Personal Narrative: My Internship With Children With Autism

I believe that this internship opportunity will provide me with insight on whether or not I will specialize in working with children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder in graduate school and in my future career. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience as a peer mentor at Rockhill Elementary and I appreciate that each week I spend with these children presents a new challenge. As I mentioned earlier, each child at Rockhill is on a different level on the spectrum and is stimulated in a different way. I find it to be an exciting challenge to learn how to engage each student in a way that suits them the best. I have developed a special place in my heart for these smiling children and look forward to spending time with them each Friday. I am

hoping to expand my knowledge and experience by becoming apart of this immersive internship experience. I believe I will gain an even better understanding of the autism scale and hope that my presence working with these children will help them to develop crucial social skills. I no longer have apprehension about working with children with Autism. I believe that the two semesters of experience I have working with children with ASD have helped increase my confidence in working with children with mental disabilities. If I were working with a student who low-functioning on the spectrum scale I suppose this would cause a bit of apprehension because I have never mentored a child very low on the scale. If there were ever an emergent situation working with a child who is low on the spectrum scale, I would attempt to deal with this situation by speaking calmly to the child and encourage them to perform self-regulatory actions. If these efforts do not work then I would ask a professional for help with the child.