Autism Vox

A School That Just Accepts Autistic Kids

by Kristina Chew, PhD on June 28th, 2008

Not “a school for kids with autism,” but “a school that accepts kids with autism”—so Alison Moors, director of the Academy for Precision Learning says in an article in the June 27th Seattle Post-Intelligencer by Paul Nyhan. The school is just finishing its first year, with four teachers and five students. It was started by six parents of children with autism only ten months ago; next year, its enrollment will double and the school will move to the University District in Seattle. Currently, families pay tuition ($36,000 for one-on-one teaching, $21,000 for some support, and $14,000 for general education)

The teaching style at the school is what Nyhan describes as “Montessori on steroids”:

Based on the “Precision Teaching” method, which tailors instruction to each student, teachers meticulously document a student’s progress on pale-blue graphs. For their part, students move between highly structured sessions and looser child-directed time.

On a recent afternoon, Kauvel Mohazzabfar was watching a YouTube clip of “Dumbo” before sitting down to draw 70 strokes in consecutive boxes for two minutes. On his first try, the 8-year-old, who has autism, drew 66 lines, then he drew 57 lines and on his third attempt hit 72, which meant he could visit the class guinea pigs.

A few feet away, Jeremy, 11, and Neal, 8, ripped through their own vocabulary and reading exercises, two grade levels ahead.

“Oh, my favorite class is math,” Neal said. “I’m in second grade, but I’m doing third-grade work.”

The idea is that students repeatedly work on small skills, such as lines, sounds and words, until they are comfortable and ready for more complex work.

Plans are for the school to span six grades with 90 students, both those with special needs and those without and this is where director Moors’ comment about the Academy for Precision Learning being a school that “accepts kids with autism”—a school for all kids that is more than open to having autistic students—-comes in. The academy is for autistic students “who can function, with support, in classrooms with typical children” and would not be the right sort of school for my son, who so far does best in a classroom with autistic children being taught in highly structured and specific ways (Charlie has done well with lots of ABA).

Nonetheless, knowing that there are more educational options for autistic students is more than encouraging: Imagine a school that’s originally for autistic students that can also accept those who don’t have autism.

(Very small analogy: Years ago Charlie was very fond of those latex squishy balls, some of which you can turn inside-out, or that have little spikes, or that glow in the dark; we ordered a lot from places like Abilitations. Then a few years ago, we started to see squishy inside-out balls at Target, Toys ‘R’ Us, random toys stores—-the squishy ball’d gone mainstream. I guess we all could use a little sensory break.)

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POSTED IN: Education, Family, Sensory, Toys