Formatting code for SchmidtSchoolPsychPracticum
Daily Practicum Journals
Danielle Schmidt
Monday June 22nd 8-4 (8 hours)
My practicum was completed over the summer. I was a research clinician in The Connections Program, a behavior modification program for children with Asperger’s Disorder and other high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders. Today was the first day of training at Summit. The first thing was that we had to take a test on the Connections manual. Any questions that we got wrong were reviewed with us so we could take those questions over again tomorrow. Then Dr. Thomeer and Dr. Lopata both lectured on the schedule of Connections and on Autism and Asperger’s Disorder. They then reviewed a little more on the Connections program itself and went over how to conduct the social skills program. We spent the rest of the day practicing the social skills group. First we watched all of the other returning counselors conduct a social skills group so we could begin to memorize and learn how to conduct the group ourselves.
Tuesday June 23rd 8-4 (8 hours)
Today the first thing we had to do was take over the questions that we got wrong on the test from the day before. Dr. Thomeer went over some more treatment strategies and procedures such as prompting and reinforcing of behavior. Then we practiced the skillstreaming more. Then Dr. Thomeer went over the specific steps of the point system, and how the children earn and lose points. Then we spilt into groups and practiced conducting skillstreaming more, with everybody getting a turn to be the lead.
Wednesday June 24th 8-4 (8 hours)
Today, we were taught the basic steps of running a therapeutic activity. The therapeutic activity is the fifty minute activity that is done after the twenty minute skillstreaming session. The therapeutic activity was created to give the child a chance to use the social skill they just learned during the activity. The rest of training today was used to practice conducting the skillstreaming group and then go right into a therapeutic activity. Today was my first day to practice conducting the social skills group, the first time was very hard. It was hard trying to combine memorizing the steps of running the social skills group, giving and taking points away from people while finishing the whole thing in about seventeen to eighteen minutes. Everyone must pass a fidelity sheet and score at least a 90 on their social skills group in order to be able to be a counselor.
Thursday June 25th, 8-4 (8 hours)
Today we learned how to handle a timeout, and the specific wording for what you say to put a child in timeout. Today we spent the whole time basically just practicing conducting the social skills group and going right into a therapeutic activity. I went today, it was my second time conducting the social skills group and I passed fidelity. We were also told to think of professional goals for ourselves and a team name; we would have to go over both of those with the lead clinical supervisor tomorrow. My group consists of myself as well as two other girls.
Friday June 26th, 8-4 (8 hours)
Today we practiced doing the social skills groups all day long. Then we went over our goals and team name with the lead clinical supervisor. Our team name is the Fearless Falcons and we have six boys in our group, ages ten to twelve. My first professional goal is to become more animated and loud when conducting the social skills group. My second goal is to try to get more description and detail out of the children when conducting the social skills group. Lastly, my goal is to become more confident in giving and taking away points when conducting the social skills group. I think each of these goals will become easier to attain when I am more comfortable with conducting the steps of the social skills group. We continued to practice the skillstreaming groups. Then we spent the rest of the time creating our banner and point sheet for our room. Then we all went over to the Delevan Townhouses and finished creating our banners and set up our rooms. We also had to make sure our room had all of the supplies and we would need for each activity.
Monday June 29th, 7:30-5:30 (10 hours)
Today was our first day of camp with the kids. Giving them points is a way to reinforce their good behavior, which is positive reinforcement. Additionally the schedule for reinforcement of giving a child points each time they use a social skill is a continuous reinforcement schedule. It is because the children are reinforced each time they engage in the behavior. This reinforcement is often used when someone is learning a behavior for the first time. We learned in Behavior Modification, points are tokens or symbolic reinforcers. The points symbolize their progress towards being able to attend the fieldtrip at the end of the week. When they do something they shouldn’t be which is emitting negative behaviors or not participating, they lose points. Which is a form of negative punishment, we take away points because we want the occurrence of those various behaviors to be decreased. We then praise them immediately after they discontinue their negative behavior and substitute with a positive behavior. We also use prompting for some of them in order to keep them on task or to keep them doing what they should be. The prompting, praise and giving directions are also some things we learned in our Behavior Modification class in order to increase or decrease different behaviors. Timeout is another form of After they day was over I took home the score sheet to check all of the scores that another counselor had added up and started getting used to the format of the point sheet.
Tuesday June 30th, 7:30-5:30 (10 hours)
Today was our second day of camp, some of the children’s behaviors started to come out more once they were getting more comfortable with camp. As we were taking more negative points away from them they were getting really down. Children with Autism get much more upset about things more easily than typically developing children would. We have to make sure to praise for doing positive behaviors and give them points after we take away a lot of points.
Wednesday July 1st, 7:30-5:30 (10 hours)
Today on our third day of camp, we made it a point to always follow up with praise and giving points to a child for a positive behavior they are emitting right after we took away points from them. As we learned in our behavior Modification class the immediacy of a reinforcer after the occurrence of a behavior greatly affects the reoccurrence of that behavior. The quicker we reinforce the children’s behaviors the more likely they are to continue. Today was an awesome day with the children, but they were getting louder and more of their behaviors were coming out since they are becoming more comfortable with each other as well as the counselors. We were also beginning to think about goals for each of the children. Tomorrow we have to create three goals for each child which will become part of their IDN, which is their Individual Daily Note or report card. These are individual behaviors that each child needs to work on. If they do not meet all of these goals each day then they do not earn their snack at the end of the day. Their snack at the end of each day serves as a consumable positive reinforcer, which I was familiar with because of my Behavior Modification class.
Thursday July 2nd, 7:30-5:30 (10 hours)
Today is the last day before the first fieldtrip Friday. Today was definitely the most hectic day at camp so far. There was a lot of silliness and communication between the campers, but they talked about one topic every single chance they got. They kept referring back to a certain Scooby Doo episode, by the end of the day the other counselors and I decided we need to make it a rule they we cannot talk about that episode anymore. Often children with Autism and Asperger’s got so fixated on one subject it is all they will talk about. This rule is going to help them with interest expansion. Then after camp was over, we went through and created three goals for each child. We will have to implement each goal next week. We will tell the child what their goals are and how they need to earn a certain amount of yes’s for meeting each goal. At the end of the day we divide the total opportunities they had by the number of yes’s the received to give them a percentage, and to see if they earned their reward.
Friday July 3rd, 7:45-5:10 (10 hours)
Today was our first fieldtrip. In the morning of the fieldtrips there are still two intervals of skillstreaming and therapeutic activities. The kids behaved very well, I think partly because it was Friday and they knew their fieldtrip would start in about three hours. Every child makes it on the first fieldtrip, although we do not tell them that. We tell them that they all have points to earn to be able to go on the fieldtrip. After we had our two sessions of skillstreaming we sat the kids down and pretended we had to add up the points to decide who would be able to go and who wouldn’t. As we talked in the corner loudly, pretending that we weren’t sure about some of them the kids got extremely nervous. Then we announced one by one that they all made it, and they were all so relieved. For the fieldtrip today, it was actually at the Delevan Townhouses. We watched a movie with another group and had popcorn and gummy worms. At the end of the day we had one more round of skillstreaming and an activity. Then we passed out there end of the day snack.
Monday July 6th, 7:45-5:10 (9 hours 25 minutes)
Today was our second week of camp. This morning before camp we were given packets of questionnaires on two of our children that we have to fill out and hand back in by Wednesday morning. We were each assigned two children out of our group. That means that on the fieldtrip we are mainly responsible for our two children, even though you stay together with the group. We also only fill out packets on our two main children and then we fill out the same questionnaires at the end of camp, to track their progress. The rating scales that we have to fill out on both of the children are the BASC-2-TRS, the Social Responsiveness Scale, a narrative description of the child, a sheet with a staff checklist regarding the child’s behavior and the Emotion Recognition and Display Survey. In addition to getting these packets we also received the child’s IDN that we would start to implement. They each have three goals of things they must achieve, in order to get their reward at home and their snack at the end of the day at camp. During every break I go over my two specific children’s IDN with them and tell them their progress and show them how they are doing completing all of their goals. Additionally I go over their IDN with them at the end of the day reporting to them how they did and if they would be receiving a reward that day.
Tuesday July 7th, 7:45 to 5:10 (9 hours 25 minutes)
Today we went through our normal routine at camp. We went over the IDN’s with our kids and a lot of them are doing really well on them. Additionally today the research team came around and asked the children to pick a number on a thermometer for how they feel for the day, The first question was how good they feel, and the second was how stressed out they feel. Then the collected spit samples from all of the students, they had to spit into viles filling them up. The spit samples are part of Dr. Putnam’s study of the children’s cortisol levels. Today was also the first day we went into the pool with the children; it was our last activity of the day.
Wednesday July 8th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours 40 minutes)
Today we had to collect spit again from each of the children. This time we again had the children fill out the thermometers on how good they were feeling and how stressed they were feeling. They were then split up into different rooms with different counselors and we had to collect spit samples from them in three different ways. The first way was for them to have a piece of cotton on their mouth collecting spit into it. The second way was for us to hold two swabs in the side of their mouths so it would collect spit and the third was again just having them spit into a vile filling it up. We then had the children point on a scale on how easy and comfortable each one felt. Besides collecting that data we carried on with our normal routines and kept track of the children’s IDN’s going over them with them. We had three out of our six children score a 100 percent on their IDN’s today.
Thursday July 9th, 7:50-5:45 (10 hours)
Today was our last day before our second fieldtrip. In order for the children to get to go on the fieldtrip, they need to pass three out of four of their IDN’s. In order to pass an IDN, they need above a seventy percent. This week all of our children passed their IDN’s. They get different rewards at home based on what percentage they got. So scoring a seventy to and seventy-nine is one reward, an eighty to an eight-nine is a little bigger reward and a ninety to a hundred percent is their largest reward. Some examples of their rewards include playing on the computer, playing a videogame or earning different amounts of money. At the end of the day today, we had to create new goals for each child for their IDN’s for next week. Some examples of different goals include having quiet hands, having at least two conversations per interval, having no more than one interruption per interval and many other things targeting their most problematic behaviors. Overall the children are praised and encouraged for using social skills and emitting good behavior. They also earn points, earn consumable rewards at the end of the day, earn rewards at home and can earn their large reward of going on the fieldtrip. This program is constantly trying to reward the children for using social skills so we can increase their overall usage of social skills at home and after the program is over.
Friday July 10th, 7:50-5:10 (9 hours and 20 minutes)
All of our children earned more points than last week and passed all of their IDN’s so they all got to go on the fieldtrip. Our fieldtrip today was taking the subway to the naval park and then getting ice cream before we took the subway home. All of our children had a great time exploring the different ships and getting ice cream. In the morning we had two skillstreaming sessions then we all had lunch outside. After lunch we took the kids back to our room and then told them one by one if they made it on the fieldtrip or not. We left them in a little suspense but they all made and were all really excited. On the field trip we were given special IDN’s basically asking if they followed all of the rules and how many times they had to be told to do or not do something.
Monday July 13th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours 40 minutes)
Today we were given more packets to fill out on our two specific children. The four protocols inside each packet included the GADS which is the Gilliam Asperger’s Disorder Scale, the ASDS which is the Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale, the GARS-2 which is the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-Second Edition and the CARS which is The Childhood Autism Rating Scale.
Today was our first day of earning points toward the fieldtrip which we announced to the children is bowling, pizza and pop. Today went good except during our last activity interval. A few of our children were losing many points on negative comments, and violating personal space that results in harm, which results in an immediate time out. As we learned in Behavior Modification, time out is a form of negative punishment. The idea of time out is that the child is given a time out from any positive reinforcement. To accomplish this we do not talk to or give the children any attention when they are in time out. They also are not able to earn any points while they are in time out. Timeout is meant to decrease their occurrence of the behavior in the future. We also had one of our children emitting behaviors that are much younger than his age, which is typical of children with Autism and Asperger’s Disorder. One example was he cried over dropping a dime and a nickel out of his pocket.
Tuesday July 14th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
Today one of the counselors in our group was out because of a family situation. So for two periods of the day we were missing a counselor and the rest of the periods we had somebody fill in for her. Today the children had an awesome day, there were much less negative behaviors and they all made sure to use a lot of social skills. We also made sure, just as we did yesterday to go over their new IDN’s with them. They each had three new goals for this week which all focus on each of the child’s biggest behavior problems. We all go over their progress during each transition and remind them of their IDN goals each morning. Also this morning when they came in we showed them on a thermometer how many points they earned Monday and how many they need to earn by Friday to go on the fieldtrip.
Wednesday July 15th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
We had another great day today at camp. The kids are all earning more than enough points each day than they need. The totals that they are working towards are all different according to their number of points they earned during their first week, which was their baseline data. A high number for a total of points for the week is around 10,000 points. Two of our children are working towards their totals which are around 9,800 points. The rest of our children’s goals are 13,000, 14,000 and 15,000. We are pushing the kids more every day to use their social skills.
Thursday July 16th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
They are all doing an excellent job using many social skills. This week one of our children has begun to get worse. He is beginning to not participate in group discussions. Although we are prompting, encouraging and complimenting him when he is doing well he sits and refuses to raise his hand. He seems to go into a daydream mode and just doesn’t participate. Towards the end of the day we talked to one of the research assistants who use to be the lead clinical supervisors. She suggested we tell this child that he has to participate and raise his hand as many times as he can during group discussions. Then after the interval we are going to have him pick a number from a grab bag. Then that number is the number of times he had to have contributed. So if he had contributed that many times he will earn a yes, but if he fell short of the number he picked he will earn a no for the interval. This way he will always being striving to raise his hand and participate as much as he can. We will begin that next week and see how that works. Today we also had to come up with new goals for each child for their report cards for next week.
Friday July 17th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
Today was our third fieldtrip, which was bowling. All of our children worked hard this week and each of them passed all of their IDN’s all week. We had two skillstreaming groups and one activity interval before we left for the fieldtrip. One of the children in our group was sick all week except Tuesday but he made it today for the fieldtrip. Another one of the children in our group was here all week but was sick and didn’t make it to camp on Friday for the fieldtrip. We took a bus to a bowling alley, and bowled two games. They also turned off the lights and put on music and we danced to different songs while bowling. We told our group that we had thirty rule violations for the whole fieldtrip, they did well. Then after we got back we all had pizza together in one of the rooms and then had one more activity interval before it was time to go home. Additionally at camp every Monday and Wednesday they videotape our children while they play board games. Today they had to videotape our group because one of our children was out sick Monday and Wednesday. When they videotape, we have three kids play one game and three play the other and half way through the interval they switch games.
Monday July 20th, 7:50-5:00 (9 hours and ten minutes)
Today we were given new IDN’s for each child with our new goals for each one on there. We reviewed the new IDN’s with the children in the morning. The IDN’s have gradually been getting harder each week and the child’s goals have changed to adapt to new problem behaviors the children have been exhibiting. Today we were missing one of our children because they were out sick. Then another one of our children left during our third treatment cycle for an appointment and did not come back to camp. We were having a lot of fidelity done this week because each group needs a certain amount of fidelity’s completed. This is done by having a research assistant observing us and checking off on a sheet they we are following each step in correct order during the skillstreaming and activity intervals. This is to make sure we are following protocol. So today we had the lead clinical supervisor sitting in on our group almost all day completing fidelity on us. Today we learned responding to failure, dealing with contradictory messages and we had mind reading. Mind reading is a computer program which teaches the kids facial expressions, and emotion recognition in voices.
Tuesday July 21, 7:50-5:10 (9 hours and 20 minutes)
Today we were missing one of our children, he was still out sick. Today the kids had a great day, there was only one child that got a low score on his IDN, he scored a seventy seven percent. One of his tougher goals that he had trouble with today was negative comments. His goal is that he must have no instances of negative comments, which is tough. The skills we learned today were dealing with group pressure, avoiding trouble and dealing with another’s anger. One of the child’s amount of points that he is working towards to earn to go on the fieldtrip by this week is 19,000. Again, a good score for a child in this program is to earn 10,000 points by the end of the week. He has been using many social skills and doing an excellent job having conversations. He has excelled so much that we are able to have goals on his IDN this weeks that help shape how he uses his social skills. Being able to shape his behavior and get more specific is really great to have a chance to work. We are able to do this as a result of him using so many social skills and having so many conversations.
Wednesday July 22nd, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
We were still missing one of our children today it was his fourth day out sick, so hopefully he will be here tomorrow. One of our children came in with his mom this morning to talk to Dr. Thomeer because he was upset that the day before he did not do well on his IDN. He was complaining about camp and wanted to give up. He was also upset that he was getting so much praise and attention for using social skills at camp and it is not being carried into his home. Today went really well, we didn’t let him give up and he did an awesome job today using so many social skills and earning more points than he ever has. The skills we learned today were idioms, Mind Reading which is face and emotion recognition, we also learned dealing with another’s anger and negotiating. Today we had one of our children lose it at the end of camp, he lost several points for negative comments. He was being a bad sport when we played basketball and soccer because he can not handle it if he loses or doesn’t do perfect. He also lost points on bragging and saying how he is the only one who is good at anything.
Thursday July 23rd, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
Today we were missing two children, one was still sick and the other had family plans for the day. The skills we learned today were, showing concern for another, dealing with being left out and idioms. We had a great day at camp and the children are all using many social skills and they are all losing a lot less points than they were in the earlier weeks. We went swimming today as our last activity interval; we go swimming every Tuesday and Thursday. Today we also came up with new goals for each of the children’s IDN’s next week. It is there last IDN and our last opportunity to shape them as much as we can. We focus on there largest problem behaviors. We were also told that we have to start thinking of awards for each child that they will receive on the last day of camp. The awards are supposed to be specific and match their strongest qualities.
Friday July 24th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
Today was our fourth field trip, we went to the zoo. Everyone in our group made it on the fieldtrip. Although we still only had five children, one of our children is still sick, although he is supposed to be back on Monday though. In the morning we had two intervals. For our first skillstreaming we learned being a good sport again because a few of the children, one in particular can really use the extra practice. Then we split into two group and played board games for our therapeutic activity. They research team videotaped the children playing board games. Our next interval was Mind Reading. After mind reading we announced to the children who made it on the fieldtrip going through each of them one by one. Then we boarded the bus, as soon as we got to the zoo we all ate lunch. Then we split up into our groups and I was the leader for the fieldtrip. Our group leader really stayed quiet throughout the fieldtrip letting the other counselor and I lead as a learning experience. We were totally in charge of leading the children through each exhibit and announcing when it was time to move to the next one. After we saw all of the exhibits we got ice cream and then met in the front of the zoo to board the bus. Once we arrived back at camp, our whole group played a game of apples to apples until the end of the day.
Monday July 27th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
Today was our first day of the last week of camp. All of the children in our group are well again and they were all back today. This whole week we do not learn any new skills, we just go over the skills that we have learned in the past four weeks. The only exception is today, we did learn the new skill of dealing with losing. The reason our group learned it is because we have one child in our group that has to use it during each activity interval as a goal on his IDN, because he is such a poor sport. Our second skill today was Mind Reading and our third was having a conversation. On three of the children’s IDNs we were able to have, used social skills appropriately as a goal. By having this as a goal we are able to target and shape how the children use all of their social skills. One way is when they are having a conversation. Many of them begin by asking their peers if they want to start a conversation. We are able to target that this week and help explain to them that you don’t have to ask, you just have to make a statement and then ask the other person what he or she thinks about it.
Today we also came up with awards for each of our child for the last day of camp. Our awards include the Mr. Entertainer Award, the Mr. Social Skills Award, the Mr. Creativity Award, the Idioms Master Award, the Mr. Derek Jeter Award and the Mr. Smiley Award.
Tuesday July 28th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
Today we were trained this morning on how to administer the BASC-2-SRP and during one half of one of our activity intervals we split up. Each counselor and research person had one child and we each administered the BASC-2-SRP to them. We were all separated into different rooms because of the nature of some of the questions. Today some of our children are beginning to revert back to a few of there old behaviors that they had improved upon such as interrupting or negative comments. During the last week of camp that is usually typical because they are getting nervous that camp is ending and they are realizing it is all over in a couple of days. Today one of the activities was t-shirt art. All of the children brought in a t-shirt and they decorated them with sayings and pictures from camp. They will be finishing the t-shirts on Thursday and that day they will be signing each others as well.
In addition this morning Dr. Thomeer read us an email that one of our student’s moms sent to him. She wanted to thank us and tell us what an amazing difference we have made in her son. This program has made more of a difference than the years of different types of treatment he has been getting. She said they have lived next to their neighbors for awhile and her son would have never gone up to talk to the neighbor, and never has before. After camp that night he went up on his own to start a conversation with the neighbor and her and her husband were amazed. It was great hearing how much of an impact we have made on the child and how much change has carried over into environments outside of camp.
Wednesday July 29th, 7:50-6 (10 hours and 10 minutes)
Today we went over more previous skills. All of the counselors were urged this week to really focus on how much the children’s social skills have improved over the past five weeks. We were reminded to realize that their problem behaviors might still be their, but their social skills will hopefully have improved. At the end of the day today we were given packets on each of our two primary children. They were the same packets that we received the second week of camp, this is the post data. They each contained the BASC-2-TRS, the Social Responsiveness Scale, a narrative description of the child, a sheet with a staff checklist regarding the child’s behavior and the Emotion Recognition and Display Survey. We had to have these packets filled out by Thursday at the end of the day.
Thursday July 30th, 7:50-6 (10 hours and 10 minutes)
Today was our second last week of work and the children’s behavior was a little worse than normal. It’s similar to how children’s behavior starts to change during the end of a school year also. Today we were missing our group leader she had to be out of town for one day, so the lead clinical supervisor filled in for her for the day. Everyday when the children are picked up our group leader talks to each of the parents and tells them what we did that day, anything crucial that happened and gives the parent the child’s IDN. Since our group leader was not here, the other counselor and I talked to the parents. We split it up and each talked to three of the children and their parents, getting this new experience of communicating their progress with their parents.
This morning we were also trained on how to administer the DANVA-2 and the CAM-C. For one whole activity interval each counselor was paired up with one student to administer the post test to them. They had all been pretested on these at the beginning of camp. The CAM-C is a computer program which tested the child’s ability to correctly recognize emotions on face and voice clips. The DANVA-2 is another computer program which tests the children’s ability to recognize the correct facial expression on both adult and children’s facial expressions. Today was our day to finish up our t-shirt art and it was our last day in the pool.
Friday July 31st, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
Today was our last day of camp and we went to Fantasy Island. Basically every child gets to go to Fantasy Island, unless they had extremely bad behavior. We had a skillstreaming and one activity interval in the morning. Then we did one last skillstreaming before we left for the fieldtrip. Our first skillstreaming today, which was also our last one yesterday, was a skill that the lead clinical supervisor created for our group. We printed up copies so the children were each able to bring the steps of the skill home with them. It was how to deal with middle and high school. We taught the children how there are different cliques, how to approach different groups of people, how to decide if you want to approach different groups of people and to be confident and proud when talking to others. Our very last social skill was how to say good-bye. It taught the children how to recognize whether it is goodbye for a long or short time and what to say to each other. Some different possibilities were, see you soon or can we exchange phone numbers to get together soon.
Then we all left for Fantasy Island. When we got back from Fantasy Island we went to straight to our rooms and the parents of each of the children were sent down to the rooms. Then we announced how well the children did in front of everyone. Then one by one we brought them up to the front of the room and presented them with their award and gave a story to go with each. We then handed them their certificate for their award, their certificate for completing the program and a Connections t-shirt.
I had one parent in particular come up and explain how much improvement she has seen in her son and how much of a difference the five weeks has made in him. It was really rewarding to hear about what a difference we had made in that child’s life.
Monday August 3th, 8-4:30 (8 hours and 30 minutes)
Today we spent the day at Summit helping with the research part of Connections. They were packets that teachers from Summit had filled out on their children and we were all working on scoring the protocols in each packet. Today I learned to score the ABC, which is the Aberrant Behavior Checklist, the RBS which is the Repetitive Behavior Scale, the ABAS-2 which is the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System-Second Edition, and the SRS which is the Social Responsiveness Scale. After finishing one packet I was given another job to do which took up the entire day. I was working with two other people on emptying the arts and crafts bins from each group. Then we created a list of materials that we needed for each bin for IES. IES is the Connections program which is implemented in the schools by the teachers.
Tuesday August 4th, 8-4:30 (8 hours and 40 minutes)
Today I helped check the thermometers of how the children recorded they were feeling in the beginning and end of the day during prior years of Connections. We checked to make sure the numbers were copied correct then shredded the data when we were done. The numbers would then later be fixed if there were any changes by the Research Coordinators. I spent about an hour checking the thermometers. I spent the entire rest of the day scoring protocols. Again I scored the same protocols as yesterday, the ABC, the RBS, the ABAS-2, and the SRS. Three additional ones that I scored were the MESSIER which is the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills for Individuals with Severe Retardation, the STEP which is the Screening Test of Feeding Problems, and the PDDBI which is the Pervasive Developmental Disorder- Behavior Inventory.
Danielle Schmidt
Monday June 22nd 8-4 (8 hours)
My practicum was completed over the summer. I was a research clinician in The Connections Program, a behavior modification program for children with Asperger’s Disorder and other high-functioning Autism Spectrum Disorders. Today was the first day of training at Summit. The first thing was that we had to take a test on the Connections manual. Any questions that we got wrong were reviewed with us so we could take those questions over again tomorrow. Then Dr. Thomeer and Dr. Lopata both lectured on the schedule of Connections and on Autism and Asperger’s Disorder. They then reviewed a little more on the Connections program itself and went over how to conduct the social skills program. We spent the rest of the day practicing the social skills group. First we watched all of the other returning counselors conduct a social skills group so we could begin to memorize and learn how to conduct the group ourselves.
Tuesday June 23rd 8-4 (8 hours)
Today the first thing we had to do was take over the questions that we got wrong on the test from the day before. Dr. Thomeer went over some more treatment strategies and procedures such as prompting and reinforcing of behavior. Then we practiced the skillstreaming more. Then Dr. Thomeer went over the specific steps of the point system, and how the children earn and lose points. Then we spilt into groups and practiced conducting skillstreaming more, with everybody getting a turn to be the lead.
Wednesday June 24th 8-4 (8 hours)
Today, we were taught the basic steps of running a therapeutic activity. The therapeutic activity is the fifty minute activity that is done after the twenty minute skillstreaming session. The therapeutic activity was created to give the child a chance to use the social skill they just learned during the activity. The rest of training today was used to practice conducting the skillstreaming group and then go right into a therapeutic activity. Today was my first day to practice conducting the social skills group, the first time was very hard. It was hard trying to combine memorizing the steps of running the social skills group, giving and taking points away from people while finishing the whole thing in about seventeen to eighteen minutes. Everyone must pass a fidelity sheet and score at least a 90 on their social skills group in order to be able to be a counselor.
Thursday June 25th, 8-4 (8 hours)
Today we learned how to handle a timeout, and the specific wording for what you say to put a child in timeout. Today we spent the whole time basically just practicing conducting the social skills group and going right into a therapeutic activity. I went today, it was my second time conducting the social skills group and I passed fidelity. We were also told to think of professional goals for ourselves and a team name; we would have to go over both of those with the lead clinical supervisor tomorrow. My group consists of myself as well as two other girls.
Friday June 26th, 8-4 (8 hours)
Today we practiced doing the social skills groups all day long. Then we went over our goals and team name with the lead clinical supervisor. Our team name is the Fearless Falcons and we have six boys in our group, ages ten to twelve. My first professional goal is to become more animated and loud when conducting the social skills group. My second goal is to try to get more description and detail out of the children when conducting the social skills group. Lastly, my goal is to become more confident in giving and taking away points when conducting the social skills group. I think each of these goals will become easier to attain when I am more comfortable with conducting the steps of the social skills group. We continued to practice the skillstreaming groups. Then we spent the rest of the time creating our banner and point sheet for our room. Then we all went over to the Delevan Townhouses and finished creating our banners and set up our rooms. We also had to make sure our room had all of the supplies and we would need for each activity.
Monday June 29th, 7:30-5:30 (10 hours)
Today was our first day of camp with the kids. Giving them points is a way to reinforce their good behavior, which is positive reinforcement. Additionally the schedule for reinforcement of giving a child points each time they use a social skill is a continuous reinforcement schedule. It is because the children are reinforced each time they engage in the behavior. This reinforcement is often used when someone is learning a behavior for the first time. We learned in Behavior Modification, points are tokens or symbolic reinforcers. The points symbolize their progress towards being able to attend the fieldtrip at the end of the week. When they do something they shouldn’t be which is emitting negative behaviors or not participating, they lose points. Which is a form of negative punishment, we take away points because we want the occurrence of those various behaviors to be decreased. We then praise them immediately after they discontinue their negative behavior and substitute with a positive behavior. We also use prompting for some of them in order to keep them on task or to keep them doing what they should be. The prompting, praise and giving directions are also some things we learned in our Behavior Modification class in order to increase or decrease different behaviors. Timeout is another form of After they day was over I took home the score sheet to check all of the scores that another counselor had added up and started getting used to the format of the point sheet.
Tuesday June 30th, 7:30-5:30 (10 hours)
Today was our second day of camp, some of the children’s behaviors started to come out more once they were getting more comfortable with camp. As we were taking more negative points away from them they were getting really down. Children with Autism get much more upset about things more easily than typically developing children would. We have to make sure to praise for doing positive behaviors and give them points after we take away a lot of points.
Wednesday July 1st, 7:30-5:30 (10 hours)
Today on our third day of camp, we made it a point to always follow up with praise and giving points to a child for a positive behavior they are emitting right after we took away points from them. As we learned in our behavior Modification class the immediacy of a reinforcer after the occurrence of a behavior greatly affects the reoccurrence of that behavior. The quicker we reinforce the children’s behaviors the more likely they are to continue. Today was an awesome day with the children, but they were getting louder and more of their behaviors were coming out since they are becoming more comfortable with each other as well as the counselors. We were also beginning to think about goals for each of the children. Tomorrow we have to create three goals for each child which will become part of their IDN, which is their Individual Daily Note or report card. These are individual behaviors that each child needs to work on. If they do not meet all of these goals each day then they do not earn their snack at the end of the day. Their snack at the end of each day serves as a consumable positive reinforcer, which I was familiar with because of my Behavior Modification class.
Thursday July 2nd, 7:30-5:30 (10 hours)
Today is the last day before the first fieldtrip Friday. Today was definitely the most hectic day at camp so far. There was a lot of silliness and communication between the campers, but they talked about one topic every single chance they got. They kept referring back to a certain Scooby Doo episode, by the end of the day the other counselors and I decided we need to make it a rule they we cannot talk about that episode anymore. Often children with Autism and Asperger’s got so fixated on one subject it is all they will talk about. This rule is going to help them with interest expansion. Then after camp was over, we went through and created three goals for each child. We will have to implement each goal next week. We will tell the child what their goals are and how they need to earn a certain amount of yes’s for meeting each goal. At the end of the day we divide the total opportunities they had by the number of yes’s the received to give them a percentage, and to see if they earned their reward.
Friday July 3rd, 7:45-5:10 (10 hours)
Today was our first fieldtrip. In the morning of the fieldtrips there are still two intervals of skillstreaming and therapeutic activities. The kids behaved very well, I think partly because it was Friday and they knew their fieldtrip would start in about three hours. Every child makes it on the first fieldtrip, although we do not tell them that. We tell them that they all have points to earn to be able to go on the fieldtrip. After we had our two sessions of skillstreaming we sat the kids down and pretended we had to add up the points to decide who would be able to go and who wouldn’t. As we talked in the corner loudly, pretending that we weren’t sure about some of them the kids got extremely nervous. Then we announced one by one that they all made it, and they were all so relieved. For the fieldtrip today, it was actually at the Delevan Townhouses. We watched a movie with another group and had popcorn and gummy worms. At the end of the day we had one more round of skillstreaming and an activity. Then we passed out there end of the day snack.
Monday July 6th, 7:45-5:10 (9 hours 25 minutes)
Today was our second week of camp. This morning before camp we were given packets of questionnaires on two of our children that we have to fill out and hand back in by Wednesday morning. We were each assigned two children out of our group. That means that on the fieldtrip we are mainly responsible for our two children, even though you stay together with the group. We also only fill out packets on our two main children and then we fill out the same questionnaires at the end of camp, to track their progress. The rating scales that we have to fill out on both of the children are the BASC-2-TRS, the Social Responsiveness Scale, a narrative description of the child, a sheet with a staff checklist regarding the child’s behavior and the Emotion Recognition and Display Survey. In addition to getting these packets we also received the child’s IDN that we would start to implement. They each have three goals of things they must achieve, in order to get their reward at home and their snack at the end of the day at camp. During every break I go over my two specific children’s IDN with them and tell them their progress and show them how they are doing completing all of their goals. Additionally I go over their IDN with them at the end of the day reporting to them how they did and if they would be receiving a reward that day.
Tuesday July 7th, 7:45 to 5:10 (9 hours 25 minutes)
Today we went through our normal routine at camp. We went over the IDN’s with our kids and a lot of them are doing really well on them. Additionally today the research team came around and asked the children to pick a number on a thermometer for how they feel for the day, The first question was how good they feel, and the second was how stressed out they feel. Then the collected spit samples from all of the students, they had to spit into viles filling them up. The spit samples are part of Dr. Putnam’s study of the children’s cortisol levels. Today was also the first day we went into the pool with the children; it was our last activity of the day.
Wednesday July 8th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours 40 minutes)
Today we had to collect spit again from each of the children. This time we again had the children fill out the thermometers on how good they were feeling and how stressed they were feeling. They were then split up into different rooms with different counselors and we had to collect spit samples from them in three different ways. The first way was for them to have a piece of cotton on their mouth collecting spit into it. The second way was for us to hold two swabs in the side of their mouths so it would collect spit and the third was again just having them spit into a vile filling it up. We then had the children point on a scale on how easy and comfortable each one felt. Besides collecting that data we carried on with our normal routines and kept track of the children’s IDN’s going over them with them. We had three out of our six children score a 100 percent on their IDN’s today.
Thursday July 9th, 7:50-5:45 (10 hours)
Today was our last day before our second fieldtrip. In order for the children to get to go on the fieldtrip, they need to pass three out of four of their IDN’s. In order to pass an IDN, they need above a seventy percent. This week all of our children passed their IDN’s. They get different rewards at home based on what percentage they got. So scoring a seventy to and seventy-nine is one reward, an eighty to an eight-nine is a little bigger reward and a ninety to a hundred percent is their largest reward. Some examples of their rewards include playing on the computer, playing a videogame or earning different amounts of money. At the end of the day today, we had to create new goals for each child for their IDN’s for next week. Some examples of different goals include having quiet hands, having at least two conversations per interval, having no more than one interruption per interval and many other things targeting their most problematic behaviors. Overall the children are praised and encouraged for using social skills and emitting good behavior. They also earn points, earn consumable rewards at the end of the day, earn rewards at home and can earn their large reward of going on the fieldtrip. This program is constantly trying to reward the children for using social skills so we can increase their overall usage of social skills at home and after the program is over.
Friday July 10th, 7:50-5:10 (9 hours and 20 minutes)
All of our children earned more points than last week and passed all of their IDN’s so they all got to go on the fieldtrip. Our fieldtrip today was taking the subway to the naval park and then getting ice cream before we took the subway home. All of our children had a great time exploring the different ships and getting ice cream. In the morning we had two skillstreaming sessions then we all had lunch outside. After lunch we took the kids back to our room and then told them one by one if they made it on the fieldtrip or not. We left them in a little suspense but they all made and were all really excited. On the field trip we were given special IDN’s basically asking if they followed all of the rules and how many times they had to be told to do or not do something.
Monday July 13th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours 40 minutes)
Today we were given more packets to fill out on our two specific children. The four protocols inside each packet included the GADS which is the Gilliam Asperger’s Disorder Scale, the ASDS which is the Asperger Syndrome Diagnostic Scale, the GARS-2 which is the Gilliam Autism Rating Scale-Second Edition and the CARS which is The Childhood Autism Rating Scale.
Today was our first day of earning points toward the fieldtrip which we announced to the children is bowling, pizza and pop. Today went good except during our last activity interval. A few of our children were losing many points on negative comments, and violating personal space that results in harm, which results in an immediate time out. As we learned in Behavior Modification, time out is a form of negative punishment. The idea of time out is that the child is given a time out from any positive reinforcement. To accomplish this we do not talk to or give the children any attention when they are in time out. They also are not able to earn any points while they are in time out. Timeout is meant to decrease their occurrence of the behavior in the future. We also had one of our children emitting behaviors that are much younger than his age, which is typical of children with Autism and Asperger’s Disorder. One example was he cried over dropping a dime and a nickel out of his pocket.
Tuesday July 14th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
Today one of the counselors in our group was out because of a family situation. So for two periods of the day we were missing a counselor and the rest of the periods we had somebody fill in for her. Today the children had an awesome day, there were much less negative behaviors and they all made sure to use a lot of social skills. We also made sure, just as we did yesterday to go over their new IDN’s with them. They each had three new goals for this week which all focus on each of the child’s biggest behavior problems. We all go over their progress during each transition and remind them of their IDN goals each morning. Also this morning when they came in we showed them on a thermometer how many points they earned Monday and how many they need to earn by Friday to go on the fieldtrip.
Wednesday July 15th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
We had another great day today at camp. The kids are all earning more than enough points each day than they need. The totals that they are working towards are all different according to their number of points they earned during their first week, which was their baseline data. A high number for a total of points for the week is around 10,000 points. Two of our children are working towards their totals which are around 9,800 points. The rest of our children’s goals are 13,000, 14,000 and 15,000. We are pushing the kids more every day to use their social skills.
Thursday July 16th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
They are all doing an excellent job using many social skills. This week one of our children has begun to get worse. He is beginning to not participate in group discussions. Although we are prompting, encouraging and complimenting him when he is doing well he sits and refuses to raise his hand. He seems to go into a daydream mode and just doesn’t participate. Towards the end of the day we talked to one of the research assistants who use to be the lead clinical supervisors. She suggested we tell this child that he has to participate and raise his hand as many times as he can during group discussions. Then after the interval we are going to have him pick a number from a grab bag. Then that number is the number of times he had to have contributed. So if he had contributed that many times he will earn a yes, but if he fell short of the number he picked he will earn a no for the interval. This way he will always being striving to raise his hand and participate as much as he can. We will begin that next week and see how that works. Today we also had to come up with new goals for each child for their report cards for next week.
Friday July 17th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
Today was our third fieldtrip, which was bowling. All of our children worked hard this week and each of them passed all of their IDN’s all week. We had two skillstreaming groups and one activity interval before we left for the fieldtrip. One of the children in our group was sick all week except Tuesday but he made it today for the fieldtrip. Another one of the children in our group was here all week but was sick and didn’t make it to camp on Friday for the fieldtrip. We took a bus to a bowling alley, and bowled two games. They also turned off the lights and put on music and we danced to different songs while bowling. We told our group that we had thirty rule violations for the whole fieldtrip, they did well. Then after we got back we all had pizza together in one of the rooms and then had one more activity interval before it was time to go home. Additionally at camp every Monday and Wednesday they videotape our children while they play board games. Today they had to videotape our group because one of our children was out sick Monday and Wednesday. When they videotape, we have three kids play one game and three play the other and half way through the interval they switch games.
Monday July 20th, 7:50-5:00 (9 hours and ten minutes)
Today we were given new IDN’s for each child with our new goals for each one on there. We reviewed the new IDN’s with the children in the morning. The IDN’s have gradually been getting harder each week and the child’s goals have changed to adapt to new problem behaviors the children have been exhibiting. Today we were missing one of our children because they were out sick. Then another one of our children left during our third treatment cycle for an appointment and did not come back to camp. We were having a lot of fidelity done this week because each group needs a certain amount of fidelity’s completed. This is done by having a research assistant observing us and checking off on a sheet they we are following each step in correct order during the skillstreaming and activity intervals. This is to make sure we are following protocol. So today we had the lead clinical supervisor sitting in on our group almost all day completing fidelity on us. Today we learned responding to failure, dealing with contradictory messages and we had mind reading. Mind reading is a computer program which teaches the kids facial expressions, and emotion recognition in voices.
Tuesday July 21, 7:50-5:10 (9 hours and 20 minutes)
Today we were missing one of our children, he was still out sick. Today the kids had a great day, there was only one child that got a low score on his IDN, he scored a seventy seven percent. One of his tougher goals that he had trouble with today was negative comments. His goal is that he must have no instances of negative comments, which is tough. The skills we learned today were dealing with group pressure, avoiding trouble and dealing with another’s anger. One of the child’s amount of points that he is working towards to earn to go on the fieldtrip by this week is 19,000. Again, a good score for a child in this program is to earn 10,000 points by the end of the week. He has been using many social skills and doing an excellent job having conversations. He has excelled so much that we are able to have goals on his IDN this weeks that help shape how he uses his social skills. Being able to shape his behavior and get more specific is really great to have a chance to work. We are able to do this as a result of him using so many social skills and having so many conversations.
Wednesday July 22nd, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
We were still missing one of our children today it was his fourth day out sick, so hopefully he will be here tomorrow. One of our children came in with his mom this morning to talk to Dr. Thomeer because he was upset that the day before he did not do well on his IDN. He was complaining about camp and wanted to give up. He was also upset that he was getting so much praise and attention for using social skills at camp and it is not being carried into his home. Today went really well, we didn’t let him give up and he did an awesome job today using so many social skills and earning more points than he ever has. The skills we learned today were idioms, Mind Reading which is face and emotion recognition, we also learned dealing with another’s anger and negotiating. Today we had one of our children lose it at the end of camp, he lost several points for negative comments. He was being a bad sport when we played basketball and soccer because he can not handle it if he loses or doesn’t do perfect. He also lost points on bragging and saying how he is the only one who is good at anything.
Thursday July 23rd, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
Today we were missing two children, one was still sick and the other had family plans for the day. The skills we learned today were, showing concern for another, dealing with being left out and idioms. We had a great day at camp and the children are all using many social skills and they are all losing a lot less points than they were in the earlier weeks. We went swimming today as our last activity interval; we go swimming every Tuesday and Thursday. Today we also came up with new goals for each of the children’s IDN’s next week. It is there last IDN and our last opportunity to shape them as much as we can. We focus on there largest problem behaviors. We were also told that we have to start thinking of awards for each child that they will receive on the last day of camp. The awards are supposed to be specific and match their strongest qualities.
Friday July 24th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
Today was our fourth field trip, we went to the zoo. Everyone in our group made it on the fieldtrip. Although we still only had five children, one of our children is still sick, although he is supposed to be back on Monday though. In the morning we had two intervals. For our first skillstreaming we learned being a good sport again because a few of the children, one in particular can really use the extra practice. Then we split into two group and played board games for our therapeutic activity. They research team videotaped the children playing board games. Our next interval was Mind Reading. After mind reading we announced to the children who made it on the fieldtrip going through each of them one by one. Then we boarded the bus, as soon as we got to the zoo we all ate lunch. Then we split up into our groups and I was the leader for the fieldtrip. Our group leader really stayed quiet throughout the fieldtrip letting the other counselor and I lead as a learning experience. We were totally in charge of leading the children through each exhibit and announcing when it was time to move to the next one. After we saw all of the exhibits we got ice cream and then met in the front of the zoo to board the bus. Once we arrived back at camp, our whole group played a game of apples to apples until the end of the day.
Monday July 27th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
Today was our first day of the last week of camp. All of the children in our group are well again and they were all back today. This whole week we do not learn any new skills, we just go over the skills that we have learned in the past four weeks. The only exception is today, we did learn the new skill of dealing with losing. The reason our group learned it is because we have one child in our group that has to use it during each activity interval as a goal on his IDN, because he is such a poor sport. Our second skill today was Mind Reading and our third was having a conversation. On three of the children’s IDNs we were able to have, used social skills appropriately as a goal. By having this as a goal we are able to target and shape how the children use all of their social skills. One way is when they are having a conversation. Many of them begin by asking their peers if they want to start a conversation. We are able to target that this week and help explain to them that you don’t have to ask, you just have to make a statement and then ask the other person what he or she thinks about it.
Today we also came up with awards for each of our child for the last day of camp. Our awards include the Mr. Entertainer Award, the Mr. Social Skills Award, the Mr. Creativity Award, the Idioms Master Award, the Mr. Derek Jeter Award and the Mr. Smiley Award.
Tuesday July 28th, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
Today we were trained this morning on how to administer the BASC-2-SRP and during one half of one of our activity intervals we split up. Each counselor and research person had one child and we each administered the BASC-2-SRP to them. We were all separated into different rooms because of the nature of some of the questions. Today some of our children are beginning to revert back to a few of there old behaviors that they had improved upon such as interrupting or negative comments. During the last week of camp that is usually typical because they are getting nervous that camp is ending and they are realizing it is all over in a couple of days. Today one of the activities was t-shirt art. All of the children brought in a t-shirt and they decorated them with sayings and pictures from camp. They will be finishing the t-shirts on Thursday and that day they will be signing each others as well.
In addition this morning Dr. Thomeer read us an email that one of our student’s moms sent to him. She wanted to thank us and tell us what an amazing difference we have made in her son. This program has made more of a difference than the years of different types of treatment he has been getting. She said they have lived next to their neighbors for awhile and her son would have never gone up to talk to the neighbor, and never has before. After camp that night he went up on his own to start a conversation with the neighbor and her and her husband were amazed. It was great hearing how much of an impact we have made on the child and how much change has carried over into environments outside of camp.
Wednesday July 29th, 7:50-6 (10 hours and 10 minutes)
Today we went over more previous skills. All of the counselors were urged this week to really focus on how much the children’s social skills have improved over the past five weeks. We were reminded to realize that their problem behaviors might still be their, but their social skills will hopefully have improved. At the end of the day today we were given packets on each of our two primary children. They were the same packets that we received the second week of camp, this is the post data. They each contained the BASC-2-TRS, the Social Responsiveness Scale, a narrative description of the child, a sheet with a staff checklist regarding the child’s behavior and the Emotion Recognition and Display Survey. We had to have these packets filled out by Thursday at the end of the day.
Thursday July 30th, 7:50-6 (10 hours and 10 minutes)
Today was our second last week of work and the children’s behavior was a little worse than normal. It’s similar to how children’s behavior starts to change during the end of a school year also. Today we were missing our group leader she had to be out of town for one day, so the lead clinical supervisor filled in for her for the day. Everyday when the children are picked up our group leader talks to each of the parents and tells them what we did that day, anything crucial that happened and gives the parent the child’s IDN. Since our group leader was not here, the other counselor and I talked to the parents. We split it up and each talked to three of the children and their parents, getting this new experience of communicating their progress with their parents.
This morning we were also trained on how to administer the DANVA-2 and the CAM-C. For one whole activity interval each counselor was paired up with one student to administer the post test to them. They had all been pretested on these at the beginning of camp. The CAM-C is a computer program which tested the child’s ability to correctly recognize emotions on face and voice clips. The DANVA-2 is another computer program which tests the children’s ability to recognize the correct facial expression on both adult and children’s facial expressions. Today was our day to finish up our t-shirt art and it was our last day in the pool.
Friday July 31st, 7:50-5:30 (9 hours and 40 minutes)
Today was our last day of camp and we went to Fantasy Island. Basically every child gets to go to Fantasy Island, unless they had extremely bad behavior. We had a skillstreaming and one activity interval in the morning. Then we did one last skillstreaming before we left for the fieldtrip. Our first skillstreaming today, which was also our last one yesterday, was a skill that the lead clinical supervisor created for our group. We printed up copies so the children were each able to bring the steps of the skill home with them. It was how to deal with middle and high school. We taught the children how there are different cliques, how to approach different groups of people, how to decide if you want to approach different groups of people and to be confident and proud when talking to others. Our very last social skill was how to say good-bye. It taught the children how to recognize whether it is goodbye for a long or short time and what to say to each other. Some different possibilities were, see you soon or can we exchange phone numbers to get together soon.
Then we all left for Fantasy Island. When we got back from Fantasy Island we went to straight to our rooms and the parents of each of the children were sent down to the rooms. Then we announced how well the children did in front of everyone. Then one by one we brought them up to the front of the room and presented them with their award and gave a story to go with each. We then handed them their certificate for their award, their certificate for completing the program and a Connections t-shirt.
I had one parent in particular come up and explain how much improvement she has seen in her son and how much of a difference the five weeks has made in him. It was really rewarding to hear about what a difference we had made in that child’s life.
Monday August 3th, 8-4:30 (8 hours and 30 minutes)
Today we spent the day at Summit helping with the research part of Connections. They were packets that teachers from Summit had filled out on their children and we were all working on scoring the protocols in each packet. Today I learned to score the ABC, which is the Aberrant Behavior Checklist, the RBS which is the Repetitive Behavior Scale, the ABAS-2 which is the Adaptive Behavior Assessment System-Second Edition, and the SRS which is the Social Responsiveness Scale. After finishing one packet I was given another job to do which took up the entire day. I was working with two other people on emptying the arts and crafts bins from each group. Then we created a list of materials that we needed for each bin for IES. IES is the Connections program which is implemented in the schools by the teachers.
Tuesday August 4th, 8-4:30 (8 hours and 40 minutes)
Today I helped check the thermometers of how the children recorded they were feeling in the beginning and end of the day during prior years of Connections. We checked to make sure the numbers were copied correct then shredded the data when we were done. The numbers would then later be fixed if there were any changes by the Research Coordinators. I spent about an hour checking the thermometers. I spent the entire rest of the day scoring protocols. Again I scored the same protocols as yesterday, the ABC, the RBS, the ABAS-2, and the SRS. Three additional ones that I scored were the MESSIER which is the Matson Evaluation of Social Skills for Individuals with Severe Retardation, the STEP which is the Screening Test of Feeding Problems, and the PDDBI which is the Pervasive Developmental Disorder- Behavior Inventory.
