Weston High School’s peer mentorship program provides a constructive relationship for students with intellectual challenges that helps them navigate through the obstacles of high school. The main focus of a mentor is to help make the mentee comfortable in an environment that is exceptionally stressful for them. In the school setting, people with Autism, specifically Asperger 's Syndrome, experience a multitude of issues because they might have a sensory overload and struggle to socially interact with their peers. As a mentor, you need to stay with your mentee throughout the school day and help guide them through any problems that arise, while also attempting to prevent any tantrums. The main goal of your relationship with your mentee is to …show more content…
There are many ways to successfully aid them in making it through the class period, including providing the mentee with consistency by supplying them with a schedule that outlines the structure of the class. People with Autism or Asperger Syndrome crave consistency, structure, and predictability and if these elements are not present, they will mentally breakdown. Likewise, there is an underlying routine for every class period, even though a new subject is constantly taught by the teachers. As a mentor, it would be beneficial to create a schedule for the mentee, so, therefore, the structure and order that they crave is evident in the classroom environment. For this reason, the student might begin to feel comfortable, which would allow them to have a greater capability to focus on the specific tasks. In addition, another way to help the mentee in the classroom setting is to break down the information that was taught or attempt to present it to them in a different manner, if they do not understand it. Students with Autism or Asperger Syndrome sometimes struggle to understand the lesson as they cannot process the way the teacher has expressed it to the class. It then might be harder for them to complete an assigned task about that topic and by breaking it down, they will be able to complete more work. Also, there are many advantages to presenting the information to them in a different manner, including
It is a challenge to take the time from other students to give it to these children; especially when they don’t have help and you get frustrated. The child with autism is being the greatest experience of learning and changing in my life. He is non-verbal and had behavioral issues, very aggressive. For this reason, when I started in KinderCare, I didn’t understand what he wanted and needed; for this reason, he will be always hurting me and running away from my room. He also climbs a lot; so I spent almost every hour of the day trying to redirect his behaviors and trying to understand him. Three months ago, he got his TS, who helps him a lot and satisfy his needs of attention and
Colleges are seeing a larger population of students annually who are on the Autism Spectrum. There is a great need for faculty, college advisors, and student affairs staff to develop better strategies to work with these students. Faculty can play a significant role in helping these students succeed both inside and outside the classroom. A clear understanding of what Asperger’s syndrome is and ways to connect with students with Asperger’s syndrome is extremely important to the ultimate success of these students. These students will be less likely to have a successful transition from high school to college without the proper support system in place to address their specific needs.
Your primary mentor is blank and your secondary mentor is blank. They are both very excited to meet you tonight. I have copied both mentors in this email so feel free to reach out to them if you have any questions.
When it comes to the Autism/Asperger spectrum it is an interesting disorder to learn and understand. As I had the opportunity to work with all range of children that have been diagnosed with Autism/Asperger, it is the students that have been recently diagnosed with Autism/Asperger that is interesting to learn about. I have the pleasure of helping a good friend of mine whom has a 3 year old son who was diagnosed with Autism during the summer of 2015 with understanding what is Autism and ways to support him with his diagnoses. As all parents at the beginning of learning their child has Autism/Asperger they are scared, they want to know what is best for their child when it comes to their development and what services are out there to help themselves and their child with their disability. As I observed my friend’s child, I learned that with the amount of support from family and friends along with his parent’s researching case studies and documentation on Autism, they are better equip of dealing with the disability than letting the disability take control of them.
Having a family member with the disorder of Autism has made me question how people can cope with this type of syndrome. As I am continuing my education I have decided to work as a therapist who diagnose and treat such children with disabilities. As I researched books in the psychology section, I was able to find a book that will extend my knowledge in my career and answer my questions of Autism. Author Liane Holiday Willey is a Parkway North, 1977, graduate that has a Doctoral on education (Ed.D). At the age of thirty-five she was diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, and now she is a professor of psycholinguistics, a motivational speaker and a sponsor of therapy programs. As a woman with Asperger’s syndrome, she is dedicating her career to educate people around the globe about the high-functioning autism in woman. Not only did she experience growing up and living with the disorder but also dealing with her youngest daughter
This quote is a good principle on how to teach any child, autistic or not. Children with autism spectrum disorder should be integrated into a regular classroom setting because it promotes peer interaction, requires social communication and furthers academic skills.
There are many things that we take for granted such as being able to tell when someone is upset or excited, being able to express how we feel, or the social norms of how to act in public. Individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) struggle with these things. Everyday, individuals who have been diagnosed with an ASD have to learn how to deal with their feelings and try to understand the feelings of others. Additionally, those with advanced cases of an ASD struggle to communicate at all. Humans are very social beings and without having these skills it is very difficult to grow up to be a productive person in our society. The key to helping these individuals is to recognize the core traits that are causing them to not fully be able
I choose this topic because it is a subject close to my heart. I have always wanted to know more about autism and how I can help individual with autism. The other reason is because, there have been a number of developmental theorists who have written about the growth of life through the life cycle, but none has addressed it from the view of someone with ASD. Erik Erikson (1963), is one of these theorists who saw development as a self-motivated process resulting in changes that were needed to rise above a variation of struggles and states of uncertainty encountered as one age. In his view, transition from adolescence into adulthood was conceptualised as the need to resolve the struggle designed identity versus role confusion during adolescence and move on to work on the basic concept of intimacy versus isolation, isolation being an undesired state that one could well imagine as a major risk for adult with an ASD, Reber (2012).
I am writing in response to your posting regarding an available position for the peer mentorship chair on the management society. With your position description, I believe I am great candidate for this position.
Equally important are the critical elements of structure within a classroom. All components of the student’s environment and educational program should be tailored to meet the particular needs of each student. Students with autism face organizational challenges and difficulties with general
One regarded as rare, autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) – which includes autistic disorder, Asperger’s disorder, and pervasive developmental disorder-not otherwise specified (PDD-NOS), have received a great deal of professional and scientific attention (White, Oswald, Ollendick, & Scahill, 2009). ASDs are characterized by impairment in social communication as well as the presence of repetitive behaviors and restricted interests (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Up to one-half of the individuals with autism are functionally nonverbal and individuals with autism who have adequate language have a variety of other types of communication impairment (Leyfer et al., 2006). Thus, creating a barrier between youth identified with ASD and their peers in terms of the necessary skills in developing relationships in the school setting.
Even with the provision of evidence-based teaching practices, many educational professionals may still find it difficult to acquire the most appropriate ASD approach or method to meet the every changing and complex needs of students diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorders. One evidence-based, ASD, approach that needs to be considered by education professionals, especially those working with individuals in the general education classroom, is the Social Communication, Emotional Regulation, and Transactional Support, or SCERTS, educational model. “In the SCERTS Model, the above components are believed to be crucial in supporting the development of individuals on the autism spectrum and their families”, (Paola Molteni, 2013, p. 137).
Imagine living a life in which everything you say or do is hardly understandable. Could you deal with the frustration that comes with having to always depend on someone for simple things such as using the bathroom, asking for a glass of water or simply writing your own name? This is the daily life of an Autistic person. Autism is a big learning, developmental disorder which causes people to mentally and socially process things slower. As time goes by the number of kids with autism gradually continues to increase and even though there is no cure for it yet, it can still be treated. Autism affects a person’s way of learning, it makes them have trouble interacting with others, and many people and students tend to bully and misjudge them.
A Peer Mentor is another student who serves as a resource, friend, and enthusiast to incoming students- as well as returning students throughout campus. The role of a Peer Mentor is to guide students on the path to success with aspirations in their mind from their first year on- a peer mentor offers advice, while being able to maintain a professional and personal level of interest with their peers. As a Peer Mentor, I would identify with students as one of them, and from there I would guide them with various resources and activities that would allow them to see the potential for success at Campbell via Freshmen Seminar.
Throughout my years in the education system, I think I have gathered enough information to answer what is a peer mentor. In my eyes, a peer mentor, in general, is an older sibling. I made this conclusion based of what I have seen in the past. As an older sibling myself, I want what is best for my two younger brothers. If they ask a question, I give them an answer to the best of my abilities and if I think my answer is not enough, then I will research and get back to them. I want my brothers to be on the right path for them and I will do whatever it takes for them to get there. If they need help in anything, then I will be by their side. If my brothers want to talk about anything, then I will listen and give suggestions. If they managed to get