Journal 1 - Where It All Began - January 23, 2023

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Every week at my internship, I am amazed by the seemingly small moments in a child’s life that are, in fact, monumental turning points toward a child’s growth and success. Working with children of varying needs and abilities, it is important to recognize what each client is and is not able to do. From this perspective, you can create the right treatment plan and then celebrate small achievements with them. One of my favorite things about this internship is watching these kids do something they once could not do on their own. One major part of Applied Behavior Analysis is working on daily living skills, whether this is teeth brushing, doing laundry, or similar chores. One of my client’s goals is to brush his teeth, eventually independently. A visual task analysis is provided, and the client is provided physical prompting when needed. We have been working on this goal for months now, and while we have seen progress in some areas of the task (wetting the toothbrush, opening the toothpaste) we have faced difficulty with spitting into the sink when done. What may seem obvious to some individuals when told to “spit” is less recognizable to certain individuals with special needs. Although modeling is provided, no progress has been made. Recently, however, this child began blowing raspberries almost all the time. While this may seem annoying and kind of gross to others, (yes, I have been spat on) this is huge! Whenever the child does this behavior from now on, I can try to teach him that this is what is wanted from him when we brush our teeth.

As I look back to what was taught in my Learning and Behavior class, I think of how the term generalization can be used in this scenario. “Because individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may display new skills in a limited range of contexts,” according to Schnell, et. Al, it is recommended to achieve generalization by training “sufficient exemplars of stimuli within a class.” To apply to this scenario, when the child blows raspberries, I will say something like “oh, you’re spitting!” so that the child eventually recognizes the discriminative stimulus, “spit” during our task analysis goal, and follows with the correct behavior. This will, of course, take time and I will probably be spit on a few more times, but I am eager to see the progress we continue to make toward achieving this goal!

As mentioned previously, I really appreciate getting to watch children grow, but this often requires working together for a longer period. Children with autism demand stability: a therapist who knows the children's needs well. I have noticed while in this field that things are changing all too often; people back out, people are not available, or therapists are not given the right training and supervision to provide their clients with what is needed by them. While this is becoming more apparent to me, I am thinking about how I can implement this into my final project for this course. This revelation is also making me curious as to how I can use my career to change how things in this field are handled.

One specific difficulty I have faced in this field is a lack of communication. Being a student and a part-time worker, I am unable to work every day of the week. For this reason, my supervisor is onboarding a new therapist to work with one of my clients. The company has gone through several potential employees in the past few weeks. Meanwhile, I am responsible for taking shifts at the last minute when one therapist does not work out. In the case that I am unable to take a shift, I have heard reports that this client is crying and throwing tantrums, which is abnormal behavior, proving that stability is in fact required of these kids. I am grateful that this is teaching me to stay on top of my schoolwork, in the case of unknown circumstances, but I have found myself wishing for more communication and responsibility between others at my company, for mine and for the clients’ sakes.

References:

Schnell, Norma R.; Vladescu, Jason C.; Kodak, Tiffany; and Nottingham, Casey L., "Comparing procedures on the acquisition and generalization of tacts for children with autism spectrum disorder" (2018). Psychology Faculty Research and Publications. 438. https://epublications.marquette.edu/psych_fac/438