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PSY 3570: Advanced Autism Practicum
What
is the Advanced Autism Practicum?
The
Advanced Autism Practicum is a course designed to greatly advance
students’ skills in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) treatments
for children with autism. It is the highest level practicum course offered at
Western Michigan University. Students who have taken the regular and intermediate
practicum and show exemplary performance at the practicum site (Croyden Avenue
School) now have the opportunity to gain more experience.
What
will I do in the Advanced Autism Practicum?
In the Advanced
Autism Practicum you have the opportunity to write your very
own discrete trial procedure. Although all of the procedures
you have been using are beneficial to the children’s overall
development, it is difficult to tailor each procedure to each
child’s individual needs.
After identifying a deficit in your assigned child’s repertoire, you
will create a procedure similar to those found in the PPI classroom. Throughout
the semester you will implement and monitor this procedure. You will be responsible
for writing a paper about your experience and presenting your data to the Advanced
Autism Practicum TAs and the other practicum students.
Along with your very
own procedure, you will also get experience in handling “red
dots” which
involves solving problems with existing procedures. Handling problem
procedures and behaviors requires skills in performing functional
assessments. Therefore you will also practice functional assessment
interviews and create hypothetical behavioral interventions based
on those interviews during the weekly seminar.
In addition, you will
gain supervisory experience and learn how to provide feedback to
basic practicum students.
Who
can take the Advanced Autism Practicum?
The Advanced Autism
Practicum is for exemplary students who have been through both the
regular and intermediate practicum. By the time you reach the advanced
practicum, you will have gained a lot of responsibility. Certain
skills that you will need to successfully complete the advanced practicum
cannot be learned in one semester at Croyden.
Why
should I take the Advanced Autism Practicum?
One of the
reasons to take the Advanced Autism Practicum is to obtain more
experience at Croyden. By now you have fallen in love with Croyden
and are looking for every opportunity to stick around. The advanced
practicum provides the perfect opportunity to gain more experience
not only with discrete trial procedures, but also with other ABA
techniques such as functional assessments and creating new procedures
and sub-phases. Along with furthering your skills, you can teach
new practicum students those skills. This supervisory experience
is closer to the role you will be playing in the future as a behavior
analyst.
Advanced Practicum Syllabus
Responsibilities
Contact: CroydenADV@dickmalott.com
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