I’m sorry, is it almost Monday already?? It seems as though this week was gone before I even knew it had started. I don’t even remember Monday and Tuesday seems like a blur as well. Gee, I wish that all weeks were like this one!! On with the journaling…

I came into this week with several aims and objectives. As I had mentioned last week, I wanted to manage my time more wisely in this class and space the assignments out so that I wasn’t doing so much at the last minute. I actually stuck to my plan (I planned out my week on Sunday) and did all of the assignments that I set out to do. Also, I set aside two hours each day to work on these assignments (some advice Mrs. McComas gave me). This also seemed to work quite well. I also aimed to dig deeper into my topic and to do some researching. Although I didn’t do as much as I would have liked to, I did find some really neat articles and websites and I bookmarked each of them (which was another objective of mine for the week—to bookmark some really good sites). Also, I set out to really do some thinking in terms of what questions (foundation and the essential) I wanted to ask and that I wanted an answer for (not the answer for). I feel that I did that, but that this will also be an objective of mine for the next week (and perhaps the weeks after that). Most of the objectives that I had this week will carry on into the next week as well.

There was quite a bit of content this week. Like I mentioned in the online discussion this week, I am having so much fun developing my webliography. I have found myself playing with it this week and adding more stuff as soon as I can find it (except for the research links, because I am in the process of evaluating my sites for credibility!!). Evaluating the resources this week was something that I probably should have learned how to do a long, long time ago. I never knew that there was so much to look for when checking a site’s credibility. It makes me wonder how many sites I have used in the past that were not credible (how scary!!). Also this week, I developed my revised foundation questions and put them in the order that I want to present them. As of right now, I am content with them, however, I am the most indecisive and change-loving person in the world so they are very tentative!! Besides the class content, there was also a lot of research content that I came across. I am getting a little worried though, because I cannot seem to find any information on any other behavior management techniques (besides ABA and Discrete Trial Training). I guess I’ll just have to look harder! I read over the MRP instructions and visited some of the example MRP’s that were complete last summer. It was very neat to see how it will all come together, although it’s a little hard to see that right now. Ah yes, and the project prospectus. It didn’t take me that long to figure it out, because I had been thinking about it a lot this week. I think I may be piecing it together bit by bit and very slowly (but surely).

I used many processes this week. For one, I used a process in trying to complete my work in a timely manner and it seemed to work out well. I just continued to plan my week on Sunday evening, and allotted myself enough time to do so (2 hrs. a day) so that I wouldn’t have a lot to do for the weekend. I think this is something that I will continue to do in the weeks to come. I also evaluated, evaluated, evaluated, when it came to resources on the Web. Although they weren’t my original processes (mostly Purdue University’s), I utilized them to see what information is really credible and what information isn’t. Although it was a lengthy process (checking all of that stuff and looking around all of the sites took a lot of time!!), I feel that it was very worth it. Another process that I used during this week was bookmarking the sites that seemed to be credible and writing down their addresses so that I can add them to my webliography later. I will continue to utilize this process as the weeks go on. Also, in regards to the project prospectus, I had been thinking about this assignment all week. I decided to go with the things (genres) that would fit logically with my questions. I also chose some that I knew I would enjoy (interview script, e-mail exchange). The good thing about the prospectus is that everything is quite tentative (which is quite nice for us indecisive types!!).

Overall, I feel that I was quite productive this week. There was a lot to do and I did it (well, most of it). I was listening to a Dave song (off of his new album “Busted Stuff”) and I heard some lyrics from the song “You Never Know” that sum up how I have felt about this class and the assignments this past week:
"Out of the darkness comes light...
Like a flash, you think you can,
You think you can..."

I have felt so overwhelmed in the past weeks and because things are beginning to slow down a bit, I feel as though I can see the light at the end and “I think I can, I think I can”. I’m just glad that I could find something that is so interesting to me and that I’m very passionate about to do my MRP on. I’m also so glad that I now know how to look at Web resources and evaluate them to see how credible they are. This is something that will not only be useful to me now, but this will also come in handy throughout my life. How grateful I am for those assignments (even though they took a long time to complete!!).

At this time, I don’t have any questions. However, I feel that I have answered the questions from last week’s entry. I do want to pursue aggressive behavior management in regards to my MRP and I feel content with the essential and foundation questions that I have formed. I do feel that there is some very useful information out there for me, but I need to find more info. On other behavior management techniques (other than ABA and Discrete Trail Training (DTT) ). Also, Mrs. McComas answered the other question that I had which was something like “Are things going to slow down soon?” I suppose the answer to that won’t be apparent until next week (Week 6). I have two questions as of right now: 1) Am I going to be able to find information on other techniques besides ABA and DDT? and 2) What genres will work best for the topic that I am pursuing and which genres will help me to find an answer to my questions?

That’s all for now. Until next time…

Heather P.

Essential Question: How can SLP's manage the aggressive behaviors of autistic clients?

Foundation Questions(in order):
1. What is behavior management?

2. What is autism?

3. Why do SLP's often work with autistic individuals?

4. What aggressive behaviors are associated with autism?

5. Why is it necessary to manage the aggressive behaviors of autistic individuals?

6. What are some aggressive behavaior management techniques used by the parents of autistic individuals, therapists (including SLP's), and other professionals (such as teachers).

7. What are ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) and Discrete Trial Training?

8. Can ABA and Discrete Trial Training be used on all autistic clients, or just children?

Tentative Point(very tentative point): Autism is a disorder that affects the child, the parents, the professionals that work with the child, and others that surround that child. It is a disorder that must be dealt with in a proper manner, so that the child may have every opportunity to a productive member of society.

Genres:

1.Webliography: clinician voice/parent, professional audience
Rationale: This genre is required.

2.Powerpoint presentation: clinician voice/clinician audience
Rationale: This genre is required.

3.Poem: client voice/other people (including parents, professionals, clinician)
Rationale: This genre is required.

4.Interview Transcript: parent voice/other parents of autistic children and professionals who work with them
Rationale: I chose to do the interview because I will probably ask my client’s parents (from my work) a few questions so that I can get real life answers and the interview can be more realistic.

5.E-mail Exchange: parent voice/clinician audience
Rationale: I chose to do the e-mail exchange because lurking on my discussion list has given me a lot of great ideas that actually led me to choose this genre. This genre also seemed as though it would come naturally to me (after all of my research and watching my mailing list).

6.Newsletter: clinician voice(specifically ABA therapists)/parent and professional audience
Rationale: I chose this genre because I have found a lot of information on the ABA therapy technique. Many of the things I have been running into mention things about what’s new in ABA therapy. This gave me the idea to do an ABA newsletter for a genre.

7.Journal Entries: parent voice
Rationale: I chose to do journal entries because I have often thought of how tragic it would be have an autistic child. Knowing that a parent will never have a true bond with his or her child is something that I cannot even fathom. Most autistic children don’t look at their parents when they speak to them and most are not affectionate at all. This, to me, would be so difficult. This is why I chose to do this genre, because I want people to see the effects that autism has on families. I don’t know, I guess I’m just passionate about this.

I am not sure at this point in time of how all of my genres are going to come together as a cohesive whole. I have been thinking about it, but I just can’t seem to decide (imagine that—me being indecisive). However, I am thinking that I might do something like a talk show script (a talk show like Oprah, not like Jerry), where the parents, the client, and the clinician are guests. They can maybe talk about their behavior management techniques, the parents can maybe read their journal entries, the therapist can share some points from the newsletter, the client can try to read his poem, etc. I’m still trying to form this idea, so it’s not fully developed yet. I’ll keep everyone posted.

Tentative Resources:

Jensen, Vanessa K. (Apr2002). Treatment of Autism in Young Children: Behavioral Intervention and Applied Behavior Analysis. Infants and Young Children, p42-52, Vol 14 Issue 4. Retrieved September 27, 2002, from EBSCOhost database (ERIC) on the World Wide Web.

Levy, Susan E. (Jan2002). Alternative/Complementary Approaches to Treatment of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Infants and Young Children, p33-42, Vol 14 Issue 3. Retrieved September 27, 2002, from EBSCOhost database (ERIC) on the World Wide Web.