Student: Leah Kenney
Graduation date: May 2016
Type: Area of Interest (double major)
Date approved: November 2013
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Summary
Autism is a relatively new medical phenomenon, although perhaps not as recent as the current vaccination panic suggests. The term “autism” was coined in 1912 with the first person ever diagnosed with autism a mere 81 years old. Though the data we have is under constant scrutiny for its accuracy, methodology, and usefulness, the Centers for Disease Control reports that the current rate of autism diagnosis in the United States is 1 in 68. This is a continuation of a trend identified by the Environmental Protection Agency that started between 1988 and 1992, when the worldwide diagnosis of autism spiked from 6 in 10,000 kids to 24 in 10,000. Signed in August of last year, the Autism CARES Act has devoted $1.3 billion in federal spending to research, which is a drop in the bucket autism currently costs the United States annually. The annual cost of supporting U.S. children and adults with autism spectrum disorders (ASDs) is between $236 billion and $262 billion, depending on the prevalence of associated intellectual disabilities, researchers estimated. That number will only rise. Basically, the United States doesn’t know what to do about autism. My aim is to propose a form of curriculum to better shape the Portland Public School special education classrooms to better include people with autism.
It’s not hard to see that our current public education system is broken- especially the special education system. Through researching different early childhood developmental philosophies, I came to the conclusion that a combination of Montessori and Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), if properly instated into Portland Public Schools, would be an extremely effective and beneficial addition to the special education system. My capstone goes into further detail regarding the benefits of the structure and applicability associated with the Montessori approach and the individualized program development associated with ABA.
Questions
Framing: How has the progression of special needs education affected students with autism in the public education system in Portland over the last decade?
Focus: What aspects of special needs education should be re-focused to gear more towards people with autism? How can this be implemented?
Arts and humanities courses
- HIST 261 (Global Environmental History, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- PHIL 215 (Philosophy and the Environment, 4 credits). Pre-approved A&H course; no justification required.
- RELS 298 (Science and Christianity, 4 credits ), spring 2014.