This project is written by Mary Lewis. This weblog contains my Multi-Genre Research Project for my CD 315 class.

I am a senior at Marshall University, majoring in Communication Disorders. I hope to continue my education in speech therapy by attending graduate school at Marshall after the completion of my undergraduate work this spring. I not sure where I would like to work after I finish my graduate work. I have enjoyed my experiences working with both children and the elderly, so I will probably just work where ever I can find a job.

In addition to school, I work with the elderly. I also have a wonderful family that is very precious to me. My husband is the most generous and caring person that I have ever met in my entire life. His family loves me, and my family tolerates me so what more could I ask from life.

I tried to write a poem to let my readers learn more about me, but after a week of getting nowhere, I decided that I would never be able to express my feelings as well as one of my favorite authors when he wrote the following:

i thank You God for most this amazing
day: for the leaping greenly spirits of trees
and a blue true dream of sky; and for everything
which is natural which is infinite which is yes

(i who have died am alive again today,
and this is the sun's birthday; this is the birth
day of life and of love and wings: and of the gay
great happening illimitably earth)

how should tasting touching hearing seeing
breathing any-lifted from the no
of all nothing-human merely being
doubt unimaginable You?

(now the ears of my ears awake and
now the eyes of my eyes are opened)

e. e. cummings

I hope you enjoy this project as much as I have enjoyed the effort of completing it.

Proceed to a Webliography written by a peer of a child with Autism

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Cummings, E. (n.d.) i thank You God for most this amazing. In O. Williams & E. Honig, The Mentor Book of Major American Poets (pp. 448). New York, New York: Penguin Group.

I have had alot of help this semester. This project has been very difficult for me. I have never done anything like this before. It can be hard to think out of the 'box' when you've spent almost four years just trying to figure out what the 'box' is. This semester has been a wonderful learning experience for me. I really could not have done anything without the rest of my CD 315 class. We've been together for several years now, and I really care about each of you. Each semester we get to know each other a little better. I think this summer we've all had to rely on each other more than before, especially in our groups. I think that you are all wonderful people. I wish you luck with your own pursuits.

And, of course, if it weren't for Mrs. McComas, we would not have had an assignment that challenged us or helped us become better students. We all could have slid by with a well-constructed, yet unoriginal, research paper and spent more of our summer watching "Passions" and working on our tans. Instead, we, or at least I, learned some excellent computer skills, got to research a topic of importance to me, and developed some self-reliance.

Proceed to About The Author

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This project addresses Autism and the various types of therapy available to these children. Autism is an area that is studied and researched a great deal, but there is still so little that is really known about it. This disorder has a tragic history. At first, these children were thought to have childhood schizophrenia. Many were institutionalized. Then, parents were told that they were the cause of their child’s disorder. While we know today that neither of those ideas are true, there is still a wealth of information available on Autism that can be either misleading or misinterpreted. With so many new therapy and drug treatments appearing in the news, it is important for parents, therapists, and others involved with children with Autism to know what can help these special children.

I have been interested in Autism since we studied it in our class on Language Disorders. Also, I recently completed an observation at a Circle of Friends preschool. This program, which focuses on pragmatic skills, mixes children with normal developing language and children with Autism. The program is highly structured to try and encourage the children to communicate in natural situations. The children all had a great time at the preschool, but it really made me wonder whether or not their were any long term benifits from this, or any other, type of intervention approach. This is what sparked my interest.

The design of the Multi-Genre Research Project really encourages the researcher to consider the topic from several points of view. When I studied Autism, I tried to keep this in mind and find articles written by both parents of children with Autism and therapists. I also tried to considered how peers react, positively and negatively, to children with Autism. I then tried to present the information I found in natural contexts. I felt that lesson plans would be natural for a Speech-Language Pathologist to write and a newsletter would be natural for a parent. I have tried to express the voice involved while still conveying the necessary information.

Researching this topic has really meant alot to me. As a future Speech-Language Pathologist, I may one day work with children who have special needs. Like any therapist, I want to be able to provide competent therapy for my client and accurate support for their family. I hope the information I have learned while researching this project will help me in my future practice.

Proceed to Acknowledgements

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