotations. Each rotation focuses on assessment, consultation, and referral skills in different areas within the broad context of childhood development.

A. Child Development Clinic (LEND):

This rotation involves intensive and interdisciplinary evaluations of children with a variety of special needs. Referral questions often include cognitive delays, academic concerns, behavioral difficulties, emotional problems, social concerns, speech delays, poor motor skills, and medical disorders. Psychology interns, along with their supervisors, conduct extensive evaluations and parent/child interviews, and consult with other professionals in a fast-paced clinical setting. As many as eight disciplines may be involved in the one-day clinic. The interns are also expected to serve as case coordinator, chair staff meetings, and conduct parent conferences. Staffing and parent conferences conclude the day and the entire process is completed within six to eight hours. The intern typically completes one or two evaluations during the clinic, which occurs one day a week. Follow-up activities may occur outside of the clinic day.

B. Pediatric Psychology

Interns will participate in one or several pediatric clinics serving children with complex and/or chronic medical conditions. Examples of clinics that potentially part of this major rotation include the Diabetes Center, which is a lifespan, multidisciplinary center designed to provide coordinated, state-of-the-art care to individuals with diabetes; Survivor's Clinic, an interdisciplinary long-term follow-up clinic for youth who have survived cancer; Hemophilia Clinic, a multidisciplinary program offering care and coordination for individuals with hemophilia and other bleeding disorders; Pain Clinic, an interdisciplinary evaluation clinic for youth with chronic pain; and Healthy Lifestyles clinic, a multidisciplinary evaluation and education clinic for youth who are overweight or obese. Interns, along with their supervisor, will provide services including evaluations of psychosocial status, consultation with medical and other allied health professionals, and/or on-going assistance to youth and their families.

Focus of services is on wellbeing of the youth and optimizing individual and family functioning. Ongoing services may emphasize issues such as adjusting to having a chronic medical condition, incorporating prescribed medical regimen into day-to-day life, and addressing psychosocial issues related to one's chronic medical condition. Note that this major rotation is paired with the Inpatient Consultation minor rotation. As such, interns are able to collaboratively decide whether they wish to devote increased time to inpatient or outpatient pediatric psychology training activities.

C. Psychology-only Evaluation
Interns will participate in a full day of "psychology only" evaluation including one full evaluation and possibly an additional appointment for a diagnostic interview or feedback session. Children are typically referred to evaluate questions of ADHD, learning disability, developmental disability, and/or mental health or behavioral concerns. Most of these patients receive a cognitive and achievement (academic) evaluation as well as an evaluation of behavioral and emotional functioning. However, this clinic is arranged to provide many levels of psychological evaluation based on the individual's needs and may include measures of memory, executive function and attention-specific measures. Goals of this rotation include promoting increased skills and independence with choosing appropriate assessment measures based on specific referral questions, expanding the number and types of assessment measures familiar to a trainee, diagnostic interviewing and providing feedback to families, making appropriate diagnoses and recommendations, and writing professional reports. Trainees will also be encouraged to learn about and participate in administrative aspects of evaluation including working with scheduling coordinator, school teachers, and referring providers, and billing issues. Because child psychology evaluations are a common part of practice for independent practitioners, this rotation is designed to refine existing evaluation skills so that interns leave prepared to complete comprehensive psychological evaluations independently.

 

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