IN Ireland, there are thousands of children with communication problems that require some sort of special education. In the USA and the UK, projects geared towards these youngsters have been up and running since the 1960s. One of these schemes is the TEACCH (Training and Education of Autistics and Children with Communication Handicap) programme based in the University of North Carolina (UNC).
The director of the scheme, Dry Gary Mesibov, has visited Ireland several times and believes that his approach could be adapted to suit Irish educational conditions.
TEACCH was established in 1959 by a federal grant after strong representations were made by parents of autistic children to the North Carolina state assembly. A funded study involving 20 families was set up and in the decades that followed more people became involved. This pioneering work helped discredit the view among medical professionals in the 1950s that the behaviour of parents caused autism in their children.
Today the programme operates on an annual budget of $6 million and caters for 4,000 youngsters scattered across the state of North Carolina. The focus is on providing "appropriate" education for autistic children.
However, course director Mesibov said the method can also help a whole range of people with communication handicaps. "TEACCH works well for all levels of mental retardation right down to profound mental handicap - the exception is those cases where the handicap is so profound that the child has lost motor function. It can also be used for Attention Deficit Disorder and Asperger Syndrome," he says.
The curriculum at Chapel Hill constantly changes to take account of new research findings and the classroom response of students to existing teaching methods and materials. Teachers are obliged to keep pace with developments at UNC since virtually every school district in North Carolina now demands that special education teachers must have participated in TEACCH before employment.
THE PARENTS and professionals combine to design the individual child's curriculum. The parents have a say in what they would like the child to learn but must accept the limitations set by professionals on what can be realistically achieved.
In the classroom, each child is assigned to a "work station" and utilises separate areas for work, play and relaxation. The children are taught the proper way to eat, sleep and dress themselves and to improve their language and speech skills.
The children also require regular trips outside the school. These outings can help reduce behavioural problems such as tantrums, screeching and obsessiveness by making the children less terrified of, and more comfortable with, "normal" society.
There are an estimated 12,000 people suffering from some kind of communication disorder in this State. Of these, approximately 7,000 people fit within the "autism spectrum", 3,908 that are "severely" mentally handicapped and 1,159 that are "profoundly" mentally handicapped. And these figures do not include the hundreds more that are likely to be affected by Attention Deficit Disorder.
The quality of learning provided for these groups by the Department of Education is the subject of ongoing concern among many parents and special education teachers. They highlight the lack of places available at special schools, the lack of a proper curriculum, the lack of appropriate teacher training initiatives and the reluctance of schools to allow parents to become involved in the education of their children.
The Department's policy is that autistic children are placed in schools for the emotionally disturbed. This mixture of children is a "bad combination", said Mesibov. It will more often harm autistic children than do them any good he says. "Sometimes these emotionally disturbed children are streetwise kids and the autistic kids are very naive - a lot of times they can take advantage of them."
In an ideal world, an autistic child should be diagnosed as early as four years, when symptoms can first be conclusively identified. After a positive diagnosis, the next step is to educate the family of an autistic child about autism and then to train each member to work productively with the child. Educational support continues for the child until the maximum level of autonomy has been achieved.
IN Northern Ireland the TEACCH programme received the backing of the government, again due mainly to political pressure from local parents' groups. A pilot programme was set up there in 1992. This proved highly successful and received a favourable assessment by representatives of the UK authorities.
The main argument against the introduction of TEACCH in the Republic is the cost about £10,000 per person, per annum. But Mesibov says that this programme should still be seen as a net financial saving for Ireland since the cost of residential care for a dependent adult of about £40,000 per year is far greater than the cost of education for a child with communication problems.
"We have one person at TEACCH who is severely autistic and had been in residential care for 25 years. We took her onto the programme and by the time she was done she could make a minimum wage and pay taxes in a supervised living environment.
"She has saved the state $70,000 a year in the cost of residential care services. Since she is now 50 years old we estimate our work (with her) has saved North Carolina $1 million over the past 20 years," he says.
He believes that these are the kind of sound financial arguments that could help to sell TEACCH to reluctant Department of Education officials. In the meantime, parents and teachers claim there is a tragedy unfolding for thousands of children who are receiving either no education or an entirely "inappropriate" form of education.
