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Reaction Paper #1: Understanding Autism

1) The document summarizes a reaction paper about a seminar on understanding autism presented by Ms. Diane Joyce N. Tacan. 2) Key points from the seminar included that autism is becoming more common, affecting 1 in 68 children, and that it involves social and sensory issues as well as repetitive behaviors. 3) Ms. Tacan demonstrated teaching techniques like prompt hierarchies that help autistic children learn to function independently.

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Monina Jones
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56 views

Reaction Paper #1: Understanding Autism

1) The document summarizes a reaction paper about a seminar on understanding autism presented by Ms. Diane Joyce N. Tacan. 2) Key points from the seminar included that autism is becoming more common, affecting 1 in 68 children, and that it involves social and sensory issues as well as repetitive behaviors. 3) Ms. Tacan demonstrated teaching techniques like prompt hierarchies that help autistic children learn to function independently.

Uploaded by

Monina Jones
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Jones, Luzenne S.

BS-PSYC IV Special Topics M 6:00-9:00 PM March 2, 2020

Reaction Paper #1: Understanding Autism

On February 17, 2020, we had a seminar on Understanding Autism conducted by


Ms. Diane Joyce N. Tacan. This topic helped me further understand the meaning of
Autism from the perspective of a special education teacher. Knowing the facts on
Autism can help aspiring psychometricians on the board exam since Autism is a part of
the board subject: Abnormal Psychology. Since I am planning to take the
psychometrician board exam, it is to my advantage that I can l learn more about certain
disorders in a more deeper context. Since I know someone who has autism, I was able
to relate to a lot of what was discussed by Ms. Diane. My cousin works as a caregiver of
a girl with autism and he has told me stories of his experience caring for the girl. He told
me that it was a stressful job because he was the one to hold her whenever she had
tantrums and got scratch marks all over his arms. Whenever he would accompany her
and her mother to the mall, the girl would make a scene in public. She had to be
watched carefully at all times and, just as Ms. Diane explained to the class, she had to
follow a specific schedule of daily activities or else she would throw a tantrum. It's even
a struggle to introduce the girl to new people because she doesn’t want to get talk if she
sees unfamiliar faces. She is an example of a person with level 3 severe autism who
needs very substantial support to be able to get through daily life. Autism disorder is
becoming more rampant over the years. It is an alarming statistic that there was an
increase from 1 in 150 children to have autism in 2007 to 1 in 68 children to have autism
in 2019. This means that there is a need to educate people more on this disorder so
that people will be more aware and open-minded to the signs and symptoms of persons
with autism. Ms. Diane mentioned in her discussion that there are misnomers about
autism: that people with autism look different and that autism goes hand in hand with
cerebral palsy. There are people who still misunderstand autism so debunking false
beliefs about autism can help spread awareness about the disorder. Even though the
false belief that there is a vaccine-autism link was already debunked in 1998, there are
still mothers who refuse to have their children vaccinated and this remains a
controversy even to this day. I learned that children with autism are sensitive to sensory
input. They have not just social but sensory concerns. Their sensory integration issues
make it hard for them to make sense of sensory input. For example, they can feel an
apparent indifference to pain/temperature, have an adverse response to specific sounds
or textures, can excessively smell or touch objects, or even have a visual fascination
with lights and movements. In addition to their hyper or hypo reactivity to sensory input,
you can observe their way of socially interacting and communicating with others as well
as their restricted repetitive patterns of behavior, interests and activities that deviate
from the normal. My interpretation of their behavior is that they seem like they’re in their
own world hence their use of he or she when referring to self. Social deficiencies are the
primary distinguishing characteristic of people with autism disorder. An important
neurochemical that can help children is oxytocin which is given to improve their ability to
remember and process information with emotion content and plays a role in how they
bond with others. Building relationships with people with autism spectrum disorder is a
struggle and requires patience and dedication in order to gain their trust. One way is to
target the triggers of the aggressive or disruptive behavior that interferes with the child's
ability to learn. The trigger must be stopped once the child feels agitated before it
escalates to a peak as demonstrated in the escalation cycle. For learning to take place,
children with autism should be approached with a step by step process in order to
develop necessary attending skills through a prompt hierarchy. This process can be
tedious but the goal is to be able to teach the child how to function and behave properly
without having to be prompted. The Reach Center, where Ms. Diane taught, made use
of the STEP method or the Special Therapy and Education Program Early intervention
to deal with each individual's skills step by step in respect to his or her spectrum of
capabilities. The goal of this method is to successfully integrate the individual into the
real world by preparing him or her through individualized and systematic practice such
as using simulations of real-world settings. Early intervention and naturalistic teaching
strategies holds the most hope when dealing with these children.

Ms. Diane Joyce N. Tacan was an excellent speaker and was very
knowledgeable and passionate about the topic. Her voice was also very clear and
soothing to hear. I really enjoyed her discussion and was very interested in her topic on
Autism. We were able to gain insight about her experience as a special education
teacher and educational therapist for children with autism at REACH Center. She gave
us an idea of what the classroom setup was like in the special education setting. The
classroom had blankets for calming and vestibular balls for the children to exercise their
senses. Ms. Diane is also an interactive speaker because she demonstrated to us how
she deals with the autistic children by asking for volunteers from the class. She acted
out for us examples of her work at the REACH Center. She showed us how to calm the
child when he or she is too active by squeezing lotion on their arms. She taught us how
to control the child when he or she is throwing a tantrum by holding their legs in a tight
grip with thighs and crossing their arms. Lastly, she showed us how she does the
prompt hierarchy by demonstrating a physical prompt in where she holds her arm up
and makes the child tap her arm instead of grabbing their favorite food which is used as
a reinforcement. The goal is for the child to gradually learn how to approach and
request for the food on their own. Ms. Diane emphasized in her discussion that the work
that she does takes patience but she gains the emotional reward of giving children with
autism a chance in life. I believe that Ms. Diane inspired the whole class and made an
impact on us because she let us in on her experience and many of us came to realize
the essence of psychology in our society. I think many students look up to Ms. Diane
and respects her for the work that she does. The world is a better place with people like
her who put in the dedication that she does into her work to better the lives of people
suffering from a mental disorder. I felt emotional when she showed us the picture of the
child with autism and what he looked like grown up because I could see that she was
very proud of the progress she helped him make. When Ms. Diane explained to us how
she does classroom simulations of real-world settings such as church and cinema
movie theater for the children to practice their behavior before going to the actual place,
I felt very sympathetic towards these children. I thought to myself that it is very sad that
these children struggle to live a normal life that many people just take for granted.

I gained many personal learnings from Ms. Diane's discussion on Autism that I
will apply to my own life. Since I am planning to take the psychometrician board exam, I
can use this knowledge to my advantage. Knowing the basics of mental disorders such
as autism can help me become more knowledgeable in the field of abnormal
psychology. I learned that dealing with children with autism is a step by step process.
This process is integral to early intervention. When prompting desired behavior from the
child, awards must be proportionate. The goal is for the behavior to be generalized to
every situation so that there is no more need for a reward. If ever I decide I want to
become a volunteer for children with autism, I already have an idea of what needs to be
done in order to adjust to their learning style. I learned that autistic savants are really
cool that they are skilled in nonsocial domains. Autistic savants should be respected
because of their unique abilities to do extraordinary things like play piano without being
taught or draw a city skyline from memory only. I can contribute to helping children with
autism by extending my knowledge to the people who are judgmental to these type of
children so that they may come to the realization that having a mental disorder does not
make them less of a person. Children with autism should be respected because they
are intelligent and unique individuals who deserve a chance to be integrated into our
society. 

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