Community-Based Immersion Learning Portfolio (CBIL)

The Community-Based Immersion Learning Portfolio (CBIL ) project is a semester long project you will work on at your own pace, due the last week of the course. Mental Health Counseling is a practice-based profession grounded in theory and research. You will need to attend/observe/participate in 6 learning experiences throughout the semester that are geared towards the practice of social work, counseling, or psychology with infants and toddlers. Some examples are:

· Observe an infant room at a child care center

· Interview a doula or birthing professional

· Attend a new parents group

· Observe an early intervention professional

· Observe/Volunteer at a baby play group

The opportunities are endless!

You will then reflect upon your experience by choosing 1 writing prompt to reflect and respond to regarding your experience. The writing prompts will posed soon. You may only use each writing prompt once.

These will all be kept as a "portfolio" and handed in at the end of the semester.

writing prompts :
1. Pick two theories from the course and reflect on how your experience either supported the assertions of the theory or challenged them?

2. Imagine you have a client with developmental delay or mental health issue in early childhood (or a parent). How would that effect your client's ability to engage in the experience you partook in? What would be some pros/cons of the experience for this particular client?

3. How do the aspects of the special needs theories discussed in this course apply to your experience? What programing within the experience supports the notions of the theory? (Please pick no more than 1 theory) You May Use Question 3 twice, as applied to two experiences, as long as you reflect on 2
separate theories!

4. List and discuss two ways that your experience fights against the assumptions imbedded in stigmas about your population or subpopulation? What would be some ways to further fight stereotypes through your experience?

5. What social barriers did you face while trying to access the experience? How would you imagine a client would handle these social barriers?

6. Discuss two ways you saw best practices utilized throughout the experience.

7. Based on research, theory, and your experience, discuss some pros/cons to the specific developmental stage that your experience is gaged for. Now discuss 3-4 ways to influence programming to account for the cons.