The document summarizes Meghan Clusserath's internship at the Early Autism Project in Anderson, South Carolina from January to May 2016. The Early Autism Project provides applied behavioral analysis (ABA) therapy to children with autism spectrum disorder. During her internship, Meghan worked as an ABA line therapist for two clients, helping them improve academic, behavioral, communication and social skills. She also learned about the clinic's ABA services and mission to help clients reach their full potential.

1. Early Autism
Project
Meghan Clusserath

2. Details:
 Site: Early Autism Project Inc. branch in Anderson,
South Carolina
 Preceptor: Two Lead Therapists: Blaire Veronee
and Sarah Sosa
 Title: Applied Behavioral Analysis Line Therapist
 Dates: January 2016 – May 2016
 Hours: 100 + working hours

3. About Early Autism Project:
 EAP is part of the nation’s leading provider of behavioral
health and education solutions for children and young
adults.
 EAP prides themselves on changing the direction of
children’s lives by offering children with autism the
opportunity to create successful, independent futures.
 “EAP offers the highest quality of intensive, research-
based behavioral treatment for children and young
adults between the ages of 20 months and 21 years with
autism spectrum and related disorders.”
 “EAP provides comprehensive services to children and
their families in their homes, in EAP clinics and in
schools throughout the country.”

4. EAP’s Mission
Statement
 “The mission of the Early Autism Project is
threefold: to provide appropriate and effective ABA
home and school programming that will enable
each child in our care to reach his or her potential;
to foster the close collaboration of parents and
professionals who support the child; and to equip
each child’s home or school team with the ABA
training and supervision that will ensure high-quality
and consistent teaching, error correction
procedures and behavioral intervention.”

5. What is ABA Therapy?
 “Applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy is widely
recognized as the most effective, evidence-based
treatment for autism and is endorsed by the U.S.
Surgeon General and American Academy of
Pediatrics. ABA therapy fosters basic skills such as
looking, listening, requesting and imitating, as well
as complex skills such as reading, conversing and
understanding another person’s perspective. ABA
also helps reduce behaviors that make it difficult for
children to learn.”

6. How does EAP provide
ABA services?
 “ABA therapy is offered at clinics, schools and in
homes and is provided under the direction of a
Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) or a Board
Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst (BCaBA).
Therapists work closely with families and education
professionals and apply the principles of ABA to
teach language, social, self-help, academic, daily
living, and life skills. Each child is unique and early
intervention helps ensure each child has the
opportunity to be mainstreamed into a traditional
learning environment and become more
independent.”

7. My Preceptors
 Sarah Sosa and Blaire Veronee were the two Lead
therapists I worked with. They were both working as
a Lead Therapists for the time being and in school
earning their Masters to become Service
Coordinators for EAP.
 Each of them had two years of experience within
this field.

8. Position: Applied Behavioral
Analysis Line Therapist
 Responsibilities:
 Providing ABA therapy to two clients (ages 3 and 6)
with Autism Spectrum Disorder on academic,
behavioral, communication, and social skills for 12 to
15 hours a week for 15 weeks.
 Collect data on behavioral, communication, and
academic progress
Both of the above photos are examples of different activities that
may occur during an ABA session.

9. Behavioral Component
 One of my client’s therapy plan focused on
transitioning between activities without any problem
behaviors. He typically would scream, scratch, kick,
hit, etc. when asked to move to an activity he did
not want to participate in. EAP’s goal was to reduce
this problem behavior and have the client transition
smoothly when asked. This was worked on my
creating a schedule where the client could choose a
few activities and then the therapist would choose
some activities and there was a certain amount of
time at each. This structured schedule made
progress more possible over 15 weeks.

10. Academic Aspect
 Another part of therapy was called “Table Time.”
This component focused on academic skills. The
clients would be asked several different questions,
ranging from their mom’s job to identifying a picture
to touching their cheek. The different categories
focused on were manding, visual performance,
receptive language, motor imitation, echoic, tact,
and intraverbal.
The picture to the right is of the binder
that held all of a particular client’s
academic progress and information.
This binder also contained target key
academic questions that were rotated
out once “mastered.”

11. Table Time
These pictures are examples of
potential questions asked during
table time.

12. Reward System at Table
 At Table Time, clients would work towards some
activity or food item as a reward. This positive
reinforcement encouraged them to be well behaved
during Table Time and to try to stay focused and
pay attention. Below is an example of a chart used
during table to show the client the progress made
and how close he was to getting rewarded for his
good behavior.
One of my clients especially loved to
jump on the trampoline so we would
work for that each table time.

13. The Clinic
This picture is from
the Anderson clinic
and contains things
such as trampoline,
jungle gym, and
large bouncy balls.
These are all
activities
participated in when
working on
transitions.

14. The Clinic
This picture
contains things
such as toy
animals/dinosaurs,
puzzles, a play
house kitchen,
clothes for dress
up, board games,
etc. These were
also some of the
activities played
when working on
transitions.

15. Conclusion:
 I wanted the opportunity to intern at EAP because 6
months ago I was in the mindset that I wanted to
work in pediatrics for physical therapy, my chosen
career. I had done research and realized that a
large number of pediatric patients who need
physical therapy have some form of autism
spectrum disorder. I figured working with EAP was
the perfect opportunity to see if I enjoyed working
with this population and this internship confirmed
that to me. I really enjoyed my time getting to know
the clients and their families through EAP and this is
an experience I will never forget.

16. References:
 http://earlyautismproject.com/about-eap/our-story/