Welcome to my blog, fellow knowledge seekers!
My name is Robert Pangilinan, and I am honored that you have chosen to view my exciting blog about the world of autism.
Before we dive into the core of my Senior Project Proposal, here is a little background of my life:
Yes, it is true. I am currently a senior in BASIS Scottsdale, one who is already feeling the serious conditions from Senioritis. Yet I carry on with my head held high, because like the great Walt Disney had once said, "Keep moving forward!" And yes, I like Disney, so prepare for all the Disney gifs.
When I am not in my bed sleeping all day, you may see me occasionally dancing in my room alone while listening to K-pop music or simply feeling very hipster as I take aesthetic shots of a chair with a cup to demonstrate how deep and interesting I am. No I am not crazy, just a little weird. But really, I do enjoy music and photography, both of which make me who I am.
Introductions aside, I want to give a little explanation for my title and background. The reason I choose the puzzle as the overlying theme for my project is due to it being the symbol for Autism Awareness in the United States. This is because autism is a very puzzling condition with many of the inflicted feeling isolated from society due to their struggle to 'fit in.' One of my side goals is to break the stigma surrounding children with autism, showing the rest of the world (or at least a couple of people) that we can progress past this stereotype and see the beauty and intelligence of these children.
For my Senior Project, I will be interning at the Southwest Autism Research & Resource Center (SARRC) with my on-site mentor Dr. Christopher J. Smith, who has kindly accepted me into their program so that I can help support the advisors in their screening projects as well as provide assistance in diagnostic services. It is one of their main goals to screen cases early in order to get a better diagnosis for the patient, so in the future, they can provide better lifetime support for individuals with autism and their families. Through observing their screening sessions, I hope to put the pieces together so that I can find a definitive or effective way to educate children with autism.
Wow, congratulations! You made it to the end of my first post. I would like to thank you all for being here and listening to my exciting project. I will have more to talk to about in February, so be sure to subscribe if you want to get all the details. I can not wait and hope to hear from you all soon!
Wow Robert, nicely done! I really liked your introduction paragraph (as I've told you before), but I just thought it embodied you so well along with that perfect touch of humor. But besides that, I think it's great that you want to improve the ways that autistic children are being educated. I hope you are able to find what you're looking for at the SARRC. When you say that you will be helping to screen projects as well as assisting in diagnostic services, what does this mean/entail exactly? Additionally, since your main goal is to find a way to best educate autistic children, who are your intended recipients or audience for this research? Meaning, are you providing this information for psychologists, teachers, parents, or a combination of them all? Keep up the great work!
ReplyDeleteHi Kiri! Thanks for being the first commenter on my very first post on my very first blog. I appreciate all the compliments. Please tell me more! Just kidding. But for real, the effort is quite reassuring and motivating for me.
DeleteTo answer your question, my role in SARRC has yet to be specifically defined, but I will give you the guidelines my on-site mentor told me. I will be playing an important part in the diagnosis by observing certain clients and documenting/filing forms that detail the observations made by the advisers. Most of my participation in this project will be done on the side, but Dr. Smith has allowed me to observe settings when my hours spent documenting the clients are completed.
My targeted audience is really for anyone that can relate to this experience, like having a sibling/relative or student that may have autism. I want to help provide information for others to know more about children with autism and the ways that we can help them throughout their lives.
I hope my reply answered your questions! Thank you for commenting and hope you stay tuned for my next post. Bye!
Hi Robert! I really enjoyed reading your first post. I did not know you were such a Disney enthusiast. I look forward to the continued Disney GIFs and I hope that you will share with us some of your photography throughout the coming weeks.
ReplyDeleteI look forward to hearing how your project unfolds. Have you always had an interest in special education? Is this something that you plan to pursue in college? I was an ABA therapist for a little boy who had autism and worked primarily in the classroom. Throughout my observations, I continually noticed how difficult it was for the teacher to manage not only her large class but also the little boy who needed additional support. I think having more knowledge about autism would benefit teachers, parents, siblings, and peers!
Hi Ms. Conner! Thanks for replying to my post. And yes, Disney gifs will be a prominent theme in most of my posts, so prepare yourself.
DeleteAlthough the idea of college is creeping into my life very soon, I am still unsure what I want to pursue in college as of now. For a long time, medicine has been one of the main careers that interested me since I was little, so I want to stay along those lines for now.
As for special education, it wasn't one that I thought of pursuing in college, but more to raise awareness of and show the importance of it. It's something that I want to help with, and show everyone else that autism is a big issue, but their are also ways to help the people with autism.
Hello Robert! This sounds like a really interesting project. I was wondering, how specifically are you going to go about educating people about autism in a attempt to remove/ reduce the stigma surrounding it, and what techniques are you planning to use? In my experience with my Gold Award Project, getting a message out to the public in a strong and easy to understand way can be difficult, so I was wondering what methods you were planning to use to educate people.
ReplyDeleteI am looking forward to hearing more about your project!
Hello Serena! Thanks for replying to my very first post! I am glad you're interested in my project.
DeleteFor my project, I personally won't be allowed to educate or help teach the children at the research facility. I can, however, observe the sessions with an experienced adviser that does the actual diagnosing and educating. In my proposal, I have researched ideas that can be/are implemented in many autism research facilities like SARRC, so I will see if the methods, like the Peer Network System, are implemented.
As for educating the people, we will see how far I can progress in my project first. I feel that communicating the importance of my project to my audience will be slowly implemented when starting the presentations. But, I will keep that in mind. Thank you!
I hoped that answered your questions! Stay tuned for my next post to find out more. Bye!
Hi Robert! I'm really excited to hear more about your project; it seems like something that is both fascinating scientifically as well as extremely important socially.Will you will be teaching autistic children in your senior project, or is it more focused on developing an appropriate teaching method from the screening and diagnosis you will be observing. I can't wait to see how your project goes!
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah! I'm glad that you find my project both interesting and inspiring. It's something that I think is very important, but also very neglected at times.
DeleteIn my comment with Serena's post, I'm personally not allowed to teach the children with autism because I have no experience, and they require professional teachers to educate the. I will be doing more of the second part of your question, where I will observe the screening and diagnosis to find an appropriate teaching method for the children. I'm very excited and I can't wait to start.
I hope that answered your questions! Bye!
Hi, Robert. I'm one of the 9th graders that is interested in hearing more about your project. I think this is a very strong project that you can continue with after your final presentation. You said that you were going to develop ways to help autistic children learn. How are you planning to test out an idea if you can't teach the children yourself? Do you have any ideas about what methods you might want to research? I think you can go many directions and I can't wait to see what you have planned. Good Luck!
ReplyDeleteHi Olivia! I am very excited to hear that you are as interested as I am in developing my project. Quite inspiring really!
DeleteBut straight to the point, for this project, I already have researched specific methods that have been used in special education such as the Peer Network System, which you can learn more about by reading my SRP proposal on the top right of the web page.
With this information, I will attempt in observing the types of methods used and later choose which one is more effective by keeping track of the improvements of the children.
I hope that may have answered your question! But, I really am pleased to see that you like my blog. Stay tuned to learn more and have a wonderful day! Bye!
Hi Robert. Autism fascinates and I would like to learn not only about autism itself, but also topics surrounding autism such as special education. I'm very interested to see where you take this project.
ReplyDeleteHi Maurice! I am glad that you have taken an interest in my Senior Project! I hope this will inspire you to pursue one for yourself in a near future.
DeleteAs for topics surrounding autism, I would suggest that you skim a bit from my Prior Research in my SRP proposal to learn more about other specific information that may interest you.
There you will find topics about certain methods that have been implemented in the past, and the potential for new methods in the future. It will be a fun read I promise!
Otherwise, I am glad you read my first blog. Hope you stay tuned for more information and have a wonderful day! Bye!
Hello, Robert! Your SRP is particularly interesting me as I've always been interested in psychology and the workings of the mind, particularly disorders. I've worked with children who've been diagnosed with autism in the library and at other volunteering events that span over the course of a month or two. That being said, I've been lucky enough to interact with and even become friends with them. Following your project will give me more insight as to how to better converse and interact with these kids and others with similar disorders. I do have a question: do you plan to build on the PEC System or come up with a completely different approach?
ReplyDeleteHi Fajr! Glad to see you're interested in my project. Psychology is also one of the most interesting subjects I studied in BASIS, and I'm glad you feel the same way.
DeleteIt really depends on the approach my advisers take on educating the children. In my proposal, I suggested that the PEC system was one of the methods most commonly used to teach children, but other techniques may be applied. Though I can't answer your question right now, I will make sure to find the answer in the future.
Thank you for commenting on my blog! Stay tuned for more information in the future. Bye!
Hey Robert,
ReplyDeleteYour Senior Research Project was very inspiring. My brother Sergio volunteered at SAARC, and he said it was a very eye-opening experience. I am interested in learning about autism, and the perspective of the diagnosis procedure. Thank you so much for doing this.
Hi Joanna! I'm so thrilled to hear that you thought my project was inspiring. It makes all the work put into this project worth it. I will make sure to post more about the diagnosis procedure to help you learn more about my project.
DeleteThank you for commenting! Stay tuned for more information in the future. Bye!
Hi Robert. I'm looking forward to seeing the methods you deploy in educating children with autism and the further research on the condition. Here is my question: in what ways are you going to gather data on more effective ways to educate children with autism, as it would be a rather difficult concept to gauge.
ReplyDeleteHi William! I'm so happy to see that you're interested in my blog. Autism is a very puzzling disorder that still has vague answers to what can actually help, and it is important for me to understand that maybe the solution I may find will still be debatable.
DeleteThe main problem is that gathering data will not be from my personal account. I cannot, personally, work the children unless I have some sort of qualifications. Most of the data I'll gather will be from my advisers observations of the best methods (through experimentation) or from what I can observe through the screening secession.
Sorry if I didn't answer your question, but further research will be applied once I progress further into my project.
Thank you for commenting on my blog! Stay tuned for more information in the future. Bye!
How's it going, Robert? So I believe this question is for you. It's from Mary Calhoun:
ReplyDeleteI am excited to see where this project takes you! Is there any specific reason why you chose autism as your senior research project? Also, is there any specific age range of children that you will be working with?
Hi Kiri! And thank you Mary for asking your question! I'm glad that you're as excited as I am to research more on the puzzle of autism.
DeleteAs for why I chose this project, I wanted to work on something that had some correlation to psychology. Though psychology is not a subject I will pursue in the future, it was a subject that always interested me. Additionally, working with children is something that I've always wanted to do because I love to help nurture and care for younger generation.
For the specific range, I believe that the patients we will be seeing are mostly children from 0-4 years, but that may change depending on the clients that set up for appointments.
Thank you Kiri and Mary for the wonderful comment! I will make sure to inform you more on the whole process. So stay tuned for more information in the future. Bye!
Hey Robert! I think that this idea is magnificent. You are attending to a topic that many people are aware of and I think that you are making a great decision by doing it. I wish you the best of luck!
ReplyDeleteHi Aria! Thanks for commenting on my blog!
DeleteI hope that people will be more aware and more willing to act i the future to help children with autism. It is a matter that the public is aware of, but must do more to help with. Glad you agree with me!
Hi Robert! I'm am one of the ninth graders following your SRP. Your project fascinates me as my soccer team volunteers at a program called special olympics where we teach and play soccer with children with special needs. I do have a question-- when you were talking about eye contact correlation with autism, can you formally diagnose autism after this test or are other tests required?
ReplyDeleteHi Olivia! Thanks for commenting on my blog! I'm very excited to see that your soccer team helps volunteer in programs that teach children with special needs. That's amazing!
DeleteThe eye tracking test is one of a series of tests to get a head start on how a child may be developing cognitively. But, there other tests like the Mullen and ADOS tests (that I will discuss in my Week 2 post) that further test the limits of what a child can do at the age they're at. It's really quite interesting and I suggest you research more if you want to.
Thanks again Olivia! I'm glad you're taking an interest in my project. Hope you stay tuned for more in the future. Bye!