Nealy,+Chelsea,+Autism

**Hello! My name is Chelsea Nealy. I am 24 years old and I am in my first year of the two year MAT program at SOU. I received a Bachelor of Art degree in Filmmaking from San Francisco State University in 2009. After I achieve my educational goal of earning my Master's degree, my career goal is to merge my love of teaching with my love for creativity and innovation in an elementary setting. ** **I am lucky to have many people in my life that bring me joy. I am very close with my parents and my brothers. I have known my best friends since elementary school. I have the greatest husband any woman could ask for, and we now have our first child, a daughter, that we get to meet in August. I am an adventurer, sports lover, dreamer, and travel enthusiast. I am a lifelong learner who is always up for new experiences and loves meeting interesting and unique people. ** **While I am confident that my passion for learning will benefit me, my greatest fear in teaching is that I will set unrealistic expectations and will blame myself if not every student reaches the potential that I believe he/she exhibits. I am looking forward to learning about special education in this course because through the study of IEPs and the unique needs of each child, I believe I will learn how to set attainable goals. ** **I have tried to think of a time when something was very difficult for me to learn, but at the risk of sounding arrogant, I keep coming up blank. Learning has always come very easily to me, and I see this lack of perspective as a possible detriment to me as a teacher. What I hope to gain from this course is an understanding of what children with learning disabilities are truly going through. I hope to be able to view education from their eyes and find ways to relate and connect with them as a result. **  ** --- **  **Even before I knew that I wanted to be an educator, I have always been fascinated with neurology and the effects of brain function on behavior. My first known experience with Autism was in high school when I had a four year old boy with Autism in the gymnastics class that I taught. This student was severely Autistic, which presented all kinds of difficulties, and I have wanted to understand more about the disorder ever since. As I begin my career in teaching, understanding Autism has evolved from merely an interest into a professional necessity. Because information about Autism is fairly new, it will be important to continuously educate myself on the developments and studies that emerge.**  // Things I Learned // ** 1 - 1 in 110 children have Autism ** **2 - The severity of Autism can range from very mild to extremely severe, thus the name Autism //Spectrum.// Some children might only exhibit difficulties with social skills while others might be completely non-verbal.** **3 - Autism does not equal stupid, or "mental retardation." Most people with Autism are extremely intelligent.** **4 - An emerging theory regarding Autism is that the front cortex of the brain becomes overly developed during prenatal development.** **5 - Autism may not be able to be "cured," but with therapies, treatment, scheduling, and organization, those with Autism can flourish.** // My Number 1 Resource // // [|Apps for Autism] // ** If you only have time to view one of my resources, you should take 13 minutes out of your day to watch this 60 Minutes focus on Autism entitled //Apps for Autism//. The video discusses the characteristics of Autism, but more importantly in my opinion, it highlights a very valuable tool--the iPad--that those with Autism can use to learn and to communicate. This video is without a doubt 5 out of 5 stars. **  //Additional Resources// 1 - media type="youtube" key="z2B1FeS5VX4" height="315" width="560" ** I rate this video 4 out of 5 stars because it does a great job of giving the parents’ perspective and explaining the daily struggles that a family has to go through when they have a child with Autism. It also has a very uplifting second half and encourages us to do more to help “fix” Autism. The only reason it is not 5 stars is because at times the cue cards are flipped a bit too fast, which throws off the flow of the video and can make it hard to absorb all of the information being given. **  2 -      3 -   media type="youtube" key="V-c50HNnPg0" height="315" width="560" 4 -    ** In my community based learning project I listed this website as the most valuable resource that I found, and I believe it deserves to be mentioned twice. Of all the resources I found in regards to specific lesson plans for students with Autism, this one stood out boldly from the rest. This site has all kinds of information about Autism and has lesson plans, "toolboxes" for behavior management and building social skills, and a number of other extremely helpful resources for educators. I focused on the Autism page but it addresses just about all of the learning disabilities that we might come across in our work. I rate this website 5 out of 5 stars. **  5 -   media type="youtube" key="k7sYLtq0_F8" height="315" width="560" ** I found this video to be a valuable resource in my research and rate it 5 out of 5 stars because it discusses the neurological reasons behind Autism. I am the type of person that wants to understand the "whys" of everything, and want to be able to see concrete evidence and explanations for disorders. The research that is discussed in this particular video indicates an overdevelopment of the frontal cortex and overabundance of brain cells within that region. **  6 -   media type="youtube" key="TL5GHMEjzt8" height="315" width="560" 7 -  media type="custom" key="13282824" **Whenever I am researching an issue in education, I always see if there has been a TED discussion on it. I find them to be some of the best sources of information and are always delivered by dynamic and knowledgable speakers. This presentation on Autism by Temple Grandin is no different. I rate this video 4 out of 5 stars because she is an excellent speaker and the information is extremely valuable, but I find the pace to be a bit slower than I would prefer.** 8 -     [|How to Use Sensory Integration at Home and in the Classroom] ** This is a link to an article that gives advice on how to integrate sensory activities into the classroom and in the home setting for children with Autism. I rate this article 5 out of 5 stars because it is a very specific resource and does well at providing information for this particular type of therapy. **  **---**   COMMUNITY BASED LEARNING PROJECT **For my community based learning project, I chose to create a lesson plan for a child with an IEP. I wasn't happy with the traditional lesson plan formats for this project, so I created a new format specifically for individualized lesson plans for students with exceptionalities. In this example, I chose a student who is 6 years old and has been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum disorder. I listed their strengths and weaknesses (challenges) directly on the lesson plan, so that they could be addressed within the lesson. I also included general and specific goals that wish to be met using this lesson and provided a space for reflection following the activity. In my Results & Reflections box, I hypothetically ran the lesson, and wrote down what I observed. The objectives and strengths/challenges came directly from the child's IEP. This lesson specifically would be helpful to reach the objectives listed in the child's IEP because it involves fine motor skills, visual learning, word recognition, and focused work.** **Here are the two best resources that I found for parents of children with Autism, and for teachers:** ** [] This is the foremost advocate for the study of Autism and is a great resource for information and news about the disability. **
 * __The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time__ by Mark Haddon is an incredible book if you want to truly get inside the mind of someone with Autism. I rate this book a 5 out of 5 because while it might be easy to get information about Autism, this book truly gives you the perspective. This book is a mystery that is written from a 15 year old Autistic boy’s point of view. By the end of the book you will begin thinking the same way that he does, and it is a very moving experience that is hard to describe. I recommend it to everyone. **
 * This video is about how a woman plays with her grandson who has Autism. There is a speech-language pathologist present who observes how they play together, and she offers tips and strategies to help engage and focus him during play. I rate this video 4 out of 5 stars because it offers some valuable interaction strategies that can be used by parents, caregivers, and teachers. **
 * I rate this video a 5 out of 5. It was made by a man and his seven year old nephew Jason, who has Autism. The video is mostly an explanation of what Autism is, the characteristics that are displayed, and the difference between Autism and “mental retardation.” The man does a good job explaining that not every child who is Autistic displays the same characteristics as his nephew, and that his video is not an “all-encompassing” source of information about Autism. He also talks a lot about Jason’s strengths and emphasizes that his struggles are not equated to stupidity. This video is only about six minutes long, but provides a ton of information in that amount of time. **

** [] This is the best resource I have found for information about children with Autism Spectrum disorder. The website provides thousands of activities for children with disabilities, and lists characteristics and strategies for specific disabilities. The link here is for their section on Autism. **