Program helps autistic students

Jennifer Brookens — Staff Writer
WELCOME — As the end of the school day nears, there are two boys left on the playground. One has had a rough day and is with a teacher. The other stands by and just waits.

When asked what he normally likes to do on the playground, he gestures to the other boy and says, “Play with him, when he’s making good choices.”

Good choices are a big part of what students with autism spectrum disorder need to learn before they are integrated into the public school system.

“We started seeing a lot of students in the severe range that had to be taken to other districts,” explained Cherlynn Brumbaugh, director of special services for the Southern Plains Education Cooperative. “We were taking them a good distance like Waseca. Then all the calls in the world weren’t getting them placement.”

To fill the need for special programming for autistic students, the Southern Plains Co-op began the Positive Approach to Autism Spectrum Disorders program, which serves five different school districts in Martin and Faribault counties.

“We had several choices of where the school could be housed,” said Brumbaugh. “The Lincoln School in Fairmont was full, there was a classroom in Truman, but with some class rearrangements, that room got filled. We also looked at the school building in Winnebago. But at the Welcome facility, the entire upstairs wing was available.”

“We enjoy having the space,” said teacher Kristin Tietje. “We have a sensory room, our own library and our own bathrooms. It’s good because they aren’t disturbed by other students coming by, and vice versa; we don’t disturb them.”

The class began in February 2006 with two students and now is up to six.

“We could have up to eight students, but any more and we would need to hire another teacher,” Brumbaugh said.

The class serves students from kindergarten to ninth grade with high needs on social-communicative interactions, social initiations and self-regulation of behavior. The class also addresses the students’ individual academic needs.

“We have a saying that if someone knows someone who has autism, that they know one person who has autism,” said Rae Dierks, who is the autism specialist in the southern plains area. “The disability is individualized.”

“Some are academic-oriented, others are working on functional skills,” Tietje said.

Those with Autism Spectrum Disorders have a high need for sensory integration programs. They are usually hypersensitive or hyposensitive to varying degrees, which can affect only one area or all areas of the senses. Hypersensitivity could be feeling pain from clothes rubbing on the skin, being unable to tolerate normal lighting in a room, not liking to be touched or even experiencing discomfort from looking directly into another person’s eyes. Hyposensitivity is the opposite — a high tolerance for sensory stimulation. Something that is normally considered painful feels good to the person with hyposensitivity.

“Nearly all of the students have food issues,” Tietje said. “We have students who literally gag at some certain foods. We always have them try at least one bite. What we try to do is desensitize because otherwise the anxiety for the child just builds.”

A “sensory diet” needs to be used with the children in order to calm or stimulate their sensory system. Much more than the foods served, in this case a sensory diet is a schedule of daily activities that gives the child the sensory fuel needed for him to get into an organized state and stay there. Autistic children rely on repetition, structure and routine.

Even field trips are planned out to the letter for the students.

“We’re going to be doing some therapeutic horseback riding,” Tietje said. “And we talk about everything that’s going to happen, from how we’re going to get on the bus to how, when we get on the horse, we put our feet in the stirrups ... We did it last year, and all the children handled it well. We just wrote everything out step-by-step, detail-by-detail.”

While the autistic students may have their own floor at the Welcome school building, outings and field trips are encouraged.

“It prepares them for those social skills,” Dierks said. “Those social stories are important.”

The students have several outings, from bowling twice a month to a planned trip to Sioux Falls to see the Kids Science Center and the Butterfly House.

“It’s part of being integrated into the mainstream,” Dierks said.

The main goal of the autistic class is to build upon each child’s strengths in order for them become independent, functioning adults. But this is something that can not be learned on an outpatient basis.

“We focus on general skills across the curriculum,” Tietje said. “They need to learn not just in class, but also at home.”

Raising an autistic child takes those in the child’s life — parents, educators and doctors — working together for what’s best for that child.

“We work with parents, we invite them into the classroom,” Tietje said. “When home and school work together, we can share information on that child and the better things will be for that child.”