I Am Active, An Aba Therapist

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.

The aforementioned traits have served me personally and professionally in working with individuals with communication disorders. Growing up with a sibling on the autism spectrum has served to enlighten my understanding for the communication and language difficulties my students’ face in their daily lives. Overall, my drive and determination pushes me to strive toward excellence. I hold myself to a high standard of work and performance in any setting or task. These strengths have helped me to become a goal and detail-oriented speech-language pathology assistant. I believe the combination of my education, experiences and personal traits to be assets in the pursuit of a graduate

Our first speaker for SW 325 The Helping Professional in Health Settings class was Sharon Boudreaux. Sharon has a Master of Arts in Teaching of special education. She focused on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) for teaching children with autism and other forms of developmental setbacks. Sharon is currently the Director of Education Outreach at the Autism Center of North Mississippi (ACNM). The ACNM, which Sharon helped in creating and growing, provides educational and behavioral services to families and schools to help support children with autism spectrum disorders, developmental delays, learning difficulties, and challenging behaviors. The ACNM offers a multitude of services. Such services may include parent counseling, skill assessments, ABA therapy, services for schools, and parent and teacher training.

My Autism classroom practicum (DSW) provided many opportunities to learn and grow. My commitment, patience, and genuine concern, yielded trust and co-operation from students, resulting in student’s improved outcomes. As my confidence grew, my ability to implement behavioural interventions improved, and I was better able to assist students to work to their fullest potential. Dealing one day with a challenging student, the teacher requested I oversee the other students. I had now the confidence, flexibility, and knowledge to take over this independent role. My ability to be independent, as well as a team player, and other attributes I learned here will translate well to the ABA field where these are essential

Many of the SLP’s clients are on the autism spectrum. Some of these clients have ADD and/or ADHD too. These clients usually have occupational therapy before or after speech and/or language therapy, so the SLP collaborates with the OT on a daily basis. For example, both the OT and SLP know what goals are being targeted in their session, and the others session so that they can incorporate each other’s goals

Speech Pathology is a field that is broad in the since of job opportunities, but narrow when it comes to specialization. Working and providing therapy for people with ASD is not a rare occurrence for an SLP. I know for myself I have worked with numerous places and people were ASD is not uncommon for me. After working at Arts ‘n Autism it gives me motivation to dive deeper into this specialization and to learn all that I can about this special population. ASD can come is various forms and no two people have the same deficiencies or sensory preferences, and that is intriguing to me. As a SLP I want to know the ins and outs of my field and also my clients. I want to know the best way to treat and care for them why they are in my session. Their goals need to be tailored to them and not just for the whole ASD population. Working at Arts ‘n Autism has shifted my perspective on how to work the most efficiently to improve my client’s capabilities and ultimately his or her quality of life. I want to be an advocate for people with Autism Spectrum Disorder and serve them to the best of my ability. I have seen how professionals must handle hard conversations with parents that are always for the best interest of the child. Also, I want to undergo all of the training to learn the legal and correct actions when restraining a child and things of that nature. I just realized that I was not equipped to do that, so I want to be able to all that I can in places like Art ‘n

My clients have predominantly been diagnosed with Autism spectrum disorders; however I have also gained significant clinical experience working with children with Down 's syndrome, ADHD, and social communication disorders.

We believe that parents and families have the primary role in encouraging their child’s development. The therapists work in partnerships with families to develop treatment plans that address their needs and concerns. Personal information shared about each child allows us to individualize the services provided. In addition to our direct therapy services, we provide families with advocacy and assistance

Autism Resource Community offers a therapeutic learning environment with trained staff who understand working with children with Autism.

have planted the seed that grew into my goal, succeeding summers at Variety have made possible

Throughout this journey, Farrelly discloses that her biggest strength is her patience, creativity, quick thinking skills, and communication among staff members. Throughout the years, her patience has gotten stronger due to working with all types of different disorders and cases. In regards to working with a variety, she has gotten superior in creating creative mechanism to help teach, occupy, and correct this population. In addition, while being employed for over three years in this field, she has practiced how to properly convey information about children to other staff members who are assisting that child.

I feel very fortunate to be able to work with families and help them to navigate the daily life of Autism providing support, resources and trainings. It’s so gratifying to see the look in a families eyes when they realize they are not alone and know that we will be here for the whole journey.

Trainers conduct an assessment that identifies the emerging skills and addresses them as the first teaching goals. Students begin by learning functional skills, and good work habits that enable them to function with little intervention provided they are within the TEACCH structure (Jordan, Jones and Murray, 1998). This is the most widely used approach for teaching autistic children. Visual information, predictability and structure help the children understand what they are supposed to do, where and when it should be done, and the order of doing the activity. Parents are also involved in the programme, and their work is to promote a feeling of competence and well-being among the children. They work as co-therapists and participate in home activities when TEACCH instructors make home visits (Jordan, Jones and Murray, 1998). Parents also provide home training for goals such as independent play, increasing communication, and toilet training. They are provided with parent support information that helps them learn strategies of effective training.

Several types of therapy are also offered to children with ASD. Occupational Therapy (OT), Speech Therapy (ST), and Sensory Integration Therapy (SI) are three of the most used therapies by Autistic children. Occupational Therapy is the use of treatments to develop, recover, or maintain the daily living and work skills of people with a physical, mental or developmental condition (“Treatments”). Dr. Cathy Pratt, the director of the Indiana Resource Center for Autism, said, “Children with autism need to be taught how to play and how to act in a social situation” (Landau 51). Occupational Therapy also integrates Speech Therapy in order to help the children learn how to communicate in certain situations. Speech Therapy trains people who have trouble speaking or have speech impediments to speak or communicate

Viewing this book as a professional, areas of occupational therapy practice that are well suited in correlation with autism are pediatrics, in patient rehab, outpatient rehab, home health, and mental health. Autism can be treated in many different settings, throughout the life span of the individual, this book provides the therapist with key insight straight from an autistic perspective on how they act, why they act, what they like and what they