Katie Koplow PRT 3325 Exposure and Direct Contact Assignment Carmen B.

Pingree Center for Children with Autism After visiting the Pingree, Center for Children with Autism, during a field trip through the integrated core, I became very curious. I contacted the school and they helped set me up to volunteer in one of the classrooms. Pingree is school that provides education for children in preschool through secondary grades. This school is specialized to provide service to those with autism and provide individualized programs to help achieve behavior change, by shaping and positive reinforcement and provide education. The way they provide reinforcement in unique. They use a 5step approach and only enforce positive behavior, not spend time on the negative actions, in hopes of fading that behavior. At the beginning of the semester, I started volunteering once a week in room two. Room two has nine kids who are all in preschool, ages 3 to 4 years old. These children range from sever to moderate on the autism spectrum disorder scale. The classroom had two primary teachers, two permanent aids and a volunteer. When I first started volunteering I thought that I wasnt going to be helpful due to the amount of teachers in the classroom, but soon I found that the more hands available to help the better. My time volunteering started with a group session where I would help keep the kids seated and paying attention while a teacher read a book. After reading, the book all the children sat at a table and did some sort of craft. I have worked with this

age group before as a camp counselor and it took some adjusting to realize that each child has specific needs and have their own form of communication, in which I needed to figure out and understand, in order to, help communicate to them what they were being asked to do. It was different than working with my camp children where I could shout the task and most of the children would listen and understand what they needed to doing. This helped me realize some of what we have been reading in class how each person is individual in their own needs. After group, the children were separated with teachers to work on their individual education plans. Each student was working at a different pace and on a different activity. After a few weeks, I started helping teach. This was a great experience to see how each child is at a different level and needs help with individual with achieving things. What I liked the most about the way Pingree teaches is that the child never leaves a session of work on a negative note. The teachers usually has two kids they are working with and before they can switch to work with the other child, the current student needs to have finished what they were working on by either completing the task properly or having appropriate behavior. Working with the kids requires a lot of patience and understanding. I had been trained but it was hard to remember to enforce positive behavior and not the negative because that is how we naturally react to misbehavior. After work time was free playtime. This was a fun opportunity to watch how the kids interacted with each other in a free environment and how those who were verbal and those that were non-verbal were able to communicate through playing and interacting in a physical way. It was interesting to see the children that would

play by themselves, or be fixated on one toy verse the children who wanted the other kids and teachers attention while playing. This showed that a different way of therapy and learning comes through free play and interacting with peers in a less restrictive environment. I liked seeing that the Americans with Disabilities Act that we talked about in class, is actually enforced at this school. ADA protects all these students and provides transportation for them to get education. Pingree also follows the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that ensures service to children with disabilities and helps provide early intervention, special education and other services to youth with disabilities. The Developmental Disabilities and Bill of Rights Act Amendment of 1987 and the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 benefits the children who attend this school in that they help provide free and appropriate education to those students who need it. This experience has helped me realize a lot about my character and helped me realizes different characteristics that I need to improve on so that I can better help serve those with disabilities. I loved working with the children, seeing how they are kids first and that when you can look past their disabilities and take time to understand them, you realize all the potential they have. This opportunity helped me realize how much satisfaction I get helping those with disabilities and made me even more excited to start my career and continue to learn all I can to help those with varying disabilities.

*Volunteered for 14 total hours