by Emily Casella
I am currently working for an applied behavior analysis company and I will never forget the experiences that I have had in the past six months. As a behavioral technician, I work with children and adults on the autism spectrum. I help them complete certain tasks and programs as they learn to become more independent. I used to work at a daycare; this job is completely new for me. It was out of my comfort zone to apply for a job like this and I never thought I would actually get it, but here we are.
I work Monday through Friday and currently have one client. He is 25 years-old, which may sound odd because I am only 19, but we get along pretty well. During our sessions, we go through a variety of tasks and programs such as watching The Office, listening to Harry Potter the audiobook, discussing age-appropriate topics, going through emergency versus non-emergency and role-play scenarios, exercising, checking the laundry basket to see if it is full or empty and doing laundry, and some game time. All of these must be completed during our two-hour long session; consistency is vital because the client must understand that there are no loopholes. Sometimes, however, he does not want to do the programs or tasks. For example, there have been many sessions when he does not want to do a program such as emergency versus non-emergency scenarios. During this program, which involves sharing my screen over Zoom, the client must tell me if the shared picture displays an emergency or non-emergency, and what he would do in that situation. We complete eight of these scenarios in each session.
After completing a couple he may say, “No, I do not want to do anymore and I want you to stop screen sharing.”
Usually, my response is, “We have to finish all of our scenarios in order for us to move on to what is next in our schedule.”
This can go back and forth for a while, but the key is to make sure he eventually finishes the scenarios.
Challenges come all the time with this job. As I mentioned before, sometimes clients do not want to complete programs during the sessions. Some challenges come with using Zoom. In a session last week he lost internet connection, which logged him off of our Zoom meeting; this resulted in my texting him and asking him to re-join. Responding to my texts, he said that he was not receiving the link in his email, which he was. This took up the rest of our session time. I texted him and told him we would talk about it the next day. While talking about it the next day, I reminded him that he needs to re-join if he loses connection.
Compromising can actually be very helpful for both him and I. In one session, he asked if it would be possible to split emergency versus non-emergency scenarios in half which means we would complete four scenarios, do a different program, and then finish up the other four. At first, I was hesitant to agree to this, but I did and it has been going amazing! One day, I will eventually work towards having him complete all eight in a row, but for right now this was a great compromise.
One of the most rewarding parts of this job is seeing the progress being made. Recently, I have experienced this with him in many different aspects. Notably, he has been doing extremely well with discussing age-appropriate topics. His mother emailed me recently and said that she really enjoys the conversations she has been having with him. His attention skills have improved as well, specifically when listening to Harry Potter and watching The Office.
Just yesterday, he answered all the questions correctly during Harry Potter and watched The Office–which is very rare.
He was even excited that he answered all the questions and said to me, “Emily, I got all the questions right!”
To this, I responded, “Yes! That is so awesome!”
I really enjoy all aspects of the job; even the toughest days bring some joy to me. I have learned so much and continue to learn every day. I am so glad that I reached beyond my comfort zone and tried something new. Although this may not be what I want to pursue in my future career, I am enjoying the experiences that come along with this job. I am beyond grateful to have been able to grow personally and professionally within these experiences.
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