Sunday, May 01, 2011
A New View, New Hope
From The Burg - May 2011 Edition
The Vista School educates, prepares autistic children for life.
By: Peter Durantine
More than a decade ago, Michael Jarman, a Harrisburg attorney with twin sons with autism, discovered that, regionally, the scope and quality of services for children with autism was beyond the reach of many families.
With a group of parents and professionals, many with a child with autism, Jarman started The Vista School in Hershey in February 2002. It’s a non-profit institution to prepare children with autism spectrum disorder to function with increasing independence in the community.
“What Mike realized was there were all these resources out there that were not well-coordinated,” said James Bouder, the school’s chief operating officer. “His idea was to bring them together under one roof for consistency of care.”
When it opened, the school served four children and today has more than 68 students, ranging in age from pre-kindergarten to secondary school age. The children come from nine counties in central Pennsylvania.
Bouder, whose son attends the school, said Vista prepares students for meaningful involvement in public school programs, community activities and eventually the workplace, though they will always require some adult supervised guidance.
The children who attend Vista exhibit moderate to severe symptoms of autism. They often display delays, some significant, in communication and socialization skills; they engage in problematic or challenging behaviors that impact their ability to access regular educational settings, often require assistance for daily living, have limited ability to spend leisure time appropriately and require highly structured and systematic instruction for learning new skills.
Communication is the most significant issue. For students to function independently, they need to learn how to communicate effectively with people other than their family and teachers. “One of the first things we start to do here is give a child the tools to communicate,” Bouder said.
One of those tools is picture icons. Students who have not yet achieved or mastered verbal skills get a book of pictures depicting wants, needs, desires and ideas they can use to communicate to staff.
Technology, in particular the iPad with apps designed specifically for students with autism, is increasingly applied. One young man with an iPad moved his fingers deftly across the keypad, touching icons to tell his teacher he was hungry for chicken nuggets.
Watching the student with his iPad, Bouder said, “What these kids teach us is that there is a very active mind at work.”
Vista’s overall program uses applied behavior analysis (ABA), a methodology designed to apply the principles of learning and motivation through derived techniques to solve the problems faced by individuals with autism and those who serve them. Vista applies ABA strategies to solve challenging behaviors that hinder a child’s functioning and to teach socially significant behaviors that are life-changing and lead to more independent, productive lives.
ABA has been proven to be the only effective treatment for individuals with autism, said Kirsten Yurich, Vista’s clinical director. It’s the approach taken both proactively, to design effective learning environments, and reactively, to solve the challenges faced by teachers and parents. It requires significant training of staff, a systematic and inductive approach to teaching, as well as a coordinated effort by all staff members.
Staff members are multidisciplined in their teaching approach because “the needs of children with autism cross the array of disciplines,” Bouder said. As the student progresses, though, the level of staff intensity does decrease.
It’s a costly program, funded through Medicaid, private insurance and the students’ school districts, but a study done by three psychologists at the University of Houston shows such investments result in significant cost savings for society.
“Our results indicate that the state of Texas would save $208,500 per child across 18 years of education with EIBI (Early Intense Behavioral Intervention),” cited the 2007 study.
This August, Vista relocates to the former site of the Milton Hershey School’s Springboard Academy, a bucolic campus setting along the Swatara Creek where, Bouder said, they will continue to help students to reach their potential.
Download the article here.
