Children with autism show the same need for social interaction and affection as any other person, but the way social interest and affection is demonstrated may not be as readily identified to those who haven\u2019t lived with a child with autism.
\nAn autistic child may not communicate as much and the style of communication may not be effective with the larger world of listeners, but the children do indeed communicate.
\nThe Pennsylvania Verbal Behavior Project is a grant program funded by the PA Department of Education and the Bureau of Special Education. The project is in its first year at the Tyrone Area School District (TASD). It serves 13 students with autism from the elementary level to the middle and high school level, and includes two children from Bellwood.
\nThe project is staffed by consultants who provide guidance on effective instruction for students with autism. The TASD consultant is Linda Franchock, who works for Intermediate Unit 11. Barbara Mozina is Tyrone\u2019s Special Education Supervisor.
\nThe program at Tyrone consists of two classrooms – an elementary class taught by Autistic Support teacher Carrie Grassi, and a middle and high school class taught by Autistic Support teacher Emily Oakes.
\nIt is currently funded through next year, and the district hopes that the program is completely implemented by the end of next year. If funding is no longer available, the school will still be able to conduct the program.
\nThe purpose of the PA Verbal Behavior Project is to enhance learning and communication to improve the lives of children who live with autism and their families. The project provides training, consultation, resources, and information in classrooms that will provide specified teaching procedures using Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and the Analysis of Verbal Behavior to improve communication, social, self-care, and leisure skills of students with autism.
\nABA is the science of studying behavior and applying data supported techniques to increase and\/or decrease behaviors that are meaningful to the student and student\u2019s social environment. Verbal Behavior is behavior that is mediated by the behavior of another person – what a student does in most of his or her interactions with other people. It is communication.
\nAmong other things, it also develops and implements Individual Education Program (IEP) goals, based on individual student needs, using effective instruction based on principles of ABA and Analysis of Verbal Behavior. It teaches staff to utilize the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (ABLLS) as an assessment tool and curriculum guide.
\nBefore autistic children are taught, their skills are assessed. That is done by using the Basic Language Assessment Form (BLAF) and the ABLLS. The child is taught then to cooperate and enjoy being in the environment they are in, instead of forcing the child. Teachers associate themselves with the child\u2019s favorite items or activities, in hopes that the child will then approach the teacher. It\u2019s pairing with reinforcement.
\nThe goal is to teach the child how to ask for what they want, say what things are, answer questions, follow directions, imitate, and use toys or other objects appropriately.
\nGrassi, elementary school Autistic Support teacher, said that she is extremely pleased with the amount of support the program offers. She thinks a really great quality of the program is the assessments that are used.
\n\u201cIt is so thorough that I feel I really understand my students and their needs, and I have hopes of seeing great gains in my students over the next couple of years,\u201d added Grassi.
\n\u201cInitially it\u2019s a change, so typically an autistic kid doesn\u2019t respond well to change,\u201d said Mozina, Special Education Supervisor at Tyrone. \u201cThe typical response is they\u2019re going to reject it and fight it, but now they\u2019re starting to realize it. It\u2019s totally lined up with a reward system, so now they\u2019re seeing a reward to be able to use language (to ask for things). They\u2019re accepting it now.\u201d
\nMozina said the program has been \u201cextremely\u201d successful, because it\u2019s individualized. It looks at every child\u2019s needs and it addresses those needs, goals, and objectives. She said it drives each IEP that a kid has, based on how the child comes out with the assessment.
\nTyrone\u2019s previous curriculum geared towards autistic students was asking too much from the students, according to Mozina. She said that with this new program, the school is asking exactly what the students needs are and bring them up slowly in the process.
\n\u201cWhat\u2019s most gratifying for the teachers is that they have a direction,\u201d said Mozina. \u201cThey have materials, they have an Internal Coach in Linda (Franchock) who shows up regularly, and they can get help continuously because autism is such a new disability and schools are doing something about this.\u201d
\nThe PA Verbal Behavior Project puts in the hands of teachers exactly what they need to do to meet the needs of the kids in the program, as indicated by their disability. It contrives situations where the child asks for things, instead of doing things by routine.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s really starting with baseline concepts of language and how to use language, what to do with language, and it\u2019s starting with the very bottom stuff and working its way up,\u201d said Mozina. \u201cThen we have some kind of building block to move on to academics and reading.\u201d<\/p>\n
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