Hello friends! Glad to see you all back! And to all the 9th and 10th graders following my blog, I hope you had a wonderful break. Feel free to talk about under the comments below! No seriously, I get bored sometimes.....anyways, let's get back to my Senior Research Project.
The first day has been quite similar to my intense Thursday last week. Completing those Early Intervention files is no joke, and I had to finish those before the week ended, so that Chris (my on-site mentor) had that information ready to better help the clients coming in in the future. Through this long tedious process of entering all the information, I learned a little more about different programs that parents enrolled their children. The checklist indicated different aspects of what needed to be worked on and if the child was getting any treatment or help in that specific area of growth and development. Like if there was a child who was taking Speech Therapy, the parents would indicate in the checklist what programs they attended, the amount of time attended, and a rate of how successful the treatment was. This is especially helpful as a reference for other parents to see what kind of programs that they can enroll their own children in, giving SARRC the necessary resources to assist the clients.
One example of a program for helping children with autism was called Dynamite Therapy.
Here is a link to their website: https://www.dynamitetherapy.com
This specific therapy program assist in many different aspects of development within children, like Physical Therapy, Speech Therapy, Developmental Special Education, etc. It's a great place to help further develop a child's physical and mental growth if they're struggling or if they do have autism.
Last thing I wanted to talk about was a meeting I attended for a research paper that SARRC has been doing for a while now. It's part of the GetSet Early Model which aims to provide evidence for the benefits of Early Intervention and monitoring of a child to better seek proper treatment. We sat in a call from UC San Diego (because SARRC partnered with them) and talked about a few details about the paper, like how the CSBS forms have been going and certain data concerning if we have enough clients to have an accurate sample size. Though I felt irrelevant during the whole meeting, Dr. Smith reassured me that my help was valuable to the completion of the study because all the forms needed to be implemented into a document to be sent in the future (so not completely useless, yay!!). Additionally, we talked a bit of Stephen's research (one of the researchers at the facility that watches over me) and it's progress. He wanted to see if there were any initial differences between males and females scores on the CSBS forms, which I found really fascinating and at the same time overwhelming.
I covered most of the week, but I feel like there is a lot more to do in the future. I will prepare myself for the work ahead (ahh!). Thanks again for coming over to my blog! See you next week. Bye!
Hi, Robert. There are so many different programs that kids may go into. Is there a reason why parents have to mention where their kids have gone besides other parents knowing what some kids have done? Is it possible that the child has a mental illness like ADHD as well with autism? Is there an age limit for the kids involved? I can't wait to hear more about it.
ReplyDeleteHi Olivia! The idea is that by giving SARRC the information about the specific programs they've enrolled their child in it allows for more opportunities for other parents who don't know what's best for their kids. SARRC is a research center, but a resource one as well. Most of these programs are oriented towards children with autism, but like programs above, sometimes it may deal with others like ADHD or other mental disabilities found in children. I don't really know the specifics of each program enough to know which age group is applicable, but I'm sure it targets the point where children develop the most.
DeleteThanks for your question!
Hi Robert. Trust me your work at SAARC has not been irrelevant as I am sure you have accomplished more in one day than I have the whole past week, as I have been in Costa Rica on spring break. You mentioned something about the GetSet early model. Is there any evidence that diagnosing autism earlier can lead to better treatment options? If so, is the treatment for early diagnosed patients much different from later diagnosed patients? Thanks.
ReplyDeleteHi Olivia! Wow Costa Rica! I've always wanted to travel, and Costa Rica is up there on the list. And don't doubt your accomplishments, you go to BASIS for crying out loud. Anyways, I'm glad you had a great time during your Spring Break. There is actually tons of research being done here at SARRC that is supported by UC Sand Diego that help prove the benefits of the GetSet Early Model. At the moment, researchers are working here to finalize a paper to provide more evidence that support their hypothesis. I actually sat through the meeting where they talked a lit about the project (in my post above). In general, it's better to diagnose a child early because it will give us a chance to provide support and treatment for them during the whole process, which is beneficial for the child and the parents. It will be harder to treat patients at a later age because they would have gone through the process of mental development during childhood that might not change.
DeleteThanks for your comment! And keep up the good work!
Hey, Robert, so another hectic week, eh? Better to have too much to do than not enough, I think. So you mentioned that Stephen's research involved looking for any initial differences between males and females scores on the CSBS forms...did he find any? Seeing as I'm looking at gender-based differences in concussions, it's always interesting to see what other categories males and females differ in. Have a great Week 6! :D
ReplyDeleteHi Kiri! I knew this question was going to come up. Maybe...besides the point. Actually, in Stephen's study, the scores on CSBS forms were different by an average score of 1 point, with females scoring slightly above males. The difference, as they said, wasn't great, but enough to take notice and mention in his paper. At the moment, we're gathering more CSBS forms to see if the evidence proves to be consistent.
DeleteThanks for the comment Kiri!
Hi Robert! I just got back from my spring break, but unfortunately I don't have any interesting stories for you; I pretty much did nothing...
ReplyDeleteAnyway, I was wondering, how exactly are they studying the benefits of early intervention and monitoring?
Have fun and good luck with all the work!
Hi Serena! Glad you had a (fun?) Spring Break! It's fun just to relax and do nothing sometimes. At SARRC, they have this three-year plan which allows children to come in and get evaluated for free for the first three years of the child's life. This helps our facility track whether, if any, improvements are shown when they get older. They accumulate a large enough sample size as years go by, so the data seems to be more accurate as more time goes on.
DeleteThanks for your comment Serena!
Hi Robert! I had a great spring break, and I hope you did too! From your research so far, do you think that an early diagnosis can help them find treatment options? Are you specifically focusing on teaching material in a classroom or things like behavioral or speech therapy?
ReplyDeleteHi Mary! Glad you had a fun Spring Break! I most definitely agree that an early diagnosis can help find better treatment options. By being able to see the areas a child struggles, we can provide better resources that can tend to their individual issues. Though my target project might change, my idea was focusing more on possible teaching methods in classroom, but it might veer more towards programs and therapies.
DeleteThanks for the question Mary!
Hi, Robert! I went to San Francisco over break and ate some really delicious Ghirardelli ice cream with a view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Not super happy to be bombarded with mocks and AP stress, but it's the BASIS lifestyle. Your research seems to be going quite well; did you happen to find any statistics or possible conclusions on initial differences between males and females? The Dynamite Therapy website is pretty interesting, too. It's amazing how many methods there are to analyze autism both in early and later stages.
ReplyDeleteHi Fajr! San Francisco! I love going there when I visit my relatives in California! I'm glad you visited the bridge and ate very fancy ice cream. I wish I ate fancy ice cream :(. It's a shame that you had to stress about APs, but no worries, you'll do great! In the project, Stephen found an average score difference of 1 between males and females with females scoring slightly higher than males. It wasn't an enormous difference, but it was enough to spark some interest. Other than that, I don't have the full details of his paper, but that's a conclusion drawn from the study.
DeleteThanks for the comment Fajr!
Hey Robert, I want to a conference for model UN during Spring Break and also went to LA. Can a child be diagnosed with two mental conditions? Anyways, nice job so far!
ReplyDeleteHi Joanna! Oh that sounds really fancy. "A conference for model UN" sounds so official, I like it. Also, being a LA-born child, I must say what a good choice to spend a Spring Break. It is quite possible (from the research I just did at this very moment). I'm not really sure exactly because I didn't really have the question in my mind, but it's possible that some mental illnesses have components that share similar traits to other disorders. Hopefully that answered your question.
DeleteThank you Joanna for your comment!
Hey, Robert. My break was pretty relaxing, but I'd like to ask in what ways does SARRC work with programs such as Dynamite Therapy? I'm looking forward to the next update, as this project has been fantastic so far.
ReplyDeleteHi Will! Relaxing is better stressing! That's what I would say when I'm bored doing nothing. Now to your question. AT SARRC, they don't have a partnership with these programs (because they do have their own), rather they have need to keep track of where a child is going, and whether the program is working for them. This allows for the researchers here to understand the possible resources we can provide to better support and treat the child.
DeleteThanks for your comment Will!
I hope you had a wonderful break too Robert! For the category that mentions how successful the speech therapy was, how would that be evaluated? Since every child with autism is different, would it be relative to each child, or is there an universal standard that everyone follows? See you next week!
ReplyDeleteHi Sachin! Glad you had a wonderful break as well! I'm very happy to see this question because it was one that made me think as well. Children's ability to speak and when to speak can vary (like a lot). This is why in the CSBS checklist the Speech category's score isn't weighted as heavily as the other sections in the the list. So if a child passes every section of the checklist, but fails the Speech category they still pass the test. The reason is (as told by my mentor) that it's not easy to assess a child's verbal ability because all children learn at a different rate. So there is no universal standard, but there is a tracking sheet of a child's improvement over time. To put it simply, if a child starts formulating words rather than just sounds, that is seen as an improvement. Depending on where the child was before, anything above that level is an improvement.
DeleteThanks for your question Sachin!
Hi Robert! Sounds like an intense week! Looking at the checklists, were there some types of therapy that were more common than others? If people are more likely to do one type of therapy than another, why do you think that is? Can't wait to hear (read) more!
ReplyDeleteHi Sarah! Intense is the best word to describe it. But it's nice to finally be on the other side of those files. As for the most common therapy, I think it would be the Speech therapy. This may be incorrect, but from all the files I had to go through, the majority of them showed interest in improving verbal abilities. Additionally, most parents, if enrolling their child in a program, pushed towards helping in multiple areas for the child. So there wasn't always one area of work, there were multiple areas.
DeleteThanks for the question Sarah!
Hey Robert! Your work is still continuing to amaze me. I have no concerns or questions at the moment. So keep up the amazing work!
ReplyDelete