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The only public school in Wisconsin designed especially for children with autism began class Monday in a two-room schoolhouse west of the Fond du Lac County Airport.
First Step Forward started quietly with three children, a team of three teachers -- an early childhood education specialist, a speech language therapist and an occupational therapist -- and an eclectic curriculum developed from the cutting edge of research findings and treatment strategies for this developmental disorder.
Total enrollment is five, from four school districts in the Fond du Lac area, but the other two children will be phased in gradually, beginning in two weeks.
For Dan and Susan Digman of Fond du Lac, this pale, bland classroom -- across the hall from a color-drenched classroom full of typical 4-year-old kindergartners at the James Otis School -- is a dream environment they brought into being.
It offers what their 4-year-old son, Nathan, and children like him need to find a path to independence through a world that sometimes seems to be an overwhelming jumble of chaotic, competing sights, sounds and sensations.
Heavy-duty soundproofing makes this a quiet room. A closed door erases conversations in the hallway and other audible distractions.
"Fond du Lac is a progressive school district interested in providing services to all their children." |
White paint coats walls unadorned by pictures or posters. Carpeting is neutral. The bulletin board is plain, off-white. No jazzy border decorations here.
Dividers of a soft gray carve the room into separate areas -- for play, for one-on-one work, for group snacks, for physical activities, for computer work, small group work. Individual study carrels, totally cut off from one another, allow each of the five pupils to practice independently the skills learned in one-on-one sessions. A tented pillow area offers a complete getaway.
Susan Stokes, autism coordinator for Cooperative Educational Service Agency No. 6, which operates the school for 42 districts in the region, said, "They need very clear visual boundaries."
Here is a place Nathan can learn.
As described by Gail J. Richard in "The Source for Autism," "Autism is a developmental disorder (in which) a defect in the systems which process incoming sensory information causes the child to overreact to some stimuli and under-react to others. The autistic child often withdraws from her environment and the people in it to block out an onslaught of incoming stimuli."
To cope with this sensory assault, children with autism adopt a number of soothing techniques -- rocking and swinging among them. That's why the classroom ceiling has steel I-beams with clips onto which a teacher can hang a swing at a moment's notice.
Digman calls herself and her husband proactive parents.
She gets no argument from Stokes.
"Without them, we wouldn't be here," she said.
Digman traces the history of the couple's determined effort to find the right kind of education for their son.
Until 171/2 months, Nathan was showing typical development. Then he developed a severe virus for which he was hospitalized.
"That was a turning point," his mother said. "We literally began losing skills, including the ability to feed himself. He became very distant."
In three or four months, autism was diagnosed.
"The day after the diagnosis, we enrolled him in occupational therapy and speech language therapy and put together a play-based home therapy," Digman said.
Nathan was started on a special diet that seems to benefit some children with autism.
When he was 3, he began an early childhood development program in the Fond du Lac public schools, "with a wonderful teacher," his mother said.
Digman, who had eagerly looked forward to the program, was in the classroom weekly.
"There was a marked difference between how Nathan and the other children responded to the environment," she said.
The colorful displays of the classroom, meant to attract the attention of other children, overstimulated Nathan. Classes emphasized group activities. Nathan needed lots of one-on-one time.
Digman looked for alternative public education and found none.
Winning a planning grant, she investigated the possibility of a charter school. With the blessing of the Fond du Lac school system, she involved other members of the community in planning, researching and evaluating ideas.
Eventually, they rejected the idea of a charter school. Instead, they sought and won approval from CESA No. 6 for an early intervention program for children 3 to 6 years old, to be operated 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. year-round. Class size will remain small. Maximum enrollment is eight children.
"Everybody is in favor of this," said Ed Hawkinson, director of special education for CESA 6. "Fond du Lac is a progressive school district interested in providing services to all their children."
What makes the program different, Stokes said, is its approach of taking cues from the children as to what learning style works best with them.
"Each child's individual needs drive their daily program," she said.
In response to the Individual Education Plan drawn up for each pupil by parents and teachers together, each child receives a visual schedule for the day in which illustrations on a chart match logos posted at each learning area.
That kind of visual cue is very important for children who learn faster and better from what they see than from what they hear, Stokes said.
"We named it `First Step,' " Digman said, "because we assume there would be other steps to follow."
Research indicates that early intervention programs have enormous educational paybacks. Eventually, similar programs might be developed through the elementary grades.
Digman said, "By making the investment upfront, the likelihood of being able to function individually within the mainstream is very high."
Ideally, other areas of the state may find something to emulate in the pale, bland classroom west of the airport, Stokes said.
In the meantime, the team of teachers there will concentrate on helping Nathan and his classmates learn, each in his own way.
Posted October 11, 1999