My memorable experience with a child with special needs was my first consumer as a behavioral therapist. Spending time with the child, I learned how to be a better teacher and a better person. At the time, Cade was a seven year old boy with limited verbal and was diagnosed with Autism. Since Cade has limited verbal, I learned that everything a child does has a communication function whether Cade points because he wants an item or is crying because he does not want to work on the non-preferred activity, there are four communication functions: to get attention, to get a tangible object, to escape or avoid a non-preferred activity, or self-stemming behavior.
In addition to learning about the functions of communication, Cade has shown me that I as the teacher need to provide two choices and to reduce the task if he has a tantrum. If Cade has a tantrum because of frustration from a non-preferred task, reducing the task helps regain control and compliance from the child. Most importantly, I learned that children should not be blamed for any reason; children are smart individuals where they learned their behaviors from their environment.
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