Chapter 03 Video Activity: Teaching as a Profession: Programs for Children with Autism
Expand upon what you’ve learned from the chapter by watching the video and answering the questions that follow.
the video reading: CC
> Two.
>> I look at Zachary. I’m proud of him. He makes me happy. I cry every night that he gets better.
>> I’m shocked by —
>> When Zachary Sistaro [assumed spelling] was diagnosed with autism two years ago, he couldn’t speak.
>> HWE would spend most of his day in front of the TV, not talking.
>> Look at that cutting, Daddy.
>> I see it, pal. You’re doing a great job.
>> Now four years old, Zachary is not only capable of conversation —
>> Old McDonald had a farm, E-I-E-I-O —
>> — but he’s singing —
>> Whoo!
>> — and dancing, too.
>> Alright.
>> Spinning.
>> Zachary is one of 22 students —
>> Whoa!
>> — age three to eleven attending New Jersey’s Reed Academy, a school that caters to the special needs of children with autism.
>> Think we take more responsibility for those things that are not real traditional school.
>> John Brown is Reed’s executive director, and by “not real traditional,” he’s referring to lessons like this: a student learning the importance of patience.
>> And why is he just waiting?
>> He’s actually learning to wait.
>> For a child with autism, this can be a very difficult exercise, but Brown believes the ability to wait three minutes in line is a necessity worth teaching.
>> It’s an important skill for kids to have, because then they get to go to the community with their families. If you can’t wait and you’re pulling everything off the counter while Mom’s trying to check out, Mom leaves you at home.
>> Did you work nicely?
>> When time is up, points are earned — in this case, pennies, which can be spent later —
>> Nice job!
>> — doing something the student would enjoy.
>> We really work on the skills each kid needs. Each kid moves as their skills develop. So it’s highly individualized.
>> So what number?
>> Gaa!
>> Great —
>> According to Brown, that level of individual attention can be realized only through one-on-one interaction.
>> Good! I like the way you’re following a direction!
>> New Jersey’s department of education currently requires a three-to-one ratio for instructing children with autism. But since schools like Reed Academy are publicly funded, no tuition is required to attend these privately run schools. It’s a model that now has parents forming long waiting lists to get their kids enrolled.
>> What’d you get?
>> Give me a kiss, bud.
>> In fact, Reed was founded by parents who just couldn’t wait any longer.
>> Tell me what it took, Michael.
>> Well, it just took a bunch of desperate parents. It’s really what it took.
>> Michael and Donna Sluca [assumed spelling] were desperate because their youngest of three children, Connor, has severe autism.
>> Awesome job! That’s using all your fingers, bud! Good job!
>> They felt he needed a school that offered the same intensive instruction he was getting at home.
>> Here is the great treatment that your child is going to be okay, but only if you can have it, you can go on the waiting list. Like, how scary is that?
>> Hi, Connor.
>> The Slucas joined a coalition of like-minded parents to start Reed Academy, and within 18 months, they were up and running out of a temple basement. The school’s current location is rented from this church, but plans are underway for a far larger facility to go up within two years. This is where the new Reed Academy will be built. It’ll be a sprawling, state-of-the-art complex dedicated to teaching children with autism. But a bigger facility won’t necessarily mean more students. There are still nearly 250 kids on a waiting list.
>> Georgia, what did you make?
>> A picture of —
>> Kids like Georgia Sorkin [assumed spelling], who receives daily instruction in her home while her parents wait to hear from any one of six schools offering one-on-one instruction in Northern New Jersey.
>> The odds are highly against me and every other parent out there.
>> Georgia’s mother, Hannah, will likely enroll her in a regional public school, where she believes one-to-one programs can also be developed.
>> It can’t be the burden of six small schools to carry all these kids. They have to stand as models for the rest of the education community.
>> Without schools like this, there’s no future for these kids.
>> And so far, Andrew Sistaro is seeing a remarkably bright future for his son Zachary.
>> They’re going to try to, like, send him to a preschool next January, and then from there, they’re going to try a half-day Kindergarten. And then from there maybe he can graduate and have a decent life.
>> He’s getting on the —
question
1. This video focuses on a school in New Jersey designed to address particular issues of students with autism, a school that was founded by parents. Discuss the challenges that children with ASD and their families faced in the video and how and when EI programs can best serve young people with this disorder.
question
2. The video refers to the New Jersey school as taking care of the “special needs” of children with autism; the text speaks of the preferable term “special rights.” What are the issues at stake here, and how does the language surrounding disorders such as autism affect the equal and equitable participation of people with disabilities and other conditions in society at large?
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