Posted: December 13th, 2015

Case Analysis on Jacob

Each candidate, after gathering language and communication baseline data, may choose to write an analysis/case study of the selected learner’s language and communication development. A developmental approach would document such behaviors as joint attention, reciprocal physical and verbal interactions, pointing and gestures, first words, etc. An analysis of both functional and social communication must be included.

As a part of my practicum experience I worked with a 3 year old little boy that has been diagnosed with Pervasive Developmental Disorder- Not Otherwise Specified (PDD-NOS) which falls under the autism spectrum disorders. He is non-verbal and has aggression issues which results in outbursts, tantrums and non-suicidal self injury such biting himself or hitting his head with the palm of his hand repeatedly. During this practicum I worked under the supervision of an on-site supervisor. My main focus was to help Jacob with learning to follow a schedule using pictures and negative and positive behavior cards to help Jacob learn appropriate behaviors. I also did some deep pressure therapy to help calm Jacob. I will attach my daily journal entries to give you some insight on what occurred each visit.