Jen Sadowsky is spending the fall of her junior year in the Cooperative Education Program between Hamilton and the New England Center for Children (NECC). She recently described her duties as a participant in the program, "At the New England Center for Children, I am currently working with nine kids (ages 7-12) diagnosed with autism and other pervasive developmental disorders. Many of them have severe communication and social deficits, and some are completely non-verbal. We deal with a lot of challenging behaviors and constantly use positive reinforcement to reward the kids for doing their work and having good behavior.
"Teaching these children can be extremely difficult and draining at times, but it's even more rewarding when the kid you're working with finally understands something after months of practice and looks up at you with a huge smile on his face."
In addition to her work with the children, Sadowsky is taking two graduate-level classes through Northeastern University, "Behavior Analysis" and "Systematic Inquiry & Applied Research." She will return to Hamilton with full academic credit for the semester.
Located in the Boston suburb of Southborough, NECC is a community-based residential school for children and adults with autism, behavior disorders, mental retardation and other related developmental disabilities. A dozen or more Hamilton graduates are employed at the facility, according to its founder and executive director, Vinnie Strully '69.
After participating in the NECC program, Hamilton students often pursue their psychology senior projects in related areas. For example, this year two NECC veterans will be researching employee support issues in similar programs that are part of Upstate Cerebral Palsy in Utica.
Professor of Psychology Jonathan Vaughan is the Hamilton contact for the NECC program. Additional information can be found at www.NECC.org,
www.hamilton.edu/academics/Psych/necc.html or http://cogito.hamilton.edu/NECC.
