Autism Interview Reflection

A lot of people don’t realize the challenges of living with a child who has been diagnose with Autism can be. It is a twenty-four-hour seven day a week job no vacation, no sick time and no pay. From the time the child is diagnosed it is a constant worry especially if the parents don’t know much about the condition. It starts with continuous Doctor visits, social services, and therapy sessions, just to figure out how serious the condition may be and what level of the disability the child has and this is only this beginning. Next, to find the tools the child needs to overcome the disability, like learning development and cognitive process, social skills, comprehension capabilities, and many more depending on the severity of autism.

Originally, I was drawn to speech pathology after my sister’s diagnosis of Autism at the age of three. Watching Diane struggle with language development and acquisition while other children seemed to grasp these skills naturally is what initially sparked my interest in helping families like my own. At the start of my junior year, I set out to obtain experiences working with different populations. Toward the latter half of junior year, I became involved as a clerical volunteer at the Sacramento Scottish Rite Childhood Language Center. By senior year, I was balancing a full course load alongside three volunteer experiences. In addition to Scottish Rite Childhood Language Center, I divided my time between tutoring at a neighboring elementary school in the Twin Rivers School District and serving as an intern at the Autism Center for Excellence (ACE). During my undergraduate experience, I welcomed the opportunity to work with students that struggled with literacy, language, and pragmatic skills. After graduation, it was my goal to obtain additional experience in the field as a speech-language pathology assistant.

I observed the interviewee as a concerned and caring mother who wanted the best for her child with autism. She was educated enough to know it was a process beyond her knowledge. The mother is a young Caucasian adult with a college education, she allowed the process and was opened minded with what the coordinators and specialists had to say. Stating, that it could be difficult to get resources because the client is unsure where he or she is to go and turn to. Autism is a disorder of social interaction, communication and behavior. Autism typically manifests itself within the first three years of life and there is usually cognitive

At the autism conference that was held on April 12, 2017, Slippery Rock University provided a few different speakers to talk about different aspects of autism. Ms. Rebecca Klaw was the keynote, and she focused her topic on steps to inclusion through the lifespan. Dr. Jan Singletary focused her topic on sensory issues and inclusion. Dr. Rishi Parikh focused his topic on social anxiety and inclusion. Following these speakers, we had a panel of self-advocates and family members speaking about their personal experiences on autism.

Specifically, how the parents are affected with this change as well. My mother worked with a child with autism for the first years of elementary school up until the child’s freshman year of high school. I had the opportunity to experience one on one interaction with the student, which led me to curiosity as to how the individual’s disorder has transformed over time. After speaking with her parents on how difficult it is to cope with the child’s diagnosis, I am eager to research more on this topic. I am excited to share the new information that I discover with the student’s family and eventually find unique information that will help me with my future career.

The assessment and diagnosis of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a common recommendation for psychologist, guidance, school, and counseling professionals (Paynter, 2015). The majority of children diagnosed with autism have some school educational constraint such as attending a special education class or school, have challenges socially and with their school experiences (Paynter, 2015). Students with ASD display larger difficulties performing academically and adjusting their emotions and behaviors at school in relation to their peers (Paynter, 2015). Assessment may be recommended for children with ASD for the purpose of verifying diagnosis, assessment of intellectual or developmental delays to identify language or behavioral problems, to monitor progress and intervention results, and to better understand the child?s potential and needs (Paynter,

Autism is a mental disorder, present from early childhood, characterized by difficulty in communicating and forming relationships with other people and in using language and abstract concepts. (Classroom-Assessment-Theory-into-Practice, 2012) One in 88 children are diagnosed with autism and the symptoms are usually noticed between the ages of 18 months and 5 years. Typically, autism affects individuals in 5 key areas: Communication (verbal and non-verbal), Social skills, Behaviors, Learning, and Medical issues. Because this disorder has a dramatic impact on a child 's ability to learn, it is imperative that teachers understand the conditions surrounding autism and know how to accommodate these students. (Classroom-Assessment-Theory-into-Practice, 2012) Teachers can understand more about a student with ASD and how to accommodate the student by doing different assessments. Assessments are an extremely important part of special education. Teachers need to make sure that the assessments given to their students is correct in everyway possible. It should be correct in what they are testing, meaning what the teacher or specialist want to know from the assessment, is the information that the assessment is giving the students correct, on how the assessment works, and all assessments must have validity and reliability. Assessments often include various tests, both standardized or criterion-referenced, but testing is not the only

According to Mihaela Grasu, “autism is a complex developmental disorder with a neurobiological character, characterized by problems of communication and relating to others as well as interests, activities and behaviors that are restricted, repetitive and stereotypical” (2015, p. 87). The target population pertained to pre-school children to adolescents with ASD symptoms that residing in Jonesboro or the surrounding cities. The participants and parents at this event are advocates for the children and adolescents who have the disability. The event was conducted by several organizations advocating in support of those with this disability. There was a direct and noticeable impact on the community members who helped provide a healthy activity for the children in the community. This event represented a powerful message and demonstrated the dedication and passion that participants and volunteers alike hold for this unique and special population.

On December 4, 2015 we observed the class for which we developed this response plan. Our main objective was to observe the setup of the classroom as well as the different instructional tools the teacher used to enhance her teaching. In addition, we wanted to see what strategies the teacher implemented to help the ELL and autistic students and see if they were similar to what had in our plan. Upon arriving, we observed that the teacher, Ms. Schmitt, had a large classroom with enough space for groups of students to work together. At the front of the classroom, was the teacher’s desk with a smart board behind it. Several other white boards filled the rest of the wall space. The board on the left was used mostly for instructional purposes while the two on the right were filled with vocabulary and important announcements such as upcoming tests dates. The extra space allowed the teacher to interact with all the students individually. Also, we noted that the teacher had placed the ELL students near the front of the room where she could easily help them or ask them to help each other. The students on the Autism spectrum where located near the back of the classroom where they had more room to work with their aids. However, none of these students were completely isolated from the teacher or rest of the class. Rather all of the students were able to easily interact with one another.

The primary research conducted was extremely promising and consisted of four interviews with four different experts. Ideally, at the beginning of the Outcome I planned to conduct a survey as well, however, after considering that my sample size would be limited and if conducted the information could be insignificant, I decided not to. This led to focusing on interviews which further enhanced the information found in my secondary sources. I believe the most comprehensive and beneficial interview was the interview conducted with the parents, John Daly and D.L. These interviews emphasised the idea that Autism is individualized and is beneficial only if suited to their child needs, providing a sufficient amount of evidence for my outcome. It also supported and cross-referenced with the information gathered in secondary sources, where the interviews demonstrated the importance of family in improving their development through personal experiences as well as how incorporating learning from therapy sessions

The quality of life for a child with autism in mainstream schools is definitely at odds with how the school itself is structured. Due to changes in educational policies over the last decade, there are increasing numbers of children with ASD that are being educated in a regular classroom setting. Many may deem this inclusion as being positive for those students, but there are faults that accompany these types of circumstances, the reason being that many schools do not have the capacity to keep pace with such changes in order to include children with ASD. Many teachers find it tough to merge the academic talents of students with autism with their often severe difficulties in interacting with others socially. Those who have been diagnosed with ASD have a preference for routine, consistency and low sensory stimulation, making tough seeing that they would be expected to deal with the noisy, busy and chaotic environment of mainstream schools (Humphrey, Symes 80).

Autism is on the rise. Many researchers feel the reasons isn’t because there are more kids being afflicted with it, but the increased public awareness has allowed this disorder to be more easily recognized and diagnosed at a earlier age.

After completing my graduate training I plan to continue researching these areas while performing neuropsychological assessments in order to help families and educators identify appropriate programs for the child. The experiences I have accumulated and my passion for the field have allowed me to develop into a highly suitable candidate for the program and I am very excited to get started working on these core areas of autism

I started off my day bright and early with Lori Thompson, an Autism Consultant for the West Central Special Education Cooperative in Western Illinois University's home of Macomb, IL. Lori was asked to come in and talk to us about Autism and give us future teachers more of an insight on this anomaly in the classroom. Autism is all to familiar to me and my family, we have several children diagnosed and a few others who aren't. 1 out of every 68 children will be diagnosed with Autism, that’s 3.5 million in the United States alone and 70 million worldwide.

“Never underestimate a child with autism. It’s their differences that make them unique and beautiful.” Autism can be defined as a pervasive developmental disorder characterized by severe deficits is social interaction and communication, by an extremely limited range of activities and interests, and often by the presence of repetitive, stereotyped behaviors. Children that are being diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder have increased at a rapid rate in the last decade. Some of the reasons it is becoming more prevalent in society is due to improved diagnoses, broader array of conditions falling within the range of autism, and increased rates of autism in the general population. As a result the number of autistic children in the general classrooms has increased leaving teachers to create strategies that work within their own classrooms to accommodate every student. Teachers are required to prepare students for the classroom with intervention techniques, make specific changes in their classroom based on the students in their class, utilize collaboration among professionals, create supportive interactions among peers, and create a classroom that support student/teacher differences.