- Dayton Oaks RECC .4 (two days per week)
- Waverly DHH .4 (two days per week)
- Dayton Oaks Pals .1 (1/2 day per week)
Do the math.
I'm working it out with the powers that be. If that .1 Pals gets bumped up to .2, I'd call my assignments pretty darned good.
At Dayton Oaks, I will work in the MINC-EL (Multiple Intense Needs Children-Early Learner) program. The MINC-EL is for preschool and kindergarten students who need to acquire functional communication. Verbal Behavior Analysis (similar to ABA therapy) is the method of instruction, and peers attend the class in the morning, to serve as language models. The MINC-EL students typically have autism. If they are kindergarten age (which most of this class will be), they may be partially included in a regular kindergarten classroom. This assignment may be the most challenging for me, because the students make little progress, and handling their behavior can be exhausting. Also, the staff to student ratio is 1:1, so there is quite a bit of estrogen in the room, and that presents its own unique challenges. But this class has a good teacher and a good behavior specialist.
At Waverly, I will work with five deaf and one hard of hearing kindergarten students, plus a couple of hearing kids in either the inclusion kindergarten or in the E-PL (Elementary-Primary Learner) program. The E-PL is for students in grades 1-5 who need to acquire functional communication. It's basically a continuation of the MINC-EL.
For Pals, I will travel to private preschools to service students with IEPs. These students are typically (though certainly not always) higher functioning.
So most of my week will be spent with fairly "low" students, language-wise. I have met the D/HH students, and only the hard of hearing kiddo is using language effectively. Some of them just moved into this country, some have concerns other than deafness, and some just have the usual language delay you will see in deaf children who have hearing parents. Some have implants and some do not. Deafness and diversity certainly go together, and this little group is no exception. I am looking forward to this assignment.
2 comments:
Hey there! I'm Heather, Ethan's mom over at Ethan's World. I found you tonight via Sitemeter. I'm so interested in your Dayton Oaks appt. as I'm learning about the verbal behavior approach and hope to use it to some success with Ethan. I've started a chart where I can record his outbursts, the triggers, the consequences, and the perceived intent of the behavior. He is getting tested for autism in the fall at Cincy Children's, their wait list is huge. For the past several months though I've taken it to heart that he has got to be somewhere on the spectrum so he has been on the GFCF diet and sees a Dan doc regularly for help with supplements and to work with her staff dietician. We've seen great improvements in many areas. He actually had no speech whatsoever (2.5 years post Ci) until we started this approach with him. Now he attempts many words and signs as well but still isn't using language in a very functional manner. I'm hoping that VBA helps us, though I must admit I'm doing it on my own and I haven't full confidence in my ability to separate the role of parent with the role of teacher.
You've got a cool blog!!
Hi Heather, I was writing a reply to you, but it got too long, so I made it into a new blog post. :D
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