Could anyone explain what TEACHH therapy for autism please..Where could I find a sample curriculum?

Question

Could anyone explain what TEACHH therapy for autism please..Where could I find a sample curriculum?

Answer 1

most obviously go to

www.teacch.com

Answer 2

Below is more from TEACCH website. However, I have taught children who have gone through the in-depth analysis they offer. TEACCH makes recommendations based on the needs of each child. Of course, public schools have no funding to provide a one-on-one person to follow a student through the day and place all papers in the appropriate notebook to help some students become more organized. (Asperger's student) However, TEACCH has provided some basics for us to employ, like reward verbalized requests or statements with immediate praise & touch, "Good talking." and maybe a raisin or whatever rewards the student. Sometimes the touch is not a reward but to have the student become acustomed to human touch.

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There are few programs in the world that can claim thirty years of experience with autistic people. TEACCH keeps evolving, they are continuously refining their approach, challenging old beliefs, adding new research results. They tend to be cautious there not to introduce techniques that are not proven on a large scale.

Unlike AIT, VT, Holding and other approaches the TEACCH program doesn't use a single technique or method. You will not find anybody at TEACCH telling you that they are going to "cure" autism.

The main goal of TEACCH for autistic children is to help them grow up to a maximum autonomy at adult age. This includes helping them understand the world that surround them, acquiring communication skills that will enable them to relate to other people and giving them as much as possible the necessary competence to be able to make choices concerning their own lives.

The major thrust is toward improving communication skills and autonomy to the maximum of the child potential, using education as a means to achieve that goal. Educational programs are being revised frequently, according with the child maturation and progress, since there are no good predictor of a child evolution and early assessment could prove misleading.

Educational strategies are established individually on the basis of a detailed assessment of the autistic person learning abilities, trying to identify potential for acquisitions rather than deficits.

The assessment called PEP, Psycho Educational Profile tries to identify areas where the person "passes", areas where the skill isn't there yet, and areas where the skill is emerging. These domains are then put in an education program for the person. This assessment is multi dimensional. This is a must since there is a great variability of skills, even in the same autistic person, from one domain of competency to the other. (I have also expended on that subject of assessment on the list earlier)

As opposed to behavior modification, these strategies do not work on the behavior directly but on underlying conditions that will foster learning experiences. They also make use of recent cognitive psychology research results about some differences in particular areas of brain processing in autistic people versus other people.

When behavior problems occur, they are not treated directly either. The approach calls for efforts to understand the underlying reasons for this behavior problem: anxiety, physical pain, difficulty with the task, unpredictable changes, boredom, etc... The idea is two folds:

A/ By giving the person means to understand better his/her environment, it (the environment) becomes more predictable and less anxiety generator. This may require proposing a simpler environment in the early phases of development and progressively reintroducing complexity as the child progresses towards more and more autonomy.

B/ By giving means of communication to the person the comprehension and expression capabilities will enable him/her to understand better what is being told/asked and to express his/her needs and feelings by other means than behavior problems.

Direct Behavior Modification isn't completely ruled out. It is reserved for those behaviors that endanger the person and for which the above strategy didn't work, at least so far. This is very rare.

Answer 3

Teacch is a model for seeing the whole child and meeting their individual needs. There is no single method used in the model, rather emphasis is put on meeting each child as an individual and meeting that person's needs, starting where they are. The emphasis is on assessment so that a team can decide what approach to use with a child.

TEACCH was developed in North Carolina as a model to follow that emphasizes the following:

# Respect for autistic people difference, whatever the degree of severity of autism

# Respect for parents and association of parents in the program as "Co-Therapists".

# Inclusion of parents opinions in decisions regarding younger children and more severely handicapped autistic adults.

# Inclusion of autistic people advice to the maximum extent of their possibilities of communication.

# Warmth of the professionals, mainly due to the next point

# In depth knowledge of autism from all points of view: medical, psychological, educational, social mainstreaming, affective, and yet these professionals remain very humble.

# Long experience with testable long term results (Thirty years). Education constituting the backbone of the approach.

# Continuous evolution of the teaching techniques based upon University research programs, integrating most recent knowledge to a long experience.

# Comprehensive program from early childhood to adult age, from diagnosis of very young children to adult evolution assessment, from low functioning to high functioning.

# Transportability of the approach: it could be adapted without problem to the French environment (or any other country). The approach is flexible enough to be adaptable.

# Last but not least, our overall impression that autistic people of all ages seemed happy and developing quite well towards a maximum of autonomy according to their individual capacity. This was from our own observation and from what parents told us.

I think things are pretty vague in terms of what they actually do, but their hearts are in the right place.