Well, now that the semester is over, I’ll get around to writing about it. I wanted to do this months ago, but I never did.
My schedule was very different this year. I had 2 block classes on Monday, and a block class on Wednesday night. I had clinic Tuesday and Thursday at 10am, 1pm, and 6pm plus meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. I didn’t have anything on Friday. It was very nice.
My first class was Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC). AAC is providing ways for people to communicate that can’t speak. It can be anything from using a computer to type, computer software with pictures to click that will speak, or pages with pictures and messages. The user points or clicks on the icon and the message is spoken (if using a computer) or the other person reads it. It’s a great way to open the doors of communication for those who cannot speak. I learned how to assess a person to determine if he qualifies for AAC and how to create an AAC system. There were several projects in the class. Every student’s project was a part of the whole. One project was to research quotes for various developmental disabilities to have on file for future use. Another project was to take a category and find a line drawing and a photograph of 10 items and make them in various sizes. This was helpful because there ended up being 28 different categories once everyone did their work. That will save a LOT of time when I need to use them since I won’t have to do all that work.
My second class was Autism Spectrum Disorders. It was taught by the same teacher that taught AAC. She was a great teacher, so it wasn’t too bad to have her for 5 hours a day. This was such an interesting class since autism is such a hot topic these days. I learned the different disorders in the spectrum, how to assess a person, and various intervention approaches. The projects in this class were similar to the projects in AAC in that each part was combined to form a great resource to have for the future.
My Wednesday night class was Research. I couldn’t take it through my department because of a schedule conflict (I was supposed to take this class last year, but couldn’t because of another schedule conflict). I ended up taking it through the education department. Let’s just say that it was a waste of my $1710. It wasn’t a waste of my time because we only met one hour out of the three (other than the last class where we met for 1 1/2 hours) and halfway through October the teacher canceled class for the rest of the semester. Her reason was so we could work on our research papers. I think I could have taught the class better than she did, and I haven’t even written a dissertation!! I’m thankful I learned how to write a review of the literature in undergrad, otherwise I would have struggled alot with this class.
In a nutshell, those were my classes for the semester. I’ll write another post on my interesting clinic experiences.