I recently completed a five week intensive treatment program for children with Aspergers Disorder. For those of you who are unsure what that is, Aspergergs is a form of Autism. Individuals with this disorder are more high functioning however, have deficits in the social skills area. The practicum I did was a research program through Summit Education Resources, UB, and Canisius. The program is known as Connections. Here is an overview of what the program entailed:

 All the research clinicians (that was our title) were assigned to a group with two other clinicians. There was a young group (7-8), a middle group (9-10) and an older group (11-12). Each group had six children and three counselors.We went through a week of training from 8-4 where we became familiar with the disorder and the different aspects of it. We were then given an extensive overview of the program, and becuase it is a research program, even the most minute details had to be followed to a T. After learning about the program we spent the last two days of training running practice groups and acitivites. Then the work the children began the following Monday.

Clinicians had to be to the site an hour before the children arrived. Our group arrived at 8:00am so we had to be there by 7. We spent the hour getting prepared for the day. Our day would consist of six 70-minute sessions which were broken up into a 20 minute skillstreaming and a 50-minute activity. Skillstreaming is a particular method that uses visual aids to emphasize a given social skill such as saying thank you, or giving a compliment. (Skills that we use routinely but an individual with aspergers is not accustomed to). During those 20 minutes the lead clinician would introduce the social skill, and ask the kids what they thought it meant. (Mind you, getting examples was sometimes like pulling teeth). After reviewing what the skill meant we would refer to a chart that had several steps the child could use when determining whether or not they should use the skill. For example if the skill was saying thank you the steps would read: Step 1: Decide if you want to thank someone. Step 2: Decide who you want to thank. Step 3: Choose a good time an place. Step 4:Thank them in a friendly way.  For individuals with this disorder, it helps to constantly repeat these steps so they begin to become familiar with the who, what, when, where, why and hows. After reviewing the steps, the lead would call another counselor to the front of the room and they would act out an example. Then, the lead would get examples from the kids of times they had to use the social skill, and then the kids would come up and role play. The hardest part of the skillstreaming was keeping the children engaged. Especially when some of the children were diagnosed with ADHD. As a counselor we had to let go of all our dignity and self-preservation and allow ourselves to be loud and bubbly, while still maintaing control. After the skillstreaming, there was a 50 minute time interval for an activity. The activities were chosen to enable the kids to use the social skill they had just learned. We did a variety of activities such as art, sports, board games, etc. Typical everyday activities that children might do in school (a place where they are apt to need social skills).

 One thing that's important to mention is that the whole program was based on a point system. The children were awarded and lost points for positive and negative behaviors. One of the hardest things to adjust to as a counselor was administering those points. Obviously if a child was awarded points for a positive behavior, our tone of voice is rewarding and motivational. But even if they lost points, we were to state it matter or factly without sounding like we were reprimanding the child or that we were disappointed. One of the things with this disorder too is that these individuals do not understand sarcasm, or pick up on emotions very well. In terms of the points they were administered as such: (I'll use the name Bobby) "Bobby, you earn ten points for using your social skill of the day!" or "Bobby, you lose ten points for poor eye contact." When the children were deducted points it was important that we followed the negative with a positive. So it might sound something like this "Bobby, you lose ten points for poor eye contact, you need to look at me when we're talking..... (then once he looks at me, even if only for a second) Good job looking at me now!" The kids were deducted points for poor eye contact, run on communication, violating the rules of an activity, being outside of their assigned areas, interruption (all things that individuals with aspergers do without understanding that they are not socially accepted especially when done to the extent at which these indivudals do). But the children were awarded points for using social skills that we learn such as saying thank you, listening, helping an adult.. there were over 30 skills that we taught throughout the program. Each day, the three counselors called out tens of thousands of points, which were all recorded by the "point person" during that interval on a spreadsheet.

 Each week on Friday there was a field trip the children could earn based on their points. We used this field trip to motivate the kids to use their social skills positivly and to decrease the behaviors they lost points for. Some kids did not make their field trip, which was ultimately decided by the supervisors, but nine times out of ten, the children that are held back showed remarkable improvements the following week. It was important for them to learn that they are not given the field trips, that they had to earn them. The field trip enabled the children to use the social skills we had been practicing and apply them in real-life situations. Of course, sometimes they needed  a little encouragement.

 The children were made aware of their progress each morning, and several more times throughout the day. We had a giant poster for our group "The Playful Panadas" (we had the youngest kids) and we had created panda bears that had to move from the beginning of the poster to the bamboo at the end, and if they got to the bamboo by the end of the week then that meant they had made their field trip. We would move these pandas every couple intervals, forward or backwards to show the kids how they were doing and whether or not they were moving closer to the field trip.

 At the end of every day, dismissal was was at 4:45, I would take the kids out one by one to see their parents. I would go over with their parents what social skills we had gone over that day, what activities we had done, and overall, how their child did. We had used the first week of treatment to get a baseline on the negative behaviors, and from that, created a DRC (daily report card) that they had to meet each day, and as the weeks progressed the goals got harder and harder. An example goal would be not to interrupt more than 3 times in an interval. And they had three goals they had to meet each day. At the end of the day, if they met their DRC they recieved a reward such as a freezie pop. We work extensively with the parents to make sure that they are aware of what we are doing with the kids during the program. The directors of the program held meetings once a week with the parents to overview how the program was run, and what they could do to further the progress their children make at home. The parents said up a reward system for at home, and if the children met their DRC then they got their reward.

Overall, the experience was extremely rewarding. I developed relationships with these children who often feel rejected by peers and adults who don't understand their disorder. The most amazing thing was seeing the progress these children made from the beginning to the end of treatment. Despite the frustration, and the long hours, and every other struggle that went along with the program, the end result far outweighs the rest.