Personal Narrative: My Work With Autistic Children

Early on in my career I worked with Autistic children providing behavioral services in the home setting. In this work environment it is very important to establish rapport, not only with the child but with the family as well. Our work relied so heavily on parental participation to reinforce the work we did with the child. Part of my work including finding ways to engage the family and build rapport. I feel that a large part of developing rapport with the families I worked with in particular included having similar backgrounds (Latino/Hispanic) and understanding linguistic and cultural aspects of our cultures. Given these commonalities in our backgrounds I could identify with cultural barriers families face in the community and how acculturation plays a role in parenting for many. Having a child with a disability can be truly heartbreaking for any family but understanding a little more about disabilities within cultures I feel has help increase comfort and rapport with families.
As a behavioral therapist I would work on teaching strategies of Applied Behavioral Analysis to the parents/caregivers of the child. Utilizing my skill and knowledge in Spanish increased their understanding of these concepts. However, I learned to be mindful of when I was working with a family to ensure I was using language they understood, rather than …show more content…
These can be intimidating and confusing processes for a family to navigate. Part of the support I lend to families includes being sensitive to language barriers and literacy issues. In normalizing the challenge of navigating different systems and understanding the cultural barriers many parents faced as children regarding lack of formal education I have been able to further support these families in following through with paperwork and other requirements to ensure services remain in