Fw: TEACCH program

[Guest guest]

FL Sunshine wrote: Check out: http://www.teacch.com/ From the website: Frequently statements are made that misrepresent our TEACCH approach. "TEACCH does not allow Occupational Therapy", "TEACCH has low expectations", or "TEACCH does not believe in inclusion", people will say emphatically. Our TEACCH approach is quite different and much more flexible than any of these false descriptions would suggest. This short statement is designed to present the major priorities of the TEACCH approach. Developed in the early 1970's by our founder, Schopler, the TEACCH approach includes a focus on the person with autism and the development of a program around this person's skills, interests, and needs. The major priorities

include centering on the individual, understanding autism, adopting appropriate adaptations, and a broadly-based intervention strategy building on existing skills and interests. By focusing on the individual we mean that the person is the priority, rather than any philosophical notion like inclusion, discrete trial training, facilitated communication, etc. We emphasize individualized assessment to understand the individual better and also "the culture of autism," suggesting that people with autism are part of a distinctive group with common characteristics that are different, but not necessarily inferior, to the rest of us. Emphasizing assessment and the culture of autism requires us to understand people with autism as they are and to build our programs around where each person is functioning. This does not suggest lower or higher expectations; it simply requires starting where people are and helping them to develop as far as they can go. This is different from espousing a model of

"normal" behavior for everyone and requiring people with autism to fit into that mold, whether that is comfortable for them or not. Structured teaching is an important priority because of the TEACCH research and experience that structure fits the "culture of autism" more effectively than any other techniques we have observed. Organizing the physical environment, developing schedules and work systems, making expectations clear and explicit, and using visual materials have been effective ways of developing skills and allowing people with autism to use these skills independently of direct adult prompting and cueing. These priorities are especially important for students with autism who are frequently held back by their inability to work independently in a variety of situations. Structured teaching says nothing about where people with autism should be educated; this is a decision based on the skills and needs of each individual student. Some can work effectively and benefit from

regular educational programs, while others will need special classrooms for part or all of the day where the physical environment, curriculum, and personnel can be organized and manipulated to reflect individual needs. Cultivating strengths and interests, rather than drilling solely on deficits, is another important priority. Obviously any program working with handicapped people has to maintain a balance between developing skills and remediating deficits. In this sense TEACCH is no different from any other program. On the other hand, most programs dealing with developmental disabilities emphasize remediating deficits and focus their entire efforts on that goal. Our approach, respecting the "culture of autism," recognized that the differences between people with autism and other can sometimes favor people with autism. Their relative strengths in visual skills, recognizing details, and memory, among other areas, can become the basis of successful adult functioning. TEACCH has

also observed that capitalizing on their interests, even though they might be peculiar from our perspective, helps increase their motivation and understanding of what they are doing. These strategies enhance efforts to work positively and productively with these people, rather than coercing and forcing them in directions that do not interest them and that they cannot comprehend. The TEACCH approach is also broad-based, taking into account all aspects of the lives of people with autism and their families. Although independent work skills are emphasized, it is also recognized that life is not all work and that communication, social and leisure skills can be learned by people with autism and can have an important impact on their well-being. An important part of any TEACCH curriculum is developing communication skills, pursuing social and leisure interests, and encouraging people with autism to pursue more of these opportunities. In addition to these techniques of

understanding autism, developing appropriate structures, promoting independent work skills, emphasizing strengths and interests and fostering communication, social and leisure outlets, the TEACCH approach is most successfully implemented on a systems level. Based on the concept that coordination and integration over time is as important as consistency within a given situation, the TEACCH approach is most effective when it is applied across age groups and agencies. Frequently professionals obsess over maintaining a consistent environment from day to day, but then a child jumps from technique to technique when changing settings over time. Division TEACCH believes that the interests of people with autism are best served with coordinated and cooperative programming based on consistent principles over a life time. Therefore, we try to maintain continuity in our approach while integrating new ideas slowly and only after they have proven effective. Our TEACCH principles, developed in 1974,

have stood the test of time; adults brought up using those practices are now the most productive and successful in the world with lives that are full, rich, and meaningful. B. Mesibov, Ph.D.Professor and DirectorDivision TEACCH ***I will say that I do incorporate aspects of the TEACCH program into my classroom. I will say that out of the letter above what sticks out most to me (that is something observable in a classroom setting) is-- "Organizing the physical environment, developing schedules and work systems, making expectations clear and explicit, and using visual materials have been effective ways of developing skills and allowing people with autism to use these skills independently of direct adult prompting and cueing." So, when you walk into my classroom and see that there is an area for work and an area for taking a break--that is a "Teacch concept". The

idea that the physical location will help the children to understand in a visual sense what is going on. Teaching skills of independence, such as learning how to follow a schedule--to look at the schedule, see the cue of what to do, be able to go independently and get your own work materials, take it back to a work station, do the work on your own--those are "teacch concepts". I think the important thing to watch for in the classroom as they are introducing this is to ensure that those fallacies Dr. Mesibov mentioned above (no communication training, no group/social interaction) don't become reality. If you walk in a classroom, and every student sits at their own study carrell all day with no interaction---that's not what Teacch is intended to be. To be honest, if your child's behavior has been horrible this year, maybe its because the previous program was too unstructured for her. (Not knocking the teacher--only

referring to what you wrote in your email that it was less structured previously.) Maybe this new program will help her to better understand and predict what will happen in her school day, and in turn result in a more predicatable and pleasant day for her. Wish you all the best! Reply-To: Autism-Florida To: Autism-Florida Subject: [Autism-Florida] TEACCH programDate: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 04:00:48 -0000I was wondering if anyone has had an experience with the TEACCH program out of Chapel Hill? Starting in January my daughters school is going to be using this program and I'm not familiar with it at

all. So any information good or bad just so I have some ideas, her teacher has warned me that it is a much more structured program than she is using now and that we may have some behavioral issues arise until she gets used to all the changes, but her behavior this school year has been horrible so I can't imagine it being any worse.Thanks,Theresa

[Guest guest]

Dr. Mesibov, My 24 y.o. son was originally diagnosed as mildly autistic at TEACCH when he was 6 yrs old. We lived in N.C. then. I can't give enough praise for the work you all do there. Don't you all have residential living facilities there. also? Thanks for all your great work. Pat Ribelin pribelin@...

Fw: TEACCH program

FL Sunshine wrote:

Check out:

http://www.teacch.com/

From the website:

Frequently statements are made that misrepresent our TEACCH approach. "TEACCH does not allow Occupational Therapy", "TEACCH has low expectations", or "TEACCH does not believe in inclusion", people will say emphatically. Our TEACCH approach is quite different and much more flexible than any of these false descriptions would suggest. This short statement is designed to present the major priorities of the TEACCH approach. Developed in the early 1970's by our founder, Schopler, the TEACCH approach includes a focus on the person with autism and the development of a program around this person's skills, interests, and needs. The major priorities include centering on the individual, understanding autism, adopting appropriate adaptations, and a broadly-based intervention strategy building on existing skills and interests. By focusing on the individual we mean that the person is the priority, rather than any philosophical notion like inclusion, discrete trial training, facilitated communication, etc. We emphasize individualized assessment to understand the individual better and also "the culture of autism," suggesting that people with autism are part of a distinctive group with common characteristics that are different, but not necessarily inferior, to the rest of us. Emphasizing assessment and the culture of autism requires us to understand people with autism as they are and to build our programs around where each person is functioning. This does not suggest lower or higher expectations; it simply requires starting where people are and helping them to develop as far as they can go. This is different from espousing a model of "normal" behavior for everyone and requiring people with autism to fit into that mold, whether that is comfortable for them or not. Structured teaching is an important priority because of the TEACCH research and experience that structure fits the "culture of autism" more effectively than any other techniques we have observed. Organizing the physical environment, developing schedules and work systems, making expectations clear and explicit, and using visual materials have been effective ways of developing skills and allowing people with autism to use these skills independently of direct adult prompting and cueing. These priorities are especially important for students with autism who are frequently held back by their inability to work independently in a variety of situations. Structured teaching says nothing about where people with autism should be educated; this is a decision based on the skills and needs of each individual student. Some can work effectively and benefit from regular educational programs, while others will need special classrooms for part or all of the day where the physical environment, curriculum, and personnel can be organized and manipulated to reflect individual needs. Cultivating strengths and interests, rather than drilling solely on deficits, is another important priority. Obviously any program working with handicapped people has to maintain a balance between developing skills and remediating deficits. In this sense TEACCH is no different from any other program. On the other hand, most programs dealing with developmental disabilities emphasize remediating deficits and focus their entire efforts on that goal. Our approach, respecting the "culture of autism," recognized that the differences between people with autism and other can sometimes favor people with autism. Their relative strengths in visual skills, recognizing details, and memory, among other areas, can become the basis of successful adult functioning. TEACCH has also observed that capitalizing on their interests, even though they might be peculiar from our perspective, helps increase their motivation and understanding of what they are doing. These strategies enhance efforts to work positively and productively with these people, rather than coercing and forcing them in directions that do not interest them and that they cannot comprehend. The TEACCH approach is also broad-based, taking into account all aspects of the lives of people with autism and their families. Although independent work skills are emphasized, it is also recognized that life is not all work and that communication, social and leisure skills can be learned by people with autism and can have an important impact on their well-being. An important part of any TEACCH curriculum is developing communication skills, pursuing social and leisure interests, and encouraging people with autism to pursue more of these opportunities. In addition to these techniques of understanding autism, developing appropriate structures, promoting independent work skills, emphasizing strengths and interests and fostering communication, social and leisure outlets, the TEACCH approach is most successfully implemented on a systems level. Based on the concept that coordination and integration over time is as important as consistency within a given situation, the TEACCH approach is most effective when it is applied across age groups and agencies. Frequently professionals obsess over maintaining a consistent environment from day to day, but then a child jumps from technique to technique when changing settings over time. Division TEACCH believes that the interests of people with autism are best served with coordinated and cooperative programming based on consistent principles over a life time. Therefore, we try to maintain continuity in our approach while integrating new ideas slowly and only after they have proven effective. Our TEACCH principles, developed in 1974, have stood the test of time; adults brought up using those practices are now the most productive and successful in the world with lives that are full, rich, and meaningful.

B. Mesibov, Ph.D.Professor and DirectorDivision TEACCH

***I will say that I do incorporate aspects of the TEACCH program into my classroom. I will say that out of the letter above what sticks out most to me (that is something observable in a classroom setting) is--

"Organizing the physical environment, developing schedules and work systems, making expectations clear and explicit, and using visual materials have been effective ways of developing skills and allowing people with autism to use these skills independently of direct adult prompting and cueing."

So, when you walk into my classroom and see that there is an area for work and an area for taking a break--that is a "Teacch concept". The idea that the physical location will help the children to understand in a visual sense what is going on. Teaching skills of independence, such as learning how to follow a schedule--to look at the schedule, see the cue of what to do, be able to go independently and get your own work materials, take it back to a work station, do the work on your own--those are "teacch concepts".

I think the important thing to watch for in the classroom as they are introducing this is to ensure that those fallacies Dr. Mesibov mentioned above (no communication training, no group/social interaction) don't become reality. If you walk in a classroom, and every student sits at their own study carrell all day with no interaction---that's not what Teacch is intended to be.

To be honest, if your child's behavior has been horrible this year, maybe its because the previous program was too unstructured for her. (Not knocking the teacher--only referring to what you wrote in your email that it was less structured previously.) Maybe this new program will help her to better understand and predict what will happen in her school day, and in turn result in a more predicatable and pleasant day for her. Wish you all the best!

Reply-To: Autism-Florida To: Autism-Florida Subject: [Autism-Florida] TEACCH programDate: Tue, 20 Dec 2005 04:00:48 -0000I was wondering if anyone has had an experience with the TEACCH program out of Chapel Hill? Starting in January my daughters school is going to be using this program and I'm not familiar with it at all. So any information good or bad just so I have some ideas, her teacher has warned me that it is a much more structured program than she is using now and that we may have some behavioral issues arise until she gets used to all the changes, but her behavior this school year has been horrible so I can't imagine it being any worse.Thanks,Theresa