Autistic children who attend the Picayune School District will soon reap the benefits of specialized instruction thanks to a $59,316 partial funding grant from the Lower Pearl River Valley Foundation.
The grant will pay a teacher assistant’s yearly salary as well as intensive autism training and supplies, Picayune School District’s Director of Exceptional Education Diane Wise said.
“We are using a school psychologist who will provide intensive social and behavioral training,” Wise said.
The instructor will also receive training with Applied Behavior Analysis therapy, Wise said. ABA is a research based program for students with autism, she said.
“When I think of autism, I think of those students who have social deficits and don’t know how to interact with others,” Wise said. “They also lack the ability to communicate effectively with people and display repetitive behaviors. The ABA therapy proves to work with the students and also carries over into academics. Autistic students in our class benefit from intensive one on one academic and behavior support in a very structured setting using a variety of materials and specialized equipment. Our teacher, Ms. Stewart has a passion for autistic students and works very hard with the students in her room.”
At the beginning of the school year, Wise said she had one student who could only utter one word. Now, after a year in school, that same student can read a book out loud, she said.
“The ultimate goal of the classroom is for students with autism spectrum disorders to develop the skills necessary to become productive members of the learning community and become happy, serviceable members of the community,” Wise said in a LPRVF release.
This is the second year the foundation provided funding for early intervention services for disabled children program at the Picayune School District, a LPRVF release states.
In the release Wise said four kindergarteners are enrolled in the program and the grant will enable them to continue in the specialized class next year when new kindergarten students are added.
“This grant will enable the district to continue providing a specialized instructional environment for autistic students. The Lower Pearl River Valley Foundation is happy to assist in this implementation.”
Wise said she couldn’t stress how grateful she is to the foundation for their generosity.
“This training is expensive and time consuming,” she said. “It takes a lot of it to be implemented with integrity and fidelity.”
Learn more about autism at http://nationalautismassociation.org/.