Saturday, December 12, 2009
November 18, 2009
Today during my observations I went to the elementary school to pick up the kids. The kids who are involved in our program come from different elementary schools around the area I go to school. There are usually only about a handful of kids that I have to pick up personally. My kid is a part of the group that I pick up. When I picked him up today I noticed he was carrying to shiny rocks. In the past, I have noticed his interest in shiny objects. I have been collecting these metallic plated rocks for a long time. I so happened to have one with me this very day. I allowed him to hold on to it though out the day as long as he stayed on task. He agreed to the terms and for the most part was on task all day. I have learned that rewards work very well in managing his behavior. I have also learned that the rewards need to change. He gets tired quickly of the same old rewards.
November 17, 2009
There is not much known about Autism and where it comes from. There are also plenty of naïve people who believe that people with Autism are not very intelligent. The fact of the matter is, there isn’t a lot of research out there. The child I mentor has a functioning form of Autism called Asperger’s. I had spoken with his parents and they had told me how bright he was. They are simply having trouble channeling his intelligence to something. At the end of our session today, I asked him if he was interested in playing a game of chess with me. In the past I have tried other activities with him and they have been semi successful. Right away he showed an incredible interest in the game. As I explained to him how all of the pieces moved and the object of the game, he showed the most focus and interest I have seen yet. It was amazing how fast he picked up the game. During our game his mother had arrived and he said he did not want to leave. The program only runs until 6:00pm and we ended up staying until 6:45pm. During the game, I assisted him to a certain level. I explained to him the strategy of using multiple pieces to try and capture my king. He picked up on everything so quickly, I was blown away. At the end, her mother said to me that she thinks we might be on to something.
November 5, 2009
What I have learned from previous observations was to stop things before they happened. I decided to go early that day to setup up the classroom where the kids do their homework. The daily routine was for the kids to come to the class and help setup with tables and chairs. I asked the graduate assistant if I could try something different. I wanted to have the room setup so the kids could find there seat right away. I wanted to do this because I felt like the kids would get all riled up from setting everything up. I felt like it would add a little more structure to their routine. Much to my surprise it worked. The kids got right to work and settled in with their mentors.
I was now only mentoring one of the two kids. The child’s basketball season had started and was no longer coming to the program. I still had the child with Asperger’s. This was my first time being exposed to a child with Asperger’s. What’s interesting about him is his newly found obsession of the day. Everyday he has a new obsession. A lot of the times he obsesses on different ways of making other kids miserable. I don’t think that is his intention but he likes to tell me that he is devious. This is one of the reasons I had decided to come to class early to setup. I wanted to hide these blue two specific blue books. There are these blue books this one student likes to read if he has no homework. My kid likes to take those books away from him. The first day I saw this behavior, I made them play rock, paper, and scissors to see who gets the books. My kid ended up winning the game. He never once opened up the books. The same thing happened the next day but this time I let the other kid have the books. My kid would not stand for that and he tried to sneak over and steal the books the whole time he was there. Ever since I have hid the books he has not even brought them up.
I was now only mentoring one of the two kids. The child’s basketball season had started and was no longer coming to the program. I still had the child with Asperger’s. This was my first time being exposed to a child with Asperger’s. What’s interesting about him is his newly found obsession of the day. Everyday he has a new obsession. A lot of the times he obsesses on different ways of making other kids miserable. I don’t think that is his intention but he likes to tell me that he is devious. This is one of the reasons I had decided to come to class early to setup. I wanted to hide these blue two specific blue books. There are these blue books this one student likes to read if he has no homework. My kid likes to take those books away from him. The first day I saw this behavior, I made them play rock, paper, and scissors to see who gets the books. My kid ended up winning the game. He never once opened up the books. The same thing happened the next day but this time I let the other kid have the books. My kid would not stand for that and he tried to sneak over and steal the books the whole time he was there. Ever since I have hid the books he has not even brought them up.
November 3, 2009
As soon as I showed up to the program this day the graduate assistant sat me down to explain the program for the child that I was mentoring. The graduate assistant and my student had an agreement. The agreement was that if he was able to stay on task with any type of school work, he would then have some free play time. If he did not fill his end of the bargain, he would not be given any privileges of play time. The other child that I mentored was with us as a reward for the child with behavior issues. They were good friends and they could be together if he followed the guidelines of the deal with the graduate assistant. This was used as an incentive for the child with the behavior issues.
The two kids I mentored first started out with studying spelling. The child with behavioral issues was the leader of the two. Half the time he would not allow the other to spell the words. I made the mistake of not addressing the situation right away. When I did address the situation I demanded the one child to stop. To my knowledge, I thought I was doing the appropriate correction to the situation. I later found out that instead of making a demand, I should try to give him a choice but let him know the consequences along with the choice. The graduate assistant told me he responds better to that. If you make a demand to him like “Can you please stop interrupting and give him a chance to spell” it’s like it doesn’t have an effect on him what’s so ever. If you say something like “Do you think it’s polite to interrupt someone while their trying to spell and would you like someone to interrupt you?” and it actually worked. It was a very effective tool that I now have and can use in those types of situations.
The two kids I mentored first started out with studying spelling. The child with behavioral issues was the leader of the two. Half the time he would not allow the other to spell the words. I made the mistake of not addressing the situation right away. When I did address the situation I demanded the one child to stop. To my knowledge, I thought I was doing the appropriate correction to the situation. I later found out that instead of making a demand, I should try to give him a choice but let him know the consequences along with the choice. The graduate assistant told me he responds better to that. If you make a demand to him like “Can you please stop interrupting and give him a chance to spell” it’s like it doesn’t have an effect on him what’s so ever. If you say something like “Do you think it’s polite to interrupt someone while their trying to spell and would you like someone to interrupt you?” and it actually worked. It was a very effective tool that I now have and can use in those types of situations.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Novermber 3, 2009
As soon as I showed up to the program this day the graduate assisstant sat me down to explain the program for the child that I was mentoring. The graduate assisstant and my student had an agreement. The agreement was that if he was able to stay on task with any type of school work, he would then have some free play time. If he did not fill his end of the bargain, he would not be given any privleges of play time. The other child that I mentored was with us as a reward for the child with behavior issues. They were good friends and they could be together if he followed the guidelines of the deal with the graduate assisstant. This was used as an incentive for the child with the behavior issues.
The two kids I mentored first started out with studying spelling. The child with behavioral issues was the leader of the two. Half the time he would not allow the other to spell the words. I made the mistake of not addressing the situation right away. When I did address the situation I demanded the one child to stop. To my knowledge, I thought I was doing the appropriate correction to the situation. I later found out that instead of making a demand, I should try to give hime a choice but let him no the cosequences along with the choice. The graduate assisstant told me he responds better to that. If you make a demand to him like “Can you please stop interrupting and give him a chance to spell” its like it doesn’t have an effect on him whats so ever. If you say something like “Do you think it’s polite to interrupt someone while their trying to spell and would you like someone to interrupt you?” and it actually worked. It was a very affective tool that I now have and can use in those types of situations.
The two kids I mentored first started out with studying spelling. The child with behavioral issues was the leader of the two. Half the time he would not allow the other to spell the words. I made the mistake of not addressing the situation right away. When I did address the situation I demanded the one child to stop. To my knowledge, I thought I was doing the appropriate correction to the situation. I later found out that instead of making a demand, I should try to give hime a choice but let him no the cosequences along with the choice. The graduate assisstant told me he responds better to that. If you make a demand to him like “Can you please stop interrupting and give him a chance to spell” its like it doesn’t have an effect on him whats so ever. If you say something like “Do you think it’s polite to interrupt someone while their trying to spell and would you like someone to interrupt you?” and it actually worked. It was a very affective tool that I now have and can use in those types of situations.
Wednesday, November 11, 2009
Oct 29th, 2009
Today I started out the day with the same fourth grade boy as the first day. When I sat down with him he did not remember who I was. I discussed with him all the things we did the first time I was with him. I usually go Tuesdays and Thursdays, so on the days I’m not with him he is with someone else. That someone else happens to have the same name as me. I also had my hair done differently then the last time I saw him. We played a game the first time we met and after I reminded him of that, he remembered me.
Right before snack time, the graduate assistant came up to me and reassigned me to two other kids. One of my peer teachers and I switched children. The graduate assistant thought that I would be better equipped to handle this one fifth grade boy than my peer teacher because of his lack of experience. I would have struggled if I was working with a child with this level of behavioral issues so early on in my education.
There was a set plan for this child in order for him to be successful and to stay on task that the graduate assistant would explain to me. She did not have time to explain the plan to me that day. All she wanted me to do is to get to know him and the other child that I would be mentoring. They were both fifth graders and they were very good friends. One of them had Asperger’s and the other did not have a disability. It was hard not to notice the child that I was now mentoring because he was always acting up in some way. I noticed that the teacher who was working with him before me used somewhat of a passive way of tending to his behavioral issues. I knew that I had to be more assertive with him. I let him know that there will be consequences for his actions and that he needed to behave when he was with me.
Right before snack time, the graduate assistant came up to me and reassigned me to two other kids. One of my peer teachers and I switched children. The graduate assistant thought that I would be better equipped to handle this one fifth grade boy than my peer teacher because of his lack of experience. I would have struggled if I was working with a child with this level of behavioral issues so early on in my education.
There was a set plan for this child in order for him to be successful and to stay on task that the graduate assistant would explain to me. She did not have time to explain the plan to me that day. All she wanted me to do is to get to know him and the other child that I would be mentoring. They were both fifth graders and they were very good friends. One of them had Asperger’s and the other did not have a disability. It was hard not to notice the child that I was now mentoring because he was always acting up in some way. I noticed that the teacher who was working with him before me used somewhat of a passive way of tending to his behavioral issues. I knew that I had to be more assertive with him. I let him know that there will be consequences for his actions and that he needed to behave when he was with me.
Oct 27th, 2009
Today was the first day of my observations. The program was organized so that as soon as the children would arrive they would help setup the room, by setting up the table and chairs. It was a good routine to teach the kids some structure and responsibility. This is something they would do everyday. After the tables were all setup the kids would sit with their mentors and do any homework they had to do. Seeing though it was my first time, I filled in for one of my peers who couldn’t be there that day.
The child I mentored that day was a fourth grade boy. As soon as we sat down he got right to work on his spelling. After he went over his spelling for a few minutes he then asked me to quiz him. He seemed to be very intelligent. I could not tell what or if he had a disability. The one thing I did notice was he struggled to focus on one task at a time. I thought of ADHD but at the same time his energy levels weren’t incredibly high like you would typically see in a child with ADHD. Later I caught up to the woman who ran the program and she told me he had Autism. I would have never known. He had a very high functioning form of Autism called Asperger’s.
The child I mentored that day was a fourth grade boy. As soon as we sat down he got right to work on his spelling. After he went over his spelling for a few minutes he then asked me to quiz him. He seemed to be very intelligent. I could not tell what or if he had a disability. The one thing I did notice was he struggled to focus on one task at a time. I thought of ADHD but at the same time his energy levels weren’t incredibly high like you would typically see in a child with ADHD. Later I caught up to the woman who ran the program and she told me he had Autism. I would have never known. He had a very high functioning form of Autism called Asperger’s.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
