Expanding the Problem

My Goal

My goal is to create a standard curriculum for autism education in the College of Education at UH Manoa began with my sister. After Lilia was diagnosed with autism, my family decided to move to Hawaii in 2012 to receive Applied Behavioral Analysis Therapy (ABA Therapy). While there are some controversies surrounding ABA Therapy, it helped my sister tremendously. She began to talk, walk, and eat by herself. She is now fluent in Japanese and English, and participates on her school basketball team. Her growth is unprecedented, and I wanted to help other students with autism receive the same guidance.

What I learned from Lilia

Schools and educators need to accommodate their teaching for all learners.
Early childhood intervention helps students with autism learn and grow at a faster pace

During my time in Girls Talk Back, I worked with Lauren Usami who is an Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapist who also attended the College of Education at UH Manoa. She informed that the only reason why she has training to work with autistic students is because it was a required course for college students seeking to pursue a career in special education. However, other students going through the College of Education never had to take a course on autism. This was surprising to me. How are future educators equipped to work with students with disabilities and create comfortable environments for them if they were never taught how to do so? This question guided my project, and allowed me to come up with a solution.

The Distinction Journey

What were my essential questions?
What is early childhood education?
How does this problem impact our local community?
What can I do to support this community?

Autism Capstone.mp4

These questions also guided me throughout my capstone project, which was to volunteer at my sister's ABA Therapy clinic to work with students on socialization skills. I attended a socializing circle every week to help act out real scenarios in the comfort of a classroom to develop interpersonal skills with the students. The video linked above is from my capstone project.

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