In my second year, I took a course called Social Emotional Well-Being (Course code: CLD 205). This course looked at children's development in the social-emotional domains, factors that promote positive development and factors that may be pervasive for children's critical periods. As a final assignment for the course, I wrote a research paper looking at the relationship between Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and social emotional competencies in children. After researching and looking into an array of scholarly articles and research surrounding ASD, I found that areas of emotional regulation and social relationships were impacted due to children's inability to develop a Theory of Mind (the ability to understand the perspectives of others) and joint attention (the ability to share an experience through non-verbal responses and create emotional connections, such as turn taking during play).

 

This paper was especially significant in my education, in terms of program planning and basic interactions with children with special needs. Program planning involves adaptive strategies that can assist all children in their learning experience. One skill and technique that I mentioned in my paper and continue to use in my activities are visual aids - recipe boards, instruction boards etc. This provides a visual representation on what you expect children to do during an activity and how they can mimic specific behaviours. Peer support is also another effective technique that can support children with special needs. By pairing children with exceptionalities and typically developing, it allows for peer mentoring but also an opportunity for children to understand and embrace individual differences, and further create meaningful connections and relationships. 

 

For more information on my research paper, please contact me!