Blog 20: Exit Interview

Content:

(1) What is your essential question and answers?  What is your best answer and why?

My essential question is "What is the best way for a speech pathologist to help a child with Autism?"

• My first answer was "Group therapy treats challenges in social skills that are present in a child with Autism" My second answer is "A speech pathologist can integrate a family-centered  strategy to help a child with Autism."My third answer is "Enhancing IEP goals depending on  their baseline".
• My best answer is my first answer because through my mentorship got to see speech pathologist using group therapy the most. I was able to form this answer around my mentorship and I felt that it outshines the other answers because I was able to find research and actually see it in action through my mentorship.

(2) What process did you take to arrive at this answer?
My mentorship consisted of helping out during a group therapy, because of that I felt I had more experience seeing what is done in a group therapy. I also found a lot of research that made me more convinced of that my best answer was my first answer, like an article from the Cal Poly database titled "Teaching Pragmatics to language disabled children" and "An investigation of social Behaviors of primary school aged children"

(3) What problems did you face?  How did you resolve them?

At the beginning of the year, I changed my topic from health and safety to special education and I had a really hard time finding a mentor that would be willing to help me. I talked to Mrs. Ortega and some of my peers about the problem I had. Xena told me about Casa Colina and I ended up finding that they had a volunteer program. From there I met speech pathologist who worked their and I found my mentor.

(4) What are the two most significant sources you used to answer your essential question and why?

ʺGuidlines for Speech-Language Pathologist in Diagnosis, Assesment, &Treatment of Autism Spectrum Disorders Across the Life Span.ʺ American Speech-Language-Hearing Association. 2014. Web. 19 Feb. 2014
Littleboy, Lynda, Micheal Reed, and Jill Thompson. "Special Educational Needs in Early Years Care and Education". New York: Harcourt Publishers Limited, 2000. Print.

• This article was from the American Speech- Language- Hearing Association and I felt provided me with extensive detail on what a speech pathologist has to be doing when they are taking their patient through diagnosis, assesment, and providing treatment.
• This was a book that I thought was important because the care that speech pathologist can provide in the early years of the life of a child is a big impact that can help a child communicate; especially in a child with Autism.

Be prepared with evidence and specific examples to support any response.  It is also significant to cite sources as you explain.