SLP 101

I’m excited (and nervous)!

I will be attending volunteer orientation for my university’s Autism center this Saturday. Not at all sure what this experience would entail. I have no experience with Autism - merely a little book learnin’. I have no experience with children in a professional setting, and hardly any (positive) experience with children in a personal setting.

When I was in my pre-teens, I used to babysit my younger brother and cousins. It was a nightmare.

For them.

I would tell them that my pickle juice was Mountain Dew and, yes, they were more than welcome to take a BIG gulp of it. Also, terrifying them with Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (and later hiding under their beds for fifteen minutes while they tried to go to sleep and then GRABBING their legs) may have been involved. Once I blood-blistered my brother’s chest with a rat-tail. Anyone out there know what a rat-tail is? It was not a nice thing to do. It was totally an accident, and I still feel horrible about it to this day.

Sometimes I did awesome things. I would prepare very healthy lunches for the boys, and get them to devour it by assigning Pokemon names to the various foods:

“Those aren’t carrots; they’re Charmander Pellets.”
“COOOOOL!!”

End flashback.

So yeah. Mainly stories of creative torture in that department. Naturally, even as a grown, educated 23-year-old woman, the task of doing a “good job” with kids seems daunting.

I will write later about the orientation. And, hopefully later on, about the volunteer experience. If it’s anything at all like my current volunteer experience, I know it will be new, challenging, and very rewarding. I look forward to that.