Early Autism ProjectMeghan Clusserath

Details: Site: Early Autism Project Inc. branch in

Anderson, South Carolina Preceptor: Two Lead Therapists: Blaire

Veronee and Sarah Sosa Title: Applied Behavioral Analysis Line

Therapist Dates: January 2016 – May 2016 Hours: 100 + working hours

About Early Autism Project:

EAP is part of the nation’s leading provider of behavioral health and education solutions for children and young adults.

EAP prides themselves on changing the direction of children’s lives by offering children with autism the opportunity to create successful, independent futures.

“EAP offers the highest quality of intensive, research-based behavioral treatment for children and young adults between the ages of 20 months and 21 years with autism spectrum and related disorders.”

“EAP provides comprehensive services to children and their families in their homes, in EAP clinics and in schools throughout the country.”

EAP’s Mission Statement

“The mission of the Early Autism Project is threefold: to provide appropriate and effective ABA home and school programming that will enable each child in our care to reach his or her potential; to foster the close collaboration of parents and professionals who support the child; and to equip each child’s home or school team with the ABA training and supervision that will ensure high-quality and consistent teaching, error correction procedures and behavioral intervention.”

What is ABA Therapy?

“Applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy is widely recognized as the most effective, evidence-based treatment for autism and is endorsed by the U.S. Surgeon General and American Academy of Pediatrics. ABA therapy fosters basic skills such as looking, listening, requesting and imitating, as well as complex skills such as reading, conversing and understanding another person’s perspective. ABA also helps reduce behaviors that make it difficult for children to learn.”

How does EAP provide ABA

services? “ABA therapy is offered at clinics, schools and in homes and is provided under the direction of a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) or a Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst (BCaBA). Therapists work closely with families and education professionals and apply the principles of ABA to teach language, social, self-help, academic, daily living, and life skills. Each child is unique and early intervention helps ensure each child has the opportunity to be mainstreamed into a traditional learning environment and become more independent.”

My Preceptors Sarah Sosa and Blaire Veronee were the two

Lead therapists I worked with. They were both working as a Lead Therapists for the time being and in school earning their Masters to become Service Coordinators for EAP.

Each of them had two years of experience within this field.

Position: Applied Behavioral Analysis Line Therapist

Responsibilities: Providing ABA therapy to two clients (ages 3

and 6) with Autism Spectrum Disorder on academic, behavioral, communication, and social skills for 12 to 15 hours a week for 15 weeks.

Collect data on behavioral, communication, and academic progress

Both of the above photos are examples of different activities that may occur during an ABA session.

Behavioral Component

One of my client’s therapy plan focused on transitioning between activities without any problem behaviors. He typically would scream, scratch, kick, hit, etc. when asked to move to an activity he did not want to participate in. EAP’s goal was to reduce this problem behavior and have the client transition smoothly when asked. This was worked on my creating a schedule where the client could choose a few activities and then the therapist would choose some activities and there was a certain amount of time at each. This structured schedule made progress more possible over 15 weeks.

Academic Aspect Another part of therapy was called “Table

Time.” This component focused on academic skills. The clients would be asked several different questions, ranging from their mom’s job to identifying a picture to touching their cheek. The different categories focused on were manding, visual performance, receptive language, motor imitation, echoic, tact, and intraverbal.The picture to the right is of the binder that held all of a particular client’s academic progress and information. This binder also contained target key academic questions that were rotated out once “mastered.”

Table Time

These pictures are examples of potential questions asked during table time.

Reward System at Table

At Table Time, clients would work towards some activity or food item as a reward. This positive reinforcement encouraged them to be well behaved during Table Time and to try to stay focused and pay attention. Below is an example of a chart used during table to show the client the progress made and how close he was to getting rewarded for his good behavior.

One of my clients especially loved to jump on the trampoline so we would work for that each table time.

The ClinicThis picture is from the Anderson clinic and contains things such as trampoline, jungle gym, and large bouncy balls. These are all activities participated in when working on transitions.

The ClinicThis picture contains things such as toy animals/dinosaurs, puzzles, a play house kitchen, clothes for dress up, board games, etc. These were also some of the activities played when working on transitions.

Conclusion: I wanted the opportunity to intern at EAP

because 6 months ago I was in the mindset that I wanted to work in pediatrics for physical therapy, my chosen career. I had done research and realized that a large number of pediatric patients who need physical therapy have some form of autism spectrum disorder. I figured working with EAP was the perfect opportunity to see if I enjoyed working with this population and this internship confirmed that to me. I really enjoyed my time getting to know the clients and their families through EAP and this is an experience I will never forget.

References: http://earlyautismproject.com/about-eap/our-

story/