"I can't wait to see how many plusses you get tomorrow after another day of teaching with Miss Sara"
This summer, I have spent about 90 hours working at Kaleidoscope ABA School for children with autism and other spectrum related disorders. At Kaleidoscope, we work with kids about 4-11 years old, teaching them basic life skills (like pulling pants up or poking food with a fork) as well as toy play and more "academic" information (like counting, maps, and matching related objects). The main theory enforced is using positive reinforcement--rewarding correct answers while completely ignoring the wrong.
At the beginning of each session, we go through a "cold probe" of the child's activities and mark what needs to be worked on for the rest of the day. A "+" means it was right, a "P"meaning prompt indicates that it wasn't done or was done incorrectly, and a "P2" means partial. After the probe, we have about 2-3 hours of teaching--going over every activity that needed work. BUT it's important to keep them engaged and also to make sure that they realize that they want to get the right answer. Positive reinforcement works because when the child does a task correctly and suddenly gets a bite of a cookie, he realizes that what he did was right and that it should be repeated. On the other hand, if he starts to cry or fight, rather than give into it and give him what he wants, we wait until he stops and give him another opportunity to earn that reward. One of the funniest things I've observed is when this one three and a half year old boy, E, will be whining and crying for something, but he'll still do his tasks and get them right.
After five weeks of training (truly by observing other sessions), I finally had the opportunity to work with one of the children for an extended period of time last Friday. E had quite a bit of work to do, since he was being stubborn that morning and would only choose cards and answers on the left, instead of looking at both sides. I spent about two hours with him, going over all his matching and category cards and helping him with two new activities: banging two drumsticks together and breaking apart a Sesame Street toy. He was such a sweetie, and most of the time hugs were enough to keep him engaged. At three and a half, E still won't talk. He'll make sounds when he stims (gets distracted/is entertaining himself), but he won't talk for food. But on Friday, I got a "buh" out of him for banana :) He wasn't very happy about it of course, and stayed quiet the rest of the session.
Once E had left for the day, my supervisor, Jill, told me that teaching had gone extremely well. She said it's hard for him to stay engaged and get along with everyone but that he really responded to me. I went home that afternoon feeling more accomplished than I have all summer.
E is the only kid who comes in every day. And I have seen him grow so much over the past six weeks. We potty train at Kaleidoscope, and so every morning we change him from a Pull-Up into some underwear so he doesn't feel that it's okay to have an accident and also so that we'll notice it if something happens. When I first started, he would come in with a wet Pull-Up every morning. But for the past two weeks or so, he's clearly been holding it and waiting for potty time when he walks in the door. It sounds so silly to be excited about, but it is truly a milestone accomplishment for us. And it's hard to even think about it without breaking out into a grin. (I actually have many potty/pee stories, maybe those'll come some other time :]).
Today, I worked with E for another 2 hours. And his probe in the morning with Jill was absolutely stellar. Jill kept saying that we did a lot of great learning and teaching on Friday :) There was just so much less to work on! There's no other way to describe it except that it went really well. He has the funniest facial expressions and he is just such a cutie. As I was putting his shoes on for him to leave, Jill said, "I can't wait to see how many plusses you gets tomorrow after another day of teaching with Miss Sara." And I honestly don't think hearing any other sentence has ever made me feel so thrilled and content and just proud.
At the beginning of each session, we go through a "cold probe" of the child's activities and mark what needs to be worked on for the rest of the day. A "+" means it was right, a "P"meaning prompt indicates that it wasn't done or was done incorrectly, and a "P2" means partial. After the probe, we have about 2-3 hours of teaching--going over every activity that needed work. BUT it's important to keep them engaged and also to make sure that they realize that they want to get the right answer. Positive reinforcement works because when the child does a task correctly and suddenly gets a bite of a cookie, he realizes that what he did was right and that it should be repeated. On the other hand, if he starts to cry or fight, rather than give into it and give him what he wants, we wait until he stops and give him another opportunity to earn that reward. One of the funniest things I've observed is when this one three and a half year old boy, E, will be whining and crying for something, but he'll still do his tasks and get them right.
After five weeks of training (truly by observing other sessions), I finally had the opportunity to work with one of the children for an extended period of time last Friday. E had quite a bit of work to do, since he was being stubborn that morning and would only choose cards and answers on the left, instead of looking at both sides. I spent about two hours with him, going over all his matching and category cards and helping him with two new activities: banging two drumsticks together and breaking apart a Sesame Street toy. He was such a sweetie, and most of the time hugs were enough to keep him engaged. At three and a half, E still won't talk. He'll make sounds when he stims (gets distracted/is entertaining himself), but he won't talk for food. But on Friday, I got a "buh" out of him for banana :) He wasn't very happy about it of course, and stayed quiet the rest of the session.
Once E had left for the day, my supervisor, Jill, told me that teaching had gone extremely well. She said it's hard for him to stay engaged and get along with everyone but that he really responded to me. I went home that afternoon feeling more accomplished than I have all summer.
E is the only kid who comes in every day. And I have seen him grow so much over the past six weeks. We potty train at Kaleidoscope, and so every morning we change him from a Pull-Up into some underwear so he doesn't feel that it's okay to have an accident and also so that we'll notice it if something happens. When I first started, he would come in with a wet Pull-Up every morning. But for the past two weeks or so, he's clearly been holding it and waiting for potty time when he walks in the door. It sounds so silly to be excited about, but it is truly a milestone accomplishment for us. And it's hard to even think about it without breaking out into a grin. (I actually have many potty/pee stories, maybe those'll come some other time :]).
Today, I worked with E for another 2 hours. And his probe in the morning with Jill was absolutely stellar. Jill kept saying that we did a lot of great learning and teaching on Friday :) There was just so much less to work on! There's no other way to describe it except that it went really well. He has the funniest facial expressions and he is just such a cutie. As I was putting his shoes on for him to leave, Jill said, "I can't wait to see how many plusses you gets tomorrow after another day of teaching with Miss Sara." And I honestly don't think hearing any other sentence has ever made me feel so thrilled and content and just proud.
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