Argumentative Draft

       Every behavior has a function. When you cannot communicate your needs, you may hav a different way of showing these behavior's. If you have not really been around, or understand what Autism is, you may think that their behavior's are random. My point of view, and many psychologist's, or people who have expirence with Autistic children can prove otherwise. In the end you will have a better understanding, and see the reason behind these behaviors. It took me a year, but I too figured it out. It has really helped me to become a better person.

     Mary has always been a very caring child. She is very effectionate, and happy. She began to become more and more upset every day. She is a non-verbal student, so she could no tell anyone why. She started to show signs of anxiety, by pacing, loud vocalizations, and stareing at my male counter parts when they were near. This especially happend when a male staff would monitor her in the rest room. Then she would become agressive. We kept reporting these behavior's, and my superiors looked into it. Nothing was found on our part.

     This went on for months, and eventually, we had to stop putting her with male staff. This was due to severe agression. Finally about six months into these behaviors she had an exam at the hosptial. She had shown signs of sexual trauma. After a long investigation, she had been being abused by one her male care takers at the placement that she was living at. The issue was it took six months to figure this out. She now is back to her self. She has began to trust men again, and has learned that not all men are a threat.

     Jacob has a hard time around people. He prefers to stay in his room, alone most of the time. He has social anxiety. He was not born with this, but has reason in his childhood that have brought him to this. Jacob comes from an abusive, sexual, physical, and emotional home. His guardians would make fun of him in front of friends and family. Then at night he would endure sexual abuse from them, and was beaten to keep quiet. He didn't trust people to care for him, and expected everyone to be a predator.

      Jacob starts to get nervous, and wrings his has in classroom situations in which he has focus on him. A lot of the time it is hard to get him to leave his room to go to school. He is still looking for that ridacule, and abuse. Also, he too himslef is now a sexual predator. He seeks out children that look young, and lower fuctioning. This is believed to come from his mental processing, thinking it's ok to abuse smaller weaker children. He constantly tries to get staff engaged in conversation about younger kids. Per his safety plan, we are suppose to ignore him, and report to oyr superiors when this happens. As far as trusting adults, there are only certain people he trusts. It takes a lot to get him to break down his barriers.

     Lenord has sensory issues. He needs a lot of sensory input throughout the day. He needs fidgets for his hands to keep his hand's busy, the reasoning behind this is to keep his hand's busy from doing other things. By other things, I mean from private things, amd also to stop him from hitting others. He also needs sound mufflers on his ears, as he is very sensitive to loud noises. When things get to loud for him, he will become angry, start throwing a tantrum, and then begin hitting others. When he starts to have loud vocalizations it means one of two things: he needs to use the restroom, or he is seeking attention.

     Lenord has many other behaviors that are attetion seeking in nature. He will vacate the classroom, and run down the hall to see if you are paying attetion to him. He will pound on his desk loudly to get you to react to it. Lenord will sit down in the hallway and not move if he is going to a non prefferd activity, as we are not allowed to move children if they are no being agressive, or in direst harms way.  With Lenord, he has a reason for everything.

     Every behavior has a function. You just have to understand the kid to understand why they are doing what they do. It is very important to document new behavior's, as you see in Mary's case, although extreme, it was something very important for us to catch. So if you ever have expirence with an autistis child, please understand that they are doing these things for s reason or purpose. They are human also, and re doing these things as a way to communicate.

Works Cited:

www.educateautism.com/behavioural-principles/functions-ofbehaviour.html
Funtions of Behaviour. By: Gavin Cosgrave(2009).

Cooper, J., Heron, W. (2007) Applied Behaviour Analysis. New Jersey: Pearson Education.

Miltenberger, R. (2008). Behavior Modification. Belmont, CA. Wadworth Publishing.

O'Neill, R., Horner, R., Albin, R., Sprague, J., Storey, K., & Newton, J. (1997).
Functional Assessment and Programme Development for Problem Behavior: A Practical Handbook.
Pasific Grove, CA. Brooks/Cole Publishing Company.

argumentative brainstorm

      So after many hours of trying to find information supporting my original ideas, I have found not enough studies have been done on the either topic. So, I have decided to write my argumentative essay on Autism: Every behavior has a function. That meaning some believe that acitons from kids with autism such as agression have no reason that it is just random. So I am going to argue the opposite. Having worked with autistic kids for four years, and having family memebers on both sides having autism, I am going off expirence, and have found works suporrting this.

Cause and effect

        When doing what I do for a living, there are many times I question myself. There are many cause, and effect situations at my job. For instance, if I only give Natasha two out of her four pieces of toast this morning, she is going to throw a temper trantrum, and upset the rest of the house by being loud. This will also effect her ability to function until lunch. She will be hungry, so therefore tired. This will throw off her whole schedule for the day.

       What if I leave my students with a staff that has her own two students? Someone could get hurt, or need to go to the bathroom, but has no one to take them. Someone might need sensory input, and not get it because the lack of staff-student numbers. This could be a situation of neglect, injury, and scheduling. On my part this would be a failure as a staff. This could students and staff in a dangerous position.

     My job, and the institution I work it is a good example of cause and effect. Everything you do at Chileda has a Cause-effect situtaion and silution. I think in these terms every day. Like if I call in sick, we are going to be short staffed. If I ignore a child, they could get angry or feel neglected. Every day life is about cause and effect situations. One just needs to think things through before doing things. When doing things on a whym, to many situations arise. So think about what you do before you do it.

Argumentative essay ideas

     I am having a really hard time choosing a topic for this essay. One idea was the benefits of having a two parents involved in a childs life, as the effects on children with single parents have been proven to have more children with behavorial issues. Then I feel guilty for this as mymother was single with three children until she meet my step father. Although it is scientifically proven many people get angry when bringing up this topic.
     My other topic was more rights and better regulations on foriegn policy for their care of disabled people, and people with mental health issues. I have been watching alot of documentaries lately on how other countries treat their disabled. A lot of institutions just locked them up in room, put them in cribes, and chain them up. It is a very sad situation. I would really like some input and suggestions on others thoughts.

argument trio

      When reading Keen's essay about new technology it hit home with me. Although I personally use facebook, new media makes it easy for everyone to be an author or recording artist. Not everyone should be a singer or author as they dont have the talent for it. If everyone I persoanlly new that said they could sing tried to become famous they would be searching for a long time for a career. There is a reason there is not billions of singers or auothors. It is how ever a relief when you have no one to vent to at the moment or to share a happy moment with, to go on facebook and post something.

Draft

     When working with kids that have disabilities, it is important you give them plenty of oppurtunities for sensory imput. It is also important to know the different needs of these kids for sensory imput. One also has to maintain professionalism while doing so. There are different types of sensory imput: sight, sound, touch, smell, and feel. I will be explaining how to make a schedule involving sensory imput. One can also use this with kids that have no senosry issues.
 
     Say you are working with a child that has a need for deep pressure. It can be rewarding for a child to do their seatwork if they know afterwards that they are going to get some deep pressure. If the child is non- verbal and understands picture icons as well as some words, a first then schedule will work. In the slot labeld first put a picture of the childs work, on the then part put a picture of a squeeze ball, giving them deep pressure on their hands, or a picture of a squeeze machine, a side hug, a hand squeeze, or a body sock.
 
      Say no you have a child that is verbal and needs a sensory break every fifteen minutes. This child for instance has high energy, so he has a choice of many different options. If he is having a hard time concentrating, what I would do is offer him to walk a few laps, and while walking laps allow him to do wall push ups. It is a great way to get rid of extra energy, get the break he needs, and focus his attetion on seat work when entering back into a classroom setting. When he gets back to the classroom he is now feeling good, and ready to do his math.
 
     Smells are very important to everyone. Now imagine you can't tell someone that you would like lotion on your hands to smell? You know this is the only thing that is going to relax you. It is very important knowing these kids, and there needs. There was a child named Frankie. Frankie would be upset throwing a fit on the floor when I would come into a classroom. The staff would say " I dont know whats wrong with him!", then my question would be " Did you give him oppurtunity for a sensory break?", they would catch on quickly when I approach Frankie with his sensory schedule and he would pick lotion. Now for most of these kids they have PICA issues, which in essence means eating things not meant for eating. So you would put the lotion on for frankie massaging it into his hands and arms, giving him deep pressure, and having something to smell.
 
     Another thing that is very sensory for autistic kids is having fidgets to play with. For instance There is a child that likes a straw in each hand. There is also a child that likes mope heads in her hand. There is a child that like a piece of belt in her hand to flick around. There are kids that rip paper because the like the feeling and sound. In order to beable to do these things, they need to first get their seat work done. It is very important to teach these children it is a reinforcer of good behavior to beable to have these things. You do not want to reward bad behavior, because they begin to think if they do something naughty then they can have the object they desire. It is your basic reinforcement/punishment theory of Psychology.
 
      Last but not least Audio imput is very important to alot of higher and lower functioning kids with autism. A lot of the higher functioning kids will rush through their seat work if they know they can listen to music. Music is a very important part of their day. So to make sure they do their seat work right, every half an hour, they can listen to a C.D. player, MP3, or whatever kind of music player they may have, for fifteen minutes. If they know they get this break, it is very rewarding to them to stay on task, and stay working for that full half an hour.
 
     In the end, everyone needs sensory imput. Most normal fuctioning people do this in the form of hugs, handshakes. Some spray airfreshner, put perfume or scented lotion on. Alot of people jam out to music while cleanign around the house, our while doing homework. It is a  very rewarding feeling to get in a shower at the end of the day and let the hot water run over me. The reason for a sensory schedule is to help these children know when it is appropriate to be doing these things. It would not be appropriate to want to take a shower while you are suppose to be in gym class. It would not be appropriate to put on a body sock while on an outing at Walmart. Sensory imput is about the time and place. That is why we have a schedule, and try and stick to it.

Compare and Contrast

     There are many different forms of disabilites. The one that is most common, and I work with the most at Chileda is Autism. What some do not know is that there are different forms of Autism. The most common are called Aspergers, and just plain Autism. Aspergers is usually higher functioning kids that have social issues due to the illness. This form is hard to detect unless one is educated, and back when most of our parents were growing these people were just considered strange.
     
     People with Apergers are mostly concrete thinkers, meaning they see things in black and white. If you use humor or scarcasim, this population usually wont understand. Also you have to tell these people how you are feeling, because they are not good at reading body language, or faces. So they may take your hand gestures as being agressive, and become scared or agressive. Alot of these people also have a hard time being around others or crowds so they may choose to sit amongst themselves, or stay in a confined space alone. Many people that have Aspergers also have other mental illnesses. It is very common to work with a child that have Aspergers as well as attachment disorders, intermitten explosive rage disorder, O.C.D., A.D.H.D, and the list goes on and on.

       The thing is each person with this disease is an individual case, and need to be approached differently. Most kids with Aspergers can read and write on different levels. Also many of them are very intellgent. Some people can be the book defintion of a genius, but cannot hold a normal conversation with others about humor or understanding the emotion behind a dramatic movie. A lot of these people are good with technology, numbers, and patterns.

     Autism is more of an obvious Disease, as most of these people can not communicate using words, or can only use few words. Some of these people can read and write, but cannot tell you what they are thinking. It is very important for these people to have some form of communication weather it be PECs, an I-Pad, a Go- Talk, which is a small machine that tells you a perosns basics needs by pushing buttons, or icons that they hand you from a book. This is the form that the very definition is a failure to communicate. This also usually comes with other diseases. I have seen may kids with O.C.D. One child I work with has it so bad it takes him ten minutes just to walk down a hallway with five doors, because he has a pattern that he has to check every door spin around and check again about seven times.

     There are so many different kids with different needs, it is hard to compare and contrast individual cases. So the best way to do it is to categorize these two different forms, because with Aspergers, there are a lot of simularties in these kids. Also with Autism there are a lot of simularties with those kids. Although they have many differences in their own disease, that is the easiest way to seperate one from the other. I hope when reading about these different illnesses it gives you perspective on the "wierd" kid in class that didnt talk to anyone, or the kid in special education that cleaned the tables after lunch that people made fun of. These kids like anyone else need friends, and affection from other people. Just because you don't understand something doesn't mean you have to be afraid.

Process Analysis on how to make a proper PECs schedule.

     An important part of what I do for a living is following schedules. Alot of the kids I work with Live by their schedules that we call PECS schedules. They are made with either real pictures or drawings of an area, or a function. It is important to know how to make these schedules, although a boring process. You have to consider what time a child wakes up in the morning, what their morning routine is, and possibly what they eat. Now these schedules start from the time they wake up, until the time they go to sleep at night. I had to learn how to put these schedules together for kids, and their different needs. Obviously not every child needs a picture reminder, " oh yeah, I need to go to the bathroom".

     The first thing you do when making an individual schedule is consider if the child showers at night, lets say for the sake of this essay, Johnnie showers in the morning. So I would put on his schedule for the morning,  first shower with a picture of a shower. The next picture would be use shampoo to wash your hair, and a picture of soap with hands on a head. The next step would be a diagram of how to wash the body starting with the face then body, legs feet, then private areas. Some kids also need hand over hand direction until they learn how to bathe properly. I know to you or I alot of the hygiene stuff seems normal, and we should know how to do it ourselves. To a child whom has had this done for them their whole lives, they do not know how to properly bathe themselves. After this, there would be a diagram on how to properly dry off, and how to dress, which some still may need help with this also.

     Onto breakfast. Monday thru Saturday, the kids are given an option of two bowls of cereal two juices, and a piece of fruit. They are also given the option of toast, juice and fruit.
One would also have picture of these options in a childs PECs book. From there, there would be a diagram of how to properly brush ones teeth, and how much time it would take, also along with that some may need a timer telling them how long tweo minutes is. In essence, when setting up a PECs book for their schedules, it is important to have all the pictures one would possibly need. The books are set up with velcore so you can take out the pictures, and show them to the child. With the none verbal children, they will usually respond with moving towards the area, or start doing the activity within their processing time, which I have mentioned before in another post.

     This schedule, and or book would include all of their individual class times, and a picture to go along with it. These schedules are also offered on the weekend if they would like to join in weekend activites we have on campus, such as tech lab, various arts and crafts, and community outings. They are also individualized to include childrens sensory needs, such as deep pressure- squeezing a child from and appropraite angle, which is basically a hug, but not called that for professional and personal reasons. So you would need to think about a child and individual needs from the time they wake up, until the time they go to sleep. It is very difficult unless you really understand, and respect the needs of these kids, and indiviuality. Like everything else, I was not perfect at this, but after time, I have become a pro in knowing, and thinking for a child, and being his or her advocate.

Illustartive essay

The very meaning of Austism is a faliure of communication. To be honest when I first started working at Chileda, I had no idea what Autism was all about, and that every child was different. I had no idea that some kids needed different processing time. By this what I mean is I could say the same thing over and over again, but if I spoke to fast the child would still have no idea what I was trying to say. Autism is like a piece of a puzzle, no two pieces are the same, but eventually, they all fight together to form a big picture.

Shelly, a child with the proceesing time of 30 seconds would get agressive with me everytime I would ask her to do something. What I didnt realize was I wasn't giving her enough time to understand me. This is what she would hear " Can you blah blah blah?" and I would start speaking louder and faster. So now she would assume that I was becoming angry and about to become agressive. So she would become agressive first. She would try to pull my hair and bite me at the same time. Then I learned from one of the teachers, and a veteran staff that she had a slow proceesing time. This means it takes longer for her to interpret what I was saying.

Now when working with Shelly, I talk slow, wait 30 secoonds, then see if she responds accordingly. She has more patiences for me, and I for her. Now that I understand what processing time is, I can better work with children with Autism. They did teach us this in our training, but sometimes training is different than actual field expirence. I had to learn how to communicate with, through the years, at least 50 kids. As I said before about the pieces to  a puzzle, but after you learn how to communicate with a child that was never suppose beable to understand you, or you understand them, it is a very rewarding feeling. It has helped me in my own personal life with family, and friends to become a listener, and communicate with better understanding.

Descritptive blog post

    It was Leisure Ed. time for my students. As we walked in the room, the smell of stale paper, and glue sticks take over the room. All the art projects hanging on the walls make it bright with the reds, pinks, blues, greens, and yellows. Also as I walked in the room I could smell the Leisure Ed. teachers perfume.
   
    The project we would do for the day is sand art. What you do is put glue on a piece a paper in a pattern and pour sand on it. You had to put one glue pattern on at a time, as to not mix colors. the theme was to make a starry night. As I put the glue on the smell reminded me of when I was a kid. The feel of the sand was hard and even. The color of the black paper made colors even more rich.

    As we finished, I looked at the projects all the kids had done. Some choose navy blue paper, some choose black. The colors on the black were more vibrant. The bright, and dark purples, bright green, and blue, white and yellow formed in different shapes were beautiful. Everyone was very pleased with the outcome of their art projects. As we got ready to leave the teacher asked to leave the projects to dry. As we walked passed her to leave, I again could smell her perfume.

Narative Essay Draft

    As I walked to the front door, I wondered what the day would bring. I took a deep breath and sighed. I had to tell myself it would be a great day, and everything would be great. As I walked to the break room to punch in, I saw some of my co-workers. Everyone said good morning. Also some had told me about stories from the weekend, as it was my weekend off.
  
     I walked to the house I was scheduled in for the first hour of the morning, to see which kid I would get ready for school. As soon as i walked in the house one of the children that has to be one-on-one due to agressive behaviors said " Your with me today Chandra!", with a menacing smile on her face. I thought to myself " What a way to start out my day!", with sarcasm. Within the first hour I had been hit half a dozen times, spite on twice, and had to block this child from hitting others. Then it took her for her morning medicine, and dropped her off in her classroom.

    When I reached the classroom I was in for the day, all of the children were running around screaming. Just one of those days I wish I had stayed home. Soon it was time for morning snack. All of the kids sat and waited patiently for me to bring them their snack. One child ate his snack as fast as he could, and decided to try and steal someone elses snack. I knew what he would do and anticpated this, so I was already on my feet to block him from getting others snacks. He then started yelling, screaming and crying.

    Shortly after snack things got crazy again. One ki was throwing books, and sensory toys around the room, another was tareing paper, and the third was trying to get into a locked cabinet, because he knew there was candy stashed in it. The only time all of them were settled that day, was during snack time or sensory breaks. Children with autism have a need for alot of sensory imput, such as putting scented lotion on their hands so they can smell it, or have toys, which we call fidgets in ehir hands.

     It was getting close to the end of the day. At that time we clean the classrooms and have closing. I started cleaning up the kids desks, and had them help me put the chairs up. I began gathering their personal items and put them in their backpacks. Then one by one, I took them on bathroom breaks. I grabbed their bags and put them straps on their shoulders. Then started walking them to the house.

    As I was walking the two boys down the hallway, I saw one the teenage girls I also work with. She asked me how my day was, and I told her it was kind of crazy. She then says to me " Well the boy hav smiles on their faces.", I replied "I don't know why, with the day they have had." She then said " Because they got to be with you all day. If I got to be with you all day, I would have a smile on me face too!", and at that very instant that made my day so much better. That one comment reminded me why I choose to work with children with Disabilities and Mental Illness.


   

     I was given an assignment for my Writting Communications Class to choose a subject I could write about all semester. I had to think about alot of things. When first thinking about this, I thought " My passion is my job!!!". What better subject could I come up then what  I do for a living? I work with kids ranging from the ages of 5-21 with disabilities and mental health issues. 

    When I first started this job, I was hesitant. I had never worked with kids that have Autism, let alone Explosive Rage Disorder. I was bad at my job, and didn't understand why these kid had to live on schedules. I even failed my first employee evaluation. I was ready to give up, and find another job.

    Then, one day it all clicked! One of the children I have worked with was having a bad day. Everyone I worked with was trying to de-escalate the situation. I thought " What do I know about this child, and what can I do to help her out of the situation?". I rememberd she loves hip-hop music. I thought her favorite artist, and started singing on of his songs, out of tune and all. She started laughing, and that changed my whole thought process in what my purpose was in this job.

    Almost three years later, and complete changes with children leaving, and houses shifting, I have found the most rewarding thing I have ever done. Now I have been told Im one of the strongest staff , and my supervisor feels she can put me with any child, having confidence I will do my best to make a positive difference in a childs life. Im happy at 29 years old, I have found where I want to start my career, and future.