Hello friends! Glad to see you back to view my weekly post about my first encounter with my SRP site! I had quite an interesting and knowledgeable time that I can't just keep it to myself, so prepare yourselves to get educated (or basically learn more about what happened on my first few days).
My first day, which was this Wednesday, was spent touring the SARRC facility. At first it seemed kind of small on the outside, but upon entering, the room seemed to widen and the amount of rooms filled each hallway. (Additionally, sorry for the lack of pictures of the building. I will find the time get all of them to provide some visual aid of the facility.)
Upon entering, I met no one initially (being a half an hour early to my site may have influenced that problem). My on-site mentor had previously emailed me to meet with a man by the name of Stephen James, in order to have a little tour and background of the area. Unknowingly, we both acknowledged each other at the front of the door and moved on, clueless of each other's presence. After the hilarious exchange, Dr. James showed me around the building, where I saw training rooms and offices around each hallway.
One of the coolest areas outside the facility is the garden and mini chicken farm behind the main building. Not only was it cool to witness such a bountiful array of greens, but it was neat to learn that these gardens were used to help people with autism develop social skills (and gardening skills of course) to adapt in the real world. SARRC does this by hiring some people with autism as interns to help grow the garden, which they later use as produce to support local farmers.
After the tour, Dr. James gave me instructions on one of my main duties that I can help with at SARRC. In my neat new "personal" office (I'm unsure if it's truly mine, but I'll assume it is.), he showed me the screening forms used to help diagnose whether a child was having problems in certain areas of cognitive development. This was called the CSBS DP Infant-Toddle Checklist (which is the Communication and Symbolic Behavior Scales and Development Profile), and was used to give an indication of a child's mental development. For my job, I had to input certain information of each child on an Excel spreadsheet so that we can keep a database of all the patients that come in and out of our building as well as contact their parents if necessary. Additionally, I had some real-world experience by contacting some of the parents and confirming appointments via telephones, which was very scary at first (and i failed the first few time) but I moved pass my phone anxiety eventually.
Here is my super cool office (maybe):
On my second day at my site, as I continued my intern duties at SARRC, Dr. James kindly allowed me to watch a session with a child, where they monitored the eye movement of a little girl to indicate where her focus draws to. This is important because, on a case study done at UC San Diego, scientists observed that children with autism tend to center their focus on repetitive patterns, like a ceiling fan rotating, which may be used to help indicate early signs of autism. By displaying two videos, one with a symmetrical pattern and one with children playing, the eye sensors can monitor where the child's eyes are focused on. As I stood and watch the events unfold, I became increasingly fascinated in the ways SARRC attempts to find quicker ways to diagnose their patients.
As the two days progressed so quickly, I became increasingly motivated to continue the rest of my project. Though I may have to tweak some of my proposal's methodology, I'm glad to add some new knowledge into my SRP blog. Thank you guys for tuning into my first week on my site! I hope you follow me more in my adventure in figuring out the puzzle that is autism. Bye!
