The Preschool Autism Program provides a full continuum of options that incorporate best practices and autism strategies in a very unique design. We have an expanded school year calendar that includes 7 weeks of programming during the summer months.
Our program currently includes 4 classrooms for ages 2-6. Children are placed in a classroom based on their skills, abilities and age, and may move through all 3 types of classrooms or could skip steps, depending on their needs.
{Croyden teacher with preschool student} The Discrete Trial Preschool Classroom provides one on one instruction in the style of Applied Behavior Analysis. Our partnership with Western Michigan University’s Behavioral Psychology Department has enabled us to provide this unique type of instruction designed to get young children ready to learn. The classroom has one teacher, two full time paraprofessionals and each semester approximately 45 behavioral psychology practicum students work with children in 3 shifts during the school day. Instructional decisions are driven by data, which is collected daily on each skill for each child. The major emphasis is on giving children a variety of ways to communicate (speech, picture exchange communication system and sign) and to help young children with autism make sense of the world through a very highly structured environment and repetition. Our staff has developed our own Discrete Trial Curriculum with skills arranged in 5 levels. Most children in this classroom are working on levels 1 and 2.
Our Group Skills Preschool Classrooms help children begin to learn in small groups (2-3 children up to 7 children). The emphasis in these classrooms is on building language and communication skills; building environmental awareness so that children begin to learn from other children; and expanding play skills. While academic activities are incorporated, learning the academic skill presented is secondary to the social, communication and behavior skills that are being developed. A typical preschool setting is simulated, but on a smaller scale and with a large emphasis on language in all activities. Classrooms are staffed with one teacher and two full-time paraprofessionals for 7 children. Children participate in music, adapted physical education and swimming and have opportunities to participate in the YMCA Preschool classroom of typical peers that is housed in our building. Children in these classrooms are working on levels 3 and 4 of our curriculum, and additional supplemental curriculum materials are used as well (We Can!).
The Pre-Kindergarten Preschool Classroom is designed to simulate kindergarten type activities but on a smaller scale (centers, whole-group instruction). The emphasis continues to be on building and refining language and communication skills, but also includes: learning kindergarten routines; teaching self-regulation; and facilitating interactive and more imaginative play. Children in this classroom are working on levels 4 and 5 of our curriculum and are exposed to many typical preschool academic skills (naming colors, numbers, letters, letter sounds, counting, etc.). This classroom also has one teacher and two full time paraprofessionals for 7 children. Both the Group Skills and Pre-Kindergarten classrooms use Get it! Got it! Go! (Preschool DIBELS) to test early literacy skills.
Support Services: Children with autism in our program receive speech and language therapy, adapted physical education and for those who need it, occupational therapy to support them in reaching their goals.
{Bridging the Gap - Building Partnerships for Families logo} Bridging The Gap: Building Partnerships For Families is our new initiative to: link parents with community; provide education, information and learning opportunities; link parents for support from other parents; facilitate the transition to kindergarten; and problem-solve solutions that work. Parent meetings are held approximately once every month (third Thursday) to talk about a variety of topics specific to families of preschool children with autism. In addition to these meetings, teachers provide parent-teacher conferences several times a year. Sometimes these conferences include reviewing video tapes of their child to see first hand what their child is doing in school.
