Essay on Special Needs: Autism

I conducted my observation at one of the special needs school in New York, called New York Center for Autism Charter School, with the address 433 E 100th St, New York, NY 10029, USA, phone +1 212-860-2580. The observation took place on November 20, 2017, at 10 am in the morning. The observation took place in the grade 9, in a class of 18 students. Every student in the class has their study table positioned at a distance of 15 inches away; the students are positioned in a manner that a teacher will have an easy look at the activity of every student. The class room had two teachers one teacher aides, and the one special need pediatrician serves every two-grade class for any medical emergencies.

The person under the observation was Andrew, he is a male aged 14 years old. When I entered the classroom, I found the children being calm; I excited them with songs to make them active before familiarizing myself to them, I was comfortable with the environment since it was clean and I did not meet any resistance from the children. I felt happy and a sense of humor during orientation because of their warm reception and optimism they reflected on their faces.

The nature of a child with the special needs is observed when they interact with others. The Andrews behavior showed that he has autism; he had difficulties when interacting with the rest of the children in the class. He expressed some ambiguous facial expressions. With his condition, Andrew was able to perform some activities, such as making of the shredded flower bouquet, painting, identifying items in the classrooms and physical exercises. While the activities that Andrew found difficult to perform include, reading of long words. Andrew shows some relative difficulties in identifying some secondary colors. In these observation activities, the teacher offered the Andrew some assistance since he had no confidence without his teachers presence, but other children did not offer home any assistance. The child did not appear to be labeled, maybe because he his condition was average.

I observed some of the accommodation facilities, where a child can sleep for a shorter time or overnight in case of an emergency case. The school is modernized and equipped with facilities, for learning and adapting the normal life, to accommodate special needs children with autism. The specialized equipment was used with the children under the supervision of their teacher and volunteers.

According to the facial reaction of Andrew and how he responded to the learning materials, shows how much he properly attended to his needs. The teachers can use videos that will make the children adapt to the normal life, video shows more physical activities that a child can copy and adapt to them. Other changes in the physical setting might include making painting the walls with the learning materials were kids could learn quickly, such as colors, letters, and wordings.

I will introduce a program of prizing the children after every lesson; this will motivate them to catch up with the normal learning and improve their grade.

Reference

National Research Council. (2001). Educating children with autism. National Academies Press.