APPLICATION ESSAY

Application Essay

Application Essay

A girl sits sobbing at her desk; kicking her feet and yelling hysterically; her fifth grade classmates all stare at her blankly. No one knows why she is throwing the tantrum, but then again, no one knew why she threw one last week. All they know is that it is pretty much routine at this point. I hear the girls' sobs before I even enter the classroom. I take a deep breath, adjust my skirt, and reach for the doorknob. And so the day begins.

Throughout my employment during the 2011 school year at Beth Rivkah Academy for Girls, I have encountered many similar situations to the one described above. My duties at the school are to work with elementary and high school students suffering from various types of disabilities. This includes learning, behavioral, and physical handicaps, ranging from mild to severe in nature.

When dealing with situations such as the one mentioned above, I have come to realize an important conclusion. I can enumerate countless reasons for the aforementioned girl's temper tantrum. I can tell she fits the profile of a learning disabled child, as outlined by the DSM-IV-TR. Her IQ depicts a significant cognitive delay, and she displays instances of impaired adaptive behavior. The girl is below eighteen years of age. A classmate may have made an innocent comment, and due to her delayed cognitive level, became misinterpreted, and became the cause of her tantrum. Or she may be expressing frustration with her inability to process a relatively simple piece of homework that led to extreme frustration that manifested itself in this tantrum. My mind raced with endless possibilities and evaluations of the girl; but that all being said and done, it did not help me with the problem at hand. How can I help this girl?

I have all the necessary tools and information from over 3 years of studying at the University of Phoenix to diagnose, hypothesize, and analyze these disorders. However, the application, knowledge and theory only go so far. Statistics in psychology, for example, do not cover materials pertaining to temper tantrums and bouts of crying. While the course may provide the most valid and reliable measure on the construct of misbehavior, I am not yet schooled in how to make use of such a test. I found myself relying on my 4 years of experience working as a camp director, my time spent volunteering in a drug rehab facility, and my time spent working in a daycare as my guideline for addressing the situation.

The satisfaction I get from helping children, such as the one mentioned above, only helps to fuel my desire to be able to take care I provide a step further. While the area of special education is quite a daunting job to take on, I have thankfully been successful in making progress with all my assigned students.

My passion for the human psyche has a long and varied history. At the age of twelve, after reading about the study of psychology in ...