The Fulton School
For the first three weeks of my project I’m working at Continuum Education and Therapy. They do education and therapy for young children with learning disabilities and autism. On the first day, they were having a staff training day so they didn’t have any students there. One of the parents couldn’t find a babysitter so continuum offered to babysit from 1-4 for them. I helped one other person hang out with the two brothers. I spent the afternoon asking and answering lots of questions and playing make-believe with the younger boy. Yesterday, I shadowed some of the behavioral therapists there as they were running class for their group of kids. I found it fascinating to watch the therapists interact with the kids. The most important skill when doing this job is having patience. Repetition of words and tasks is key to help the kids remember them. One girl that was there is deaf and autistic and so the therapists were spending a lot of time using sign language to help reinforce certain concepts to her. Sign language is important with the other kids too because many of them struggle with speech. After spending just one afternoon around them, I can remember a lot of the signs that they used. Overall I’ve gotten a better understanding of what goes on here and I’ve learned a lot about child development and behavior development. Despite spending most of the day watching, it’s fascinating and exciting to be here.
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You said you shadowed behavioral therapists, and I was wondering if there are other types of therapist and if so what do they specialized in?
At Continuum there aren’t any other types of therapist really. I’m not positive, but one girl might be a Speech-Language Pathologist which means she specializes in speech therapy with the kids that are less verbal. She also works a lot with one girl who is deaf to teach her sign language.