Using the TEACCH Program with ASD Students
| Subject: | 🧘🏻 Mental Health |
| Type: | Proposal Essay |
| Pages: | 5 |
| Word count: | 1343 |
| Topics: | 🟡 Autism, Medicine |
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Table of Contents
Introduction
The current paper is a detailed proposal on the way the TEACCH Program will be laid out to help the learning of the students identified to be suffering from Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The institution attends to 10 students, who have been diagnosed with ASD previously, with each of them requiring different needs and care to guarantee their educational attainment. The institution has been undertaking extensive research on the best way to handle the needs and demands of the students suffering from ASD, and it has established that the TEACCH Program could be an effective measure to address the needs of the 10 students. As such, the current proposal will outline all the objectives, and related issues concerning the institutions plan to implement the TEACCH Program to address the needs of the 10 students suffering from ASD.
Goals and Objectives of Implementing the TEACCH Program
The implementation of the TEACCH Program is being implemented with the following goals and objectives in mind:
- The TEACH Program is intended to enhance the predictability of the behaviors of the ASD students in the institution. Currently, it is hard to predict the behavioral attributes of the ASDF students, which makes it difficult to provide the best educational strategies to be implemented to enhance their learning.
- The TEACCH program is aimed at building the cognitive and understanding capabilities of the ASD students in the institution (Schopler, & Mesibov, 1983). Apparently, ASD affects the ability of the students to understand and advance their cognitive capabilities. As such, the program is being undertaken to ensure that such students can understand their immediate environment and be able to process lessons and ideas with the highest cognitive capabilities possible.
- The TEACCH Program is being undertaken with the objective of enhancing communication between the students, their teachers, and their parents/caregivers who are directly responsible for the attainment of their learning objectives. It has been ascertained that indeed, effective communication between the three stakeholders identified in the current section will be able to enhance the levels of educational attainment amongst the ASD students involved in the program.
Description of the Program
The term TEACCH is an abbreviation for Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication related Disabled Children (Mesibov & Shea, 2010). The program is directly related to the education and cognitive development of ASD students, and it has been applied with successful results in several institutions across the world ever since it was developed (Panerai et al. 2009). The institution has settled for the TEACCH Program given the high probability of success that it has been associated with wherever it has been applied. The program fits perfectly with the model of teaching and learning that the institution has developed for its ASD student population. Clearly, with all the required input from the involved stakeholders, it is apparent that TEACCH Program will be able to help the students attain the highest levels of educational attainment.
The institution applying for funding is implementing the program. The program will be applied for ASD students of between grades 6 and 8, and it is expected that by the time all the milestones of the TEACCH Program are attained, the students will have attained all the expected educational outcomes. The program runs for an entire year of the school calendar; a scheduling agreed upon for it provides an effective way to measure the success or weaknesses entailing its application for the ASD students in the institution.
Potential Outcomes Expected from the TEACCH Program Implementation
The following are the three main outcomes expected out of the implementation of the TEACCH program in the institution:
- The students will be able to improve their academic performance records. It is expected that through the more effective instructional and teaching methods of the program, it will be possible to help the students to retain more of the lessons that they learn in class, which will help them respond to test and examination questions better and enhance their grades in such assessment exercises.
- The students will be able to exhibit better behaviors both in public and in private. As it is understood, the ASD condition impairs the behaviors and other social attributes that an individual, regardless of their age, exhibits publicly and privately. As such, it is the objective of the program that the ASD students will be able to improve and exhibit better behaviors publicly and privately.
- The implementation of the TEACCH Program is intended at enhancing the communication capabilities of the ASD students undertaking their learning activities in the institutions. It is expected that the incoherent communication mannerisms exhibited by most of the ASD students will be addressed with the training and exposure that the students will go through during the implementation of the program.
The success of the TEACH Program will be measured by the levels of the attainment and realization of the expected outcomes listed above. If the measurement of the outcome realizes a significant shift towards a positive side of the expected outcome, then the program will be rated as a success. On the other hand, if the program is measured on its attainment and it is found that the students record minimal or no changes at all, then the program’s implementation will be seen as a failure. It is recommended that the measurement of the effectiveness or failure of the program be conducted at the end of the final learning term in a year. At such a time, all the laid down activities of the program will have been covered with all the detail that they require.
Assistive Technologies to be used with the TEACCH Program
Some of the assistive technologies to be used with the program include the following:
The teachers of the ASD students could use audiovisual learning aids, which will enhance the use of video on learning of daily activities that could be challenging to the students suffering from ASD. The audiovisual technologies will be able to enhance the abilities of the students to learn the ways to accomplish common tasks by watching and learning other undertake such tasks.
The other assistive technology that can be used is the computer. ASD students can be taught using the special computer programs developed to enhance their learning and development. As an assistive technology, such computer programs provide a range of effective strategies that can help ASD students improve their performance in their schoolwork and their general lives.
The Staffing Required for the Program
The following personnel will be required for the success of the TEACCH Program in the institution:
Educational psychologist
The educational psychologist will be able to determine the educational needs of the ASD students and review the required teaching and instructional methods required for the success of the program.
Resource Teachers
The resources teachers will be analyzing the special needs that the ASD students have and initiate a strategy to ensure that all such special needs are addressed with the TEACCH program.
Home Tutors
The home tutors will help the students maintain their learning activities back at home while they may be away from school. ASD students require that their learning continues even at their home, which will be undertaken by the home tutors in this case.
Rationale of the TEACCH Program
The TEACCH program has been under implementation for several years now. It is was theorized since 1988, and it has been implemented successfully in most schools where ASD students are served (Virues-Ortega, Julio & Pastor-Barriuso, 2013). The TEACCH program is in line with the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1988, which requires that all students with disabilities be trained with the use of the most efficient technologies available in the market.
Conclusion
It is clear that the TEACCH Program will be effective in the way it will be applied in the institution. It is expected that the funding will go a long way in helping the institution to realize its goals. Finally, the institution will be appreciative of the gesture of goodwill that will be shown through the provision of the funds required for the implementation of the TEACCH program.
- Mesibov, G. B., & Shea, V. (2010). The TEACCH program in the era of evidence-based practice. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 40(5), 570-579.
- Panerai, S., Zingale, M., Trubia, G., Finocchiaro, M., Zuccarello, R., Ferri, R., & Elia, M. (2009). Special education versus inclusive education: the role of the TEACCH program. Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 39(6), 874-882.
- Schopler, E., & Mesibov, G. B. (Eds.). (1983). Autism in adolescents and adults. Springer Science & Business Media.
- Virues-Ortega, J., Julio, F. M., & Pastor-Barriuso, R. (2013). The TEACCH program for children and adults with autism: A meta-analysis of intervention studies. Clinical psychology review, 33(8), 940-953.
Offered for reference purposes only.