I Love Babies!!!

The documentary was amazing. After watching the movie I thought I need to get this movie because there is so much to learn from it. It was fascinating to see these four babies grow up in completely different environments, yet they all still had similar developmental tendencies. I noticed while watching the movie my thoughts and beliefs changing as the movie progressed. At first, I felt horrible for the babies and mothers living and growing up in an African country. I saw the lack of clothes, lack of hygiene and living conditions. Slowly I realized I had these feelings because of the society I've lived in that has shaped my beliefs of other cultures. I remembered that I should not compare cultures because I will be looking through the eyes of my own culture. Out of all four countries, I felt that the babies in Africa were the most well behaved, and loved life. The mothers were caring, loving, affectionate, and the babies were perfectly content.
The children growing up in Mongolia however, were misbehaved. The older brother picked on the baby, and repeatedly hit him. Restraining the baby to the bed and to the bed posts I felt was horrible. Then, I slowly remembered that this is the only thing they know and I stopped comparing.
The babies were adorable, and I found myself wanting to take them home with me. They were hilarious, especially the girl in Japan (I believe) who could not stop crying when she was playing. Overall, I felt appreciation for the things I have in my life and the opportunities we have in the United States. The film was excellent and I will most likely be watching it again.

Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders

Children with fetal alcohol spectrum disorder face many day to day challenges in both school and in the home. Children with FASD are often diagnosed with having attention deficit disorders, social difficulties, and language impairments. Children have difficulty interpreting social information, including social cues. Their delays in school will be the most challenging. The main job of family members is to be supportive and part of a team member among educators and professionals. Families need to be educated on FASD, specifically the effects and strategies to help the child’s learning delays as well as strategies to cope with their responsibility for their child. It is the SLP’s job, as well as other educators to give support to family members and create open communication with each other.
Families of children with FASD face hard challenges. They may become stressed, frustrated, burned out, and feeling like nothing is working. Having a child with a developmental disability can be life changing. This is why it’s essential for families to be part of support groups where they can communicate ideas and share events with people who are in similar situations. Specifically with FASD, children may be out of control, have sudden mood changes, and may not be able to express themselves. These are only a few behaviors that could potentially happen to children with FASD. There are hundreds of difficulties and delays that could persist with children living with FASD. The main concern for children with FASD is lack of communication. Professionals and educators need to teach parents and family members how to effectively communicate with their child. If the child is unable to communicate, then the child will be miserable and this can negatively impact the entire family. There are websites online that family members can go to for additional resources. There are tips online, written from parents with children of FASD, in terms of establishing rules, advice on toilet training, strategies, how to minimize screaming, and family commitment.
When working with families of children with FASD, you may encounter feelings of guilt and depression. One of the possible causes of FASD is consumption of alcohol during pregnancy. It is very possible that when communicating with the parents, they may blame themselves for the condition of their child. Both educators and professionals need to know how to deal with parents who are emotional and blameful for their child’s disorder. This is when we may need to refer families to a psychologist or a counseling service.
Overall, the most important advice professionals need to stress with families, is the accomplishments and strengths the child has. Parents need to understand that their child has every capability to learn and function in the world. Educators also need to stress that without the help of the family; the child may not improve or succeed as successfully. The family members are the child’s best advocates.

Asian culture: Beliefs, values and education

The article was very informative, particularly the background on Asian culture. The article takes an interesting perspective on family issues with education. Most of my background knowledge on family values in Asian culture is minimal. Therefore, majority of the information I received from the article was new and somewhat surprising. For example, adopting children is unpopular in Asian culture because they rely heavily on blood ties. Attaching shame to women who are pregnant and unmarried I feel is awful. In addition, I did not realize how important education is to children in both China and Korea. It seems as though these parents are obsessed with their children’s education, as it marks family social and economic status. There seems to be too much pressure put on these children to perform well enough to get into the few universities that have strong reputations. Because of the lack of “quality” schools, parents will view their child as failures if they have disabilities, or if they are unable to perform. Likewise with the case of Xin who wanted to participate in music classes, but his parents wanted him to be in math or reading classes; areas that he performed poorly at. In this case, I feel that the parents should be more willing to let their child do what they enjoy, instead of putting their child into classes that they dislike so that their families reputation can improve. This obsession with their child’s education is unnerving and selfish. Also, when the children need IEP’s, the parents are unable to interact with professionals. The special education teacher has the main responsibility of developing IEP’s. If a child’s education is so important to the parents, I would expect them to have more involvement in their child’s education plans. According to the article, parents are passive recipients of their child’s education. This doesn’t make sense, when they rely heavily on their child’s education and future success. More involvement in their child’s education would be beneficial to both the child and to the parents.
The article changed the way I may interact with children in the future from Asian culture. The article provides an informative table on how to work with families from Asian cultures. For example, grandparents hold higher authority than parents. When working with grandparents, the professional should express respect. Additionally, the fathers of children with Asian cultures are uninvolved in their child’s education. Therefore, it is important to help fathers understand their role in education and they should be involved in making decisions. When it comes to the parents’ strong passion and reliance on their child’s education, it is important to express concern for that child if he or she has a disability or a learning difference. These are just a few ways to help gain trust and provide information to parents from Asian cultures.
Overall, the article changed the way I thought about Asian culture in terms of education. Many of their beliefs and values are new to me, and I believe it can be a challenge when faced with children and parents of Asian culture. Professionals and educators need the ability to meet the needs of diverse students and their families, especially when their culture is significantly different from ours. The article was very informative and it opened my eyes to other cultures and education.

Temple Grandin Film and J-Mac

On Tuesday, Courtney Stanton, Lauren Resetarits, Lisa Totaro and I went to see the film Temple Grandin which depicts the life of a girl living with autism. After the movie, there was a panel featuring J-Mac, a boy from Rochester who has autism. J-Mac has been on Oprah for playing in a basketball game during high school, when he scored numerous three pointers. Basketball is his dream. The film was very well done. Before the film, I had no knowledge of who Temple Grandin was. Temple Grandin was a girl who was diagnosed with autism at the age of 4. The movie was an excellent way to see in the mind of someone who has autism. Temple Grandin was sensitive to noises and didn’t like being touched by others. More importantly, Temple had an amazing mind and was a magnificent visual thinker. It was amazing to watch Temple come up with contraptions, and perform studies on her own. She could glance at a page, and have the whole page memorized. The message I obtained after watching the film was that everyone should develop and strive to achieve goals in life, regardless if you have a disability or not. The message for parents of children with autism is to never give up and persevere.
The second part of the presentation was a panel with J-Mac, his coach and father, an autism specialist, and a mother of an 18 year old with autism. I thought the panel could have been better. Jason only talked a couple times and I would’ve liked to hear more from him about his remarkable story. A lot of the questions from the audience were personal, and I felt that people should’ve asked more general questions about autism. It was really interesting to hear people from the audience say, “my autistic child,” or “my autistic grandchildren,” instead of putting the child before the disorder, a concept that has been drilled into use this past year. We repeatedly spoke of this concept during case studies as well. I wanted to hear Jason’s perspective on living with autism, but we learned later on during the presentation that he doesn’t like talking about autism. One good question that came from the audience was if the experiences with Temple were similar to what Jason had experiences. Jason’s father replied and said that when Jason was a baby, his ears were very sensitive to noise. His father said a dump truck would go past the house, and Jason would scream. I thought the autism specialist did a nice job answering questions from the audience and she answered a lot of thoughts I previously had. For example, everyone with autism does not necessarily have a unique talent. Some do have extraordinary abilities, but others with autism have harder times functioning. Additionally, it was interesting to hear that the incidence of autism has increased dramatically. Now, autism occurs in 1/150 children, and the ratio of boys to girls is 4:1. One reason for this dramatic increase is both genetic predisposition, and environment.
Overall, I would recommend this presentation to anyone, especially the school age population. Majority of the audience at this presentation were older adults. I feel that people our age and middle and high school students should go to this presentation to become aware of autism disorders and learn from people with autism spectrum disorders. People should be educated at an early age help decrease stigmas and bullying. Both the film and the panel were very informative and brought me insight into the lives of people living with autism.

Traumatic Brain Injuries and YouTube Videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4orQo9_rVhA (The Today Show)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LuxuKVKem78

Before reading these articles, my knowledge on TBI was minimal. I thought the articles were very interesting to read, especially with patients who have TBI related to combat injuries. The quotes at the beginning of the article, “Pediatric Traumatic Brain Injury,” allowed me to see how people are affected by TBI. I thought it was mind blowing, how cognitive impairments resulting from TBI are not recognized often, and it seems as though caregivers don’t have adequate knowledge on TBI as a whole. I also previously thought, that a young child with TBI could bounce back quicker than an adult with TBI because the brain of a young child is still growing. I found it surprising that recent research believes there are greater possibility of long term effects with young children. After reading these articles, I find TBI to be fascinating, and I would love to get experience with patients in hospitals. On YouTube, I found a video from the Today Show that depicts a woman who violently shook her newborn, leaving her with a severe brain injury. Sarah, a 3 year old girl, is currently leaning to speak, and walk. Now, it seems as though parents are putting their child’s medical records online to seek help from doctors in hopes of providing treatments or getting information about their children with brain injuries. Although, I find it scary to share medical records with strangers, I think it’s a good idea, as the website provides a community where people can share similar experiences and offer their knowledge. After watching the YouTube film, it seems as though many doctors are not sure what to do with TBI. The second YouTube video shows an 8 year old boy who was hit by a car while riding his bike, leaving him in a coma. This video really shows that people with TBI, who receive therapy, can improve tremendously.

Inter-Disciplinary Teamwork

After the class discussion on inter-disciplinary teamwork, it seems as though there are many similarities between working with children with autism, selective mutism, and with traumatic brain injuries. The members of an interdisciplinary team are essential when providing adequate treatment and intervention services to the clients. As each group discussed their articles, it seemed as though the members of the interdisciplinary team were very similar. Most of the team members included family members, educators, SLP’s, classmates, 1 to 1 aid, and teacher’s assistant. I feel this list could go on forever. I believe family members are the most important in any intervention plan. Families provide support, and continuing help outside of the school, hospital and clinic. These families know the client best, and with or without the lack of support, can either have positive or detrimental affects on the client. With the right interdisciplinary team, the team members can do more good than harm. They each contribute their own ideas and skills from previous experiences. Team members work together to come up with a game plan and can individually work with the child to help improve the client’s communication skills.

I have noticed when working in my middle school as a teacher’s assistant, the amount of additional teachers in the room. When I was in middle school, the main education teacher was the only one present in the classroom. I remember one teacher who would come into my English class to help one or two students, but it was rare to see additional teachers. We didn’t even have an SLP in the school. Now when I go into work, there may be two assistants per classroom in addition to the teacher, and others coming in and out of the classrooms, pulling children out for either speech, or special education services. Now, the SLP has her own office at the school. From what I have seen, there is more involvement between the teachers and their students. This hopefully makes for a better learning environment and learning outcome for the students.

Class Presentations and positive behavioral support for children with autism

I enjoyed both class presentations today. The first presentation by Kaitlyn and Liz, on writing goals and objectives was very informative. A lot of the information they went over was information we should already know. However, the different parts of goals and the theory behind the rationale is beneficial and a good refresher from Methods of Therapy I. As most of my classmates are in second semester of clinic, we have experience writing goals and objectives and finding materials that could explain why we are working on specific goals for the clients. It seems that many of us in our rationale use frequency of occurrence and the years by which certain sounds or phonological processes are mastered. For this presentation, our group thought velar fronting would be a good phonological process to work on because this process disappears by age 3.
For the second presentation, I thought the knot game was fun. This was a good way to show interprofessional collaboration. It was also a good bonding activity. Unfortunately, our team was unable to break free at the end, but the reason behind this activity was clear. I also liked the topic of special education classroom vs. a normal or mainstream classroom. The topic brings up a lot of good points. What is best for the child? What do the parents prefer? What do the teachers suggest? Will pulling out create more hardships for the child? There are many questions surrounding this topic. Based on Ethan, I think keeping him in a mainstream classroom with an aid would be the best solution because he gets to stay with his friends, is not segregated from the general classroom, and this allows one on one time and help relating to his own personal needs.
The article I read this week was called “Understanding and Intervening with the Challenging Behavior of Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” This article was very interesting and informative. I could not stop highlighting information from the article as it seemed that most of the information was relevant and new to me. I thought the article was set up clearly, with the steps of PBS (positive behavior support) laid out nicely. I have never interacted with a child with autism. From what I have heard however, many children with autism have problem behaviors. I’ve also heard these children need strict routines to function socially and need routines for daily activities. From the article, it seems as though the positive behavior support is a great way to set up individualized strategies while reducing specific problem behaviors of the child. This program needs a lot of support from both educators and family. Family involvement seems to be crucial, as they have the knowledge of their child’s behaviors, and can provide insight into their consequences and strategies that they use at home. I also liked the addition of the case study for Benjamin. This example allowed me to go through each steps of this process. I also thought it was interesting that as children learn effective and conventional alternative forms of communication for getting what he or she wants, these challenging behaviors will decrease. Overall I thought this article was really interesting and provided me some insight into the nature and treatment of children with autism spectrum disorders.