Carolyn Sterner, M.Ed., BCBA

Please note that the information on these pages represents my own views,

and does not necessarily represent the views of Rutgers University or the

Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center.

My career in autism began in 1995 at the Douglass Developmental Disabilities Center (DDDC). In the summer before my senior year of college, I received a pamphlet about interning at the DDDC, and after a semester internship, I became involved with the DDDC in one form or another for the next 10 years. I interned and did my fieldwork in Level 1 of the Douglass School. I began to learn how to teach young children with autism using principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). I was then a classroom assistant in the Prep class in which I provided intense 1:1 ABA instruction to preschoolers with autism.

I left the Douglass School and began work at Douglass Outreach, another division of the DDDC. I worked as a Program Coordinator for Home-Based Programs in which I supervised teams of trained professionals who provided intensive and individualized instruction to young children with autism. I spent a year as a Training Coordinator in which I taught in a DDDC Elementary Satellite Classroom (then known as the Center Based program) and consulted to various school districts in New York and New Jersey. I continued my work part-time as a Program Coordinator for home programs for young children with autism
 

I returned to Douglass Outreach in August 2005 as the Special Education Teacher for the new Early Intervention program - serving children with autism aged 18 months to 3 years. Due to a relocation to Pennsylvania, and the unaffordability of travel expenses, I left the private school setting to pursue some experience actually working in the public school system in September 2006. I am now working in a public school district in New Jersey.

I earned my B.A. in Psychology from Rutgers University in 1996, and my Ed.M. in Educational Psychology from the Graduate School of Education at Rutgers University in 2002. I am a certified NJ Teacher of the Handicapped. I have also completed coursework in Applied Behavior Analysis with faculty from the Research and Training Division of the DDDC. These courses are offered through the Graduate School of Applied and Professional Psychology (GSAPP) at Rutgers University.  I passed my Behavior Analyst Certification Board exam in December 2005 and am now a Board Certified Behavior Analyst.

 

Please visit the autism related links in the left hand menu for more information about autism, ABA (applied behavior analysis), and links to products/supplies, autism-related research, and special education law.

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