Why Special Education?

    Why special education?  To be honest it just happened.  After my freshman year in college I decided to become an elementary school teacher.  I came to that decision because I knew I was good with younger kids.  Throughout high school I watched my next door neighbor’s kids during the summer and the occasional evenings.  I had to continue the cycle since my neighbor watched me when she was in high school.  When I reflected back on those experiences I really enjoyed hanging out with Ryan and Eryka during the summers.  However at that time I had no ambition to be a high school teacher.  I often thought about how I behaved in high school and thought I would have hit a student like me if I was the teacher. 

    During my sophomore year of college Gannon University Education Department started a new teaching certificate program.  You could earn dual certification in elementary and special education.  Pennsylvania has a highly competitive job market.  In order to get a full time teaching job in PA one of three things had to happen.  1.  A teacher retired after a 35+ year career.  2.  A teacher went on maternity leave.  3.  You had a relative on the local school board.  The dual certification sounded like a great way to make myself marketable when applying for jobs.  At the time I had no idea what special education was but in my mind kids are kids and I could handle anything.

    The beginning of my junior year of college I was in search of a part time job.  I walked past the bulletin board in the education department office and I saw an ad for a babysitting job.  It was for a 5 year boy who wanted to play sports after school for a few hours.  It was perfect!  I met Mike and his family and they gave me the job.  My first week was really strange.  I spent about 3 hours with him that week and Mike never said a word.  I attributed to being shy but still thought there was something wrong.  His mother never gave any background information about Mike other than his likes and dislikes.  When we played games or sports he would behave in a bizarre manner rather than trying the activity.  After about 2 weeks I figure it out.  Mike had Autism.  Slowly through the months I met his speech therapist and his Applied Behavior Analyst Therapists.   Mike had an intensive behavior intervention program led by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA).  Those behavior specialists would train me how to deal with inappropriate behaviors.  It was a life changing event.

    Working with Mike I learned an amazing amount of information about communication, behavior, and how to communicate with students with special needs.  As I continued to create a strong relationship with Mike and his family I also learned his mom worked for an amazing organization in Erie, PA that worked with children and adults with special needs.  In the late 90’s the Barber National Institute was the leader in Autism therapies and intervention and still is.  The timing was perfect and right after graduation from Gannon I got a job at the Barber Institute as a Therapeutic Support Staff (TSS). 

    My job as a TSS was to work closely with the BCBA and implement the behavior intervention plan in the child’s school and home.  I can’t tell you how much that job prepared me for the special education field.  First I was introduced to the basics of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).  I learned how to use discrete trial training to help young children with autism to communicate and learn new vocabulary.  I also became desensitized to explosive inappropriate behaviors.  Up until that point I had never dealt with a child who hit, bite, or engaged in dangerous behaviors to gain attention.  Tyler was the one child that introduced me to dangerous behaviors for attention.  Tyler was a 12 year old child with Asperger's Syndrome.  If he didn't get his way he would ramp up his behavior until he was engaging in something really dangerous.  One day he was upset we weren't going to the pet store due to his poor behavior earlier in the day.  He continued to escalate and his mother and I ignored him. To gain our attention he climbed out his bedroom window and went up tot he 3rd story roof of his house.  This wasn't the first time he had done this but it was the first time I experienced it.  Thinking about it today still makes me sweat.  His mother and I both tried to talk him down and of course it wasn't effective.  Finally his mother told him she was going to call the police and he panicked out of fear of the police (not standing on a 3rd story roof) and climbed off of the roof back into his room.  I had a few more dangerous situations with Tyler while I work with him.  They were all scary but help me learn how to deal with a crisis situation.

    The greatest lesson I learned from working as a TSS is how an autistic child affects a family.  I was able to work with six kids and their parents in their homes.  Parents aren’t prepared to care for an Autistic child.  They have no idea how to handle the life changing event.  There were families that were pro-active and sought out all the information on therapies for children with Autism, and there were parents who were insecure and had no idea where to start their journey raising an Autistic child.  This experience gave me the best insight on what goes on at home for my students and families.  I have a clear understanding that if the child comes to school half asleep with their hair poorly groomed last night could have been a night of 6 tantrums and the student getting to bed late.  It isn’t poor parenting.  It’s exhausted parenting.

    I worked for the Barber Institute for 2 years and then moved to Arizona.  It is the best professional experience of my career because it built a strong foundation for me on how to deal with challenging behaviors.  There isn’t one memorable example that helped me make up my mind to become a special education teacher.   It was a culmination of working with Autistic children, their families, BCBA’s, and the Barber Institute. 

    Thank you to those kids and their families for molding me into the teacher I am.