Self-Assessment Letter

 

Self-Assessment Letter

Instructions: Reflection and self-assessment letter

Address the cover letter to your instructor. The letter can be very similar in form and format to a 2–4 page cover letter you would submit along with a resume. The letter can be as formal or as informal as you like, as long as it reflects the kind of professional conversation you want to have with your instructor.

Following are the guidelines for your letter:

• Review your experience with the end-to-end writing process, and each writing product you develop during the course. Treat the letter as the first impression your work will make, much as a cover letter for a job interview makes a first impression.
• Discuss what you have learned throughout the course, and explain how and where your work demonstrates that learning.
• Address your own strengths and weaknesses as a writer, explaining how and where your work demonstrates them.
• Explain how you will apply what you have learned in this course to the writing you will do in the professional or academic areas of your life.
• Demonstrate the ability to write and submit purposeful, error-free prose.

You can organize your letter in the manner you prefer, but do not simply write an answer to each of the bullet points above in the order they are presented. Your letter must demonstrate your ability to organize and synthesize material, and must demonstrate your critical thinking skills.

You may find it helpful to practice revision as you write this letter, setting it aside and returning to it later, with fresh eyes and clear perspective.

Note: Your instructor may also use the Writing Feedback Tool to provide feedback on your writing. In the tool, click the linked resources for helpful writing information.

Scoring

Your assignment will be scored on the following criteria:

1. Address strengths and weaknesses as a writer.
2. Reflect on personal and professional experience of the writing process.
3. Discuss the future implications of developing scholarly writing skills.
4. Organize and synthesize material in purposeful, error-free prose.

Resources

3/16/2021

Self-Assessment Letter Scoring Guide

https://courserooma.capella.edu/bbcswebdav/institution/WRIT/WRIT6088/201000/Scoring_Guides/u10a1_scoring_guide.html 1/1

Self-Assessment Letter Scoring Guide

Due Date: Unit 10
Percentage of Course Grade: 10%.

CRITERIA NON-PERFORMANCE BASIC PROFICIENT DISTINGUISHED

Address strengths
and weaknesses as
a writer

25%

Does not
address
strengths and
weaknesses
as a writer.

Attempts to
address
strengths and
weaknesses
as a writer.

Addresses strengths and
weaknesses as a writer.
Attempts to make
recommendations based on
best practices using
professionally validated
criteria to evaluate the
appropriateness of the
recommendations.

Completely addresses strengths
and weaknesses as a writer.
Makes recommendations based
on best practices, supported by
current literature, and uses
professionally validated criteria to
evaluate the appropriateness of
the recommendations.

Reflect on personal
and professional
experience of the
writing process

25%

Does not
reflect on
personal and
professional
experience of
the writing
process.

Performs only
basic
reflection on
personal and
professional
experience of
the writing
process.

Reflects on personal and
professional experience of
the writing process.

Reflects extensively on personal
and professional experience of
the writing process.

Discuss the future
implications of
developing
scholarly writing
skills

25%

Does not
discuss the
future
implications
of developing
scholarly
writing skills.

Performs only
basic
discussion of
the future
implications of
developing
scholarly
writing skills.

Discusses the future
implications of developing
scholarly writing skills.

Extensively discusses the future
implications of developing
scholarly writing skills.

Organize and
synthesize material
in purposeful, error-
free prose

25%

Does not
organize or
synthesize
material in
purposeful,
error-free
prose.

Performs only
a basic
demonstration
of the ability
to write
purposeful,
error-free
prose.

Organizes and synthesizes
material in purposeful,
error-free prose.

Comprehensively demonstrates
the ability to organize and
synthesize purposeful, error-free
prose.

Running head:

Autism Self-Management Treatment

1

Autism Self-Management Treatment

2

Autism Self-Management Treatment

Introduction

Autism is defined as category of developmental disabilities that may lead to significant social, behavioral and communication challenges. People affected by autism are known to communicate, interact and behave in a different manner from the rest of the people. For people with autism, the abilities to solve problems, think and learn may be quite challenging. As a result, such people require special attention and help from other individuals. Diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder comprises of various conditions that can be diagnosed separately. These include Developmental Disorder, Autistic Disorder, and Asperger Syndrome. Autism can be treated through self- management technique, which involves the replacement of the inappropriate language with verbal labeling. (Kavon & McLaughlin, 1995)

Assessment and treatment of Autism

Psychologists assist in the process of assessment and diagnosis of autism condition.

They work closely with psychiatrists and speech pathologists to diagnose Autism Spectrum Disorder. In this case, the diagnosis is mostly based on of observations and specific arrangement of behaviors. In addition to diagnosis, psychologists help with the management of the mental health for individuals with autism or those who are suspected to have Autism. Assessment may be carried out at any level of the individual’s life and often involve the input from different health professionals. The general health care professionals have the capacity to refer individuals to psychologists when suspected to have autism or when there is a concern about their mental health. In other instances, self-referrals are made to the psychologists.

Children affected by autism sometimes face some kinds of rejection. Studies have shown that bullying is a major empirical case that leads to potential traumatization of the children living with Autism. Previous researches have also shown the existence of cognitive and neurological differences that may contribute to social impairment of children who face rejection. Rejection of children living with autism in the social interactions involves the presence of more than one individual since the social difference may happen through judgment, perception as well as the social decisions that are made by the people surrounding them. (Healy& Leader, (2011).

Societal view of Autism

The first impression of the individuals living with autism is derived from what happens in the real world of social behavior, which is viewed to be associated with the minimized intentions to achieve social interaction for such people. This kind of behavior towards the people living with autism occur within little time, and increased exposure may not change it but rather persists in the child groups. (Kavon,& McLaughlin, 1995). Such biases may only end when impressions based on conversational content that have an inefficiency of audio-visual clues that have the capability of driving negative impression of the autism spectrum disorder are stopped. People living with autism are featured by deficiency during their social interactions hence contributing to huge social disabilities and poor social functional results. Just like rejection and biases, this form of deficiency has an association with smaller social networks and fewer friends and hardship in securing and retaining employment. Therefore, loneliness and generally reduced quality of life are some of the difficulties that people living with autism face.

The increase in the number of students who have developed autism spectrum disorder has pressed a need to have a designed learning environment that fits their needs. This will be friendlier due to the simplified form of learning skills. A recent research revealed that between 1% and 2% of school-aged children have been noted to be living with autism (Healy& Leader,2011). This has caught the attention of professionals with the knowledge of schooling, as well as parents, to identify ways of managing the challenges faced by the learners with an autism spectrum disorder. As a result, there have been teacher-managed interventions to respond to the challenges posed by learners living with autism. However, such interventions have been limited only to controlling the behaviors rather than equipping skills to those learners. With self-management strategies, it has been effective to offer skills to children with deficit disorders, learning disabilities as well as autism spectrum disorders.

To enhance communication between children living with autism and others or between themselves, there is need to follow some tips that will ensure communication occurs; persisting in a resilient manner by ensuring your feelings are not hurt when the child fails to respond as one would expect as the children with autism have a challenge controlling their emotions. Being positive is another way, as such children would respond to positive reinforcement. Enhancing interaction via physical activities will assist in communication with the children living with autism (Dimarco et al, 2005). This is because such children have a short span of attention, and playing around with them would make them relaxed and even calmer. A show of love to them will also boost their ability to communicate even though they endure trouble showing their feelings but still, they need to realize that you love them.

Visual learning for autistic children

Visual support for the children living with autism may be through drawings, written words, photographs, and objects. This form of support works better when used as a way of communication. (Light et al, 1998) The visual supports are applied for the children living with autism spectrum disorder and this serves several purposes. Since children with autism spectrum syndrome may not be in a position to understand the social cues while they interact with the rest of the people, visual supports offer such assistance to them. They may also fail to grasp the social expectations such as the start of the conversation, ways of responding, and the manner of changing behavior based on social rules. Therefore, the visual supports offer a chance to teach the social skills and assist children living with autism spectrum to apply them to social situations. Consequently, through visuals, parents are assisted to communicate what such children would expect. This is because such children find it hard to understand and follow the spoken instructions hence not able to make a clear expression of what they would want. Therefore, with visual support, there are reduced instances of frustration thus decreasing the problematic behaviors that may have resulted from hardships in communication.

For the children living with an autism spectrum disorder, the ability to monitor an error may appear to be significant to regulate the autistic symptomology such as both the functional and structural abnormalities, which may have contributed towards the repetitive and restricted behaviors in autism spectrum syndrome. The self-monitoring interventions are associated with a decrease in stereotypic behaviors and an increase in social skills. In general, people living with autism showcase poor monitoring of an error compared to the people who have typical development. In this case, people with autism disorder tend to show fewer ERN (Error Related Negativity) amplitudes resulting in less recognition of the errors.

Intervention strategies

The behavioral interventions strategies are much focused on the improvement of social communication skills. (Karmali et al, 2005). This is more significant to the children who would gain such skills naturally. In some cases, both speech and occupational therapy would be of great assistance to young age children. (Howlin, 1982). Undergoing medication and offering social skills training play a significant role in the intervention measures for children living with autism. However, the treatment for autism syndrome is variant with the age of the child, strengths, and challenges.

The level to which a family adjusts to the diagnosis of autism depends largely on the pre-existing stability and cohesion within the family. The disruption of the family cohesion may increase stress where a child with autism is born. Both the external and internal coping strategies are useful to deal with stress in such a family. The autism disorder for children appears to cause stigma to such children and their parents due to the stereotyping that may end up in isolation, and rejection. This may be avoided by undertaking such children through treatment courses that will enable them to raise their self-esteem. All through education to the public and creating awareness, the public tends to accept and embrace such people and not looking down on them. Motivation acts towards the parents and the children living with autism ought to be applied and embraced to avoid cases of isolation and exclusion. (Kennedy C, 2005). This will reduce the stigmatization by the members of the society.

References

Healy, O., & Leader, G. (2011). Assessments of rituals and stereotypy. In J. L. Matson & P.

Sturmey (Eds.), International handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders (pp. 233–245). New York: Springer.

Hetzroni, O. E., & Tannous, J. (2004). Effects of a computer-based intervention program on the

communicative functions of children with autism. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 34, 95– 113. doi:10.1023/B:JADD.0000022602.40506.bf.

Howlin, P. (1982). Echolalic and spontaneous phrase speech in autistic children. Journal of

Child Psychology and Psychiatry, 23, 281–293. doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.1982.tb00073.x.

Iwata, B. A., Dorsey, M. F., Slifer, J. J., Bauman, K. E., & Richman, G. S. (1994). Toward a

functional analysis of self-injury. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 27, 197–209. doi:10.1901/jaba.1994. 27-197 (Reprinted from Analysis and Intervention in Developmental Disabilities, 2, 3–20, 1982).

*Karmali, I., Greer, R. D., Nuzzlo-Gomez, R., Ross, D. E., RiveraValdes, C. (2005).

Reducing palilalia by presenting tact corrections to young children with autism. Analysis of

Verbal Behavior, 21, 145–153. Retrieved from:http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/ journals/609/

Kavon, N. M., & McLaughlin, T. F. (1995). Interventions for echolalic behavior for children

with autism: a review of verbal prompts and the cues pause point procedure. B.C

Journal of Special Education, 19(2–3), 39–45. Retrieved from:

http://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ519927

.

Kennedy, C. H. (2005). Single-case designs for educational research. Boston, MA: Allyn and

Bacon. *Laski, K. E., Charlop, M. H., Schriebman, L. (1988). Training parents to use the natural language paradigm to increase their autistic children’s speech. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 21, 391–400. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1988.21-391.

Light, C., Roberts, B., Dimarco, R., & Greiner, N. (1998). Augmentative and alternative

communication to support receptive and expressive communication for people with autism. Journal of Communication Disorders, 31, 153–180. doi:10.1016/S0021-9924(97)00087-7.

Lovaas, O. I., Koegel, R. L., Simmons, J. Q., & Long, J. S. (1973). Some generalization and

follow-up measures on autistic children in behavior therapy. Journal of Applied Behavior

Analysis, 6, 131–166. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1973.6-131.