Artifacts

Artifacts

As a Behavior Therapist I have always worked as a “catch all” for my clients.  I help them learn to communicate appropriately, manage behaviors, help with fine motor skills (such as learning to use scissors, and manipulate a writing utensil for the first time), gross motor skills (like jumping, climbing, skipping, or hopping), social skills (like learning to take turns, say please and thank you or even hello), personal self-help skills (like putting on clothes, brushing teeth, washing hands),   basic academic skills (like counting, identify numbers and letters and learning the sounds or other rote skills), along with so much more.  The following pictures are artifacts of my time with one of my clients, learning simple skills like drawing a person, or writing his name.

The picture below is of one of Aalam's very first pictures.  I asked him to draw his family,
 and showed him a simple stick drawing and he then made his own. 

Aalam already had great motor control with writing utensils when I met him, but he had
 never been asked to write his name on a paper until he started Kindergarten this past fall.

Aalam had never been exposed to a typical classroom experience until Kindergarten.  All previous experiences have been in self-contained classrooms where he was the highest functioning child.  He is six weeks into Kindergarten and has gone from scribbling all over a page, and needing constant redirection, to being able to independently work on one worksheet at a time. 

Aalam  is able to follow one step directions using prepositions to draw a person, which is something he was previously unable to do. 

The following surveys are the surveys I have used to gauge interest in training opportunities, and interest in the creation of a professional group.  

Forum Survey:

Describe your job or volunteer work
(do you work or volunteer in a preschool, do you work in child care, behavior center, elementary school, etc...)

What are the ages of the children you work with?
(infants, toddlers, twos, preschool, school age )

Do you have a degree? If yes, what in? If no, are you working towards any sort of certification or degree?

How long have you been working with children?

Do you work, mostly, with typically developing or atypically developing children, or an even mix of both?

What drew you to work with children?

Are you interested in joining a professional group directed at working with children?
(think of it as a forum to vent, look for answers or ideas, learn new things, share ideas, etc..)

What sort of subjects would most interest you or you would like to learn about?

Would you be interested in an online forum or a group that meets in person or a group that does both?




Interest in Training Survey:

Do you have any hesitations working with high functioning Autistic children?

Do you hear other teachers complain about working with them? Their reasons?

What is your biggest obstacle in working with a child that is labeled as special needs?

Do you feel that some high functioning Autistic children have improper diagnosis and just                   need exposure to a typically developing peer?

Do you feel there is a lack of (if any) training to work with certain types of children?  If there              were training available, would you be interested?

What are your thoughts on Early Intervention programs in the area? Are there any?

Any other thoughts or concerns?