When I decided to apply to complete my master’s degree in education, I admittedly did so because the credits I had attained in 2013 were going to expire and at the time I was teaching online and not quite sure if I wanted to continue teaching or explore another career path. I had always wanted to work with children, especially those who needed extra support but I was not sure teaching was the career path for me anymore. Since I was teaching online and had some interest in technology, I made the decision to have a technology concentration. As I was teaching and taking three courses first semester, I could not help but think that I was going down the wrong path. Along with the required course, ED 800, I took two other courses. One course was about educating students with challenging behaviors and the other was about design thinking in education. Although I truly enjoyed the design thinking course, I honestly felt like the course on educating students with challenging behaviors was more along the lines of what I wanted to do with my degree. I had been constantly researching other careers where I could use my education experience and master’s degree in education. This led me to jobs working with children who have autism. I did some more research, looked into multiple job postings and began to apply. Within a month I had a new job as a behavior therapist working with children who have autism. I quickly called up my advisor at Michigan State University and played around with my courses to switch to a special education concentration. When I took my first course in this concentration area, I finally felt like I was where I was supposed to be! Below, I will discuss three courses that have changed and molded me to become a better behavior therapist by teaching me about autism and its treatments.
CEP 840: Policy, Practices and Perspectives in Special Education
This course was the main reason why I was confident in my decision to change concentrations as well as careers. Every assignment I created for this course was open-ended and allowed me to learn about autism and applied behavior analysis. I created a website where I learned how to embed documents, videos, images and create a blog. This website contained all of my work for this course. I am thankful for the design of this course because I am able to return to the site easily to view all of my assignments and share them with colleagues or future employers. Being a new behavior therapist and just beginning to learn about autism, this course gave me the perfect start to learning all about autism. One large part of this course that impacted my current job was learning all about assistive technologies for children with autism. I explored and researched many different assistive technologies that I could use with my current clients. For example, I had just begun to use a picture exchange communication system (PECS) with one of my clients. PECS is an assistive communication device that allows students to communicate by using a board or book with images. I was able to learn all about PECS in this course and use what I learned in my job. Also, I was able to show confidence when teaching parents and other therapists how to use PECS. Because of this course, I had research to prove that PECS is an effective way to communicate. This course also allowed me to learn about different applications for the iPad to utilize with my clients. A specific application that I learned about is called CommBoards. It is comparable to a PECS board but in an application form. The advantage to using an application is that it is easily adaptable, allowing for changes when the child grows and has new interest. I introduced this application to one of my parents and we have been working together to use it with her son. One last assistive technology that I learned about in this course and that I use with my clients is a weighted lap pad. I have one client who would always hide under a pile of pillows and blankets. I suggested a lap pad, thanks to this course, and it has helped immensely to keep my client calm and comfortable. As I was learning about all of these wonderful assistive technologies for my clients, I could not help but think that my courses were finally coinciding with my career and I could not by happier!
CEP 841: Classroom Management in the Inclusive Classroom
The next course that had a large impact on my career taught me all about managing an inclusive classroom from a teacher's perspective. I read books and completed assignments on how to manage an inclusive classroom. Thankfully, this course had a lot of open-ended assignments where I could cultivate my creativity. I enjoyed this because I was able to choose to study more about autism as opposed to other areas that I could not necessarily utilize in my current position. For my final project for this course, I created an entire webpage dedicated to autism. I was able to research and explore even more about the children I work with on a daily basis. Along with plenty of general information, the website I created contains information on implications for parents and teachers. This helps me in my current position because I work with parents and teachers to support their children with autism. This course allowed me to become a better therapist because I learned all about autism and its implications and I was able to use what I learned in my job. It also encouraged me to learn more about autism in the classroom. Even though I currently do not directly work in a classroom as a teacher, I have one client who I observe in a classroom setting. This course taught me different strategies on how to work with this client in the classroom. I was able to make recommendations to a teacher about how to support my client in the classroom. One example of a recommendation I made was a picture schedule to help make activities more predictable. My client would ask multiple times, “when is lunch?” and a picture schedule would be a visual to show my client when she will have lunch. My client thrives in a predictable environment and showed improvements after this schedule was implemented. This course taught me the importance of predictability for children with autism. I hope to work in more classrooms in the future and am thankful that I learned about inclusion and classroom management.
CEP 843: Autism Spectrum Disorders: Characteristics and Educational Implications
This course was an even more in depth look into autism and its educational implications. Out of all of the courses I took, this was the most relevant to my current job because it focused specifically on autism. I really enjoyed how the assignments asked me to use my current clients in my projects. For example, I was given the opportunity to complete a case study using one of my clients. I observed this client in the classroom and discussed the interventions that were in place for this client. Because of these real life opportunities, I believe that this course has helped me grow not only as a student but in my career as well. Another assignment for this course that I was able to relate back to my job was three article reviews. We were to research articles, find a relevant study, and write a review. I really enjoyed this assignment because I was able to find studies that coincided with my job. One study in particular that I really enjoyed reading about was video priming for transitions for kids with autism. I have one client in particular who has difficulty with transitions and we take data on her transitions. After reading this study, I thought that she would benefit from video taping the transition and showing it to her before the transition. After we implemented this intervention, we noticed fewer tantrums in the data. Because of this course, I was able to make an impact on this child’s life and her mother is very thankful. She told me that she has difficulty transitioning from store to store at the mall and is looking forward to trying video priming for this transition. This course also required us to complete a book review on a book of our choice. I chose a book called Love is not Enough because it had great reviews and sounded very interesting. I also wanted to hear about a parent's perspective on having a child with autism. This book did end up giving me some understanding of what parents go through when they have a child with autism. It is heartbreaking and heartwarming at the same time. I linked this book above and highly suggest it to everyone. It is a wonderful and engaging read on a parents perspective of having a child with autism. I am grateful that this course gave me many opportunities to explore ways to improve my career.
How did the Program Change the way I Approach my Job?
As I mentioned above, not only did the program change the way I approach my job, but it completely changed my career. I went from a general education teacher to a behavior therapist working with kids who have autism because of influence from this program. As I mentioned above, I took a course my first semester called CEP 832: Educating Students with Challenging Behavior with a technology course and I just felt more comfortable in the course, educating students with challenging behavior and knew that I wanted to change my direction. Now in my current job, this program has given me confidence in my knowledge and abilities to discuss my ideas with my manager. I have learned new techniques for managing behaviors and have been able to utilize these techniques with my clients. Learning and growing to have the knowledge that accompanies a master’s degree gives me more tools in my toolbox to be the best therapist that I can be!
As a behavior therapist, I want to continue to learn and grow in this field. I tell all of my clients how smart and talented they are on a daily basis. I want them to know that they can attend school, have a job and grow up to do big things! As a therapist, I also believe I am an educator. I want my clients and parents to see that I am learning and continuing my education. My clients attend school daily, and most have multiple hours of different types of therapy weekly. They are learning how to do daily tasks and work very hard. I am constantly impressed by how hard my clients work and by how happy they are when they are working. To show my appreciation for their hard work, I want to be a wonderful therapist! I can do this by continuing to learn and grow to become a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). As a BCBA, I will have the knowledge and credentials to generate lessons and programs to make even more of a difference in children and family's lives.
This program has allowed me to become more secure in my career. I feel comfortable approaching parents, other therapists and my manager with ideas that I have because of this master’s program. I plan to continue to learn and grow as a behavior therapist. After completing this degree, I will continue to educate myself by enrolling in coursework and completing the hours necessary to obtain my board certified behavior analysis certification.
​
​