TEACCH

Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication-handicapped CHildren

Ok, so I'll do my best to explain what TEACCH is - or at least the part as it relates to us.

What we are enrolled in is a 12 week parent instruction course using the TEACCH intervention approach called “Structured Teaching.”

A specific routine is established between 'work' and 'play'. The child is prompted to 'work' in a chair at a table for a specific number of tasks. At the end of each task, we say 'all done' and put it into a bucket. When all the tasks are done, a visual cue is given to let the child know that 'play' has begun. The child is prompted to 'play' on a carpet (to denote the play space) for a specific number of minutes. Then, there is a visual prompt to come back to the work space. This is repeated 3 times in one session, each rotation lasting between 10-15 minutes.

Work = A table + chair, bookcase to the left with all the tasks, and a bucket to the right for 'all-done' tasks. The tasks are either 'shoebox tasks' or 'folder tasks'. Basically, each shoebox has a specific job that has to be done. In my example picture, the child must remove the papers from the clips, drop the papers in the paper slot and drop the clips into the can. Then, the child is all-done. The folder tasks are very similar, the ones I have seen have velcro and require some sort of matching.

Play = A carpet and a basket of toys. If we need to use toys from our home, they must go in the basket first. The playtime is prompted to start, but is not structured outside of the fact that the child is supposed to sit on the carpet. The adult can engage and play with the child if they want to.

The visual cue we used today for going from Play to Work was a piece of play food that you feed to a little group of animals. I guess it was just something to grab his attention and make him want to come back over to the table. The visual cue we used for going from Work to Play was a noisy little ring stacker piece - that again grabbed his attention and he was interested to go after.

From what I understand, this structured learning is supposed to facilitate a very concrete way to learn new things (be it colors, labels, numbers, emotions) AND allow children who aren't great at picking up on cues the ability (eventually) to use their environment to figure out the rules of what is required AND facilitate an environment that will involve lots of transitions and change. The hope is to get them to look for cues and generalize what they learn.

Our visit: Ron comes in today - we chat for a few minutes - DS decides that Ron's name is 'Charlotte Bobcats' (because that's what was on his sweatshirt). It was quite hillarious. DS is going C-H-A-R-L-O-T-T-E-B-O-B-C-A-T-S, RON!!!! As if he is spelling RON. Then, he calls him 'John' several times, and then finally understands. ;-)

He totes in an amount of stuff that fills my entire livingroom - complete with a plastic bookcase, a table, a chair, 4 large totes, and a laundry basket all filled to the brim with exciting new things for BOTH of my children.

DS and DD are both immediately interested. It was really neat to sit and watch DS master each of today's 'age appropriate' tasks. He had no problem transitioning back and forth from play to work and work to play - as he LOVES new things. We'll see how great that goes the first time he is bored of the toys and he'd rather sit at the table and read words.

Ron had to go back out to the car to get new more challenging games 3 different times. He said not to worry - today was just an evaluation day and he had PLENTY of games that would engage and challenge DS (on future visits). He just needed to get a bottom and top level idea so future sessions would be challenging enough to get some real work done.

Well, that is my amateur version of TEACCH for today. I'm sure I will learn plenty over the course of the next 12 weeks - and I know more than I did yesterday. I never knew anything about TEACCH except the fact that they use picture cards to communicate. Not so.