SPECIAL NEEDS SCHOOL VISIT

Vision & Mission
The main objective of IAC ( IDEAS Autism Center) is to provide holistic early intervention, care, therapy and education to autistic children from low-income households so that they will be able to attend mainstream government schools by ages seven to nine.

IAC Staff & Students 
Targeted students are from the age of 3 - 9 years old.There are 28 students and 9 staff and 4 volunteers currently. 

IAC Curriculum 
National Special Education curriculum which accommodates specific needs of the individual child. Every child is assessed prior to entry and a tailored individual educational plan (IEP) is then developed. This is then updated based on their progress and assessment at the end of every six months.

The main learning areas in the curriculum are attending skills, imitation skills, receptive language skills, expressive language skills, pre-academic skills, self-help skills, art education, music and movement, physical exercise, social skills and school readiness.

Facilities that the school provides

The students will have horse riding class, swimming class, gardening,domestic activity, art & craft and sensory skill class. 

IAC also provides therapy such as occupational therapy and speech therapy. occupational therapy is to improve the quality of a child's through successful and meaningful experiences where the children will be able to participate as independently as possible in meaningful life activities. These skills includes, fine motor skills, play skills, self-help skill and socialization skills. There are different approaches and theories lies in this therapy such as developmental theories, learning theories, model of occupational performance, sensory integration, play theories and so on. IAC conduct occupational therapy in the form of play activities which used to enhance or maintain play, self -help and school readiness skills. There will be one to one session for each students with occupational therapist  in IAC. 

speech therapy is to improve the children's communication and language skills. Each child will have a one to one session with the speech therapist once a week. The sessions includes recognition of alphabets, objects and sounds, trace or copy alphabets and write in both Malay and English.  

Materials used to facilitate learning 

They have a picture chart board for individual child. The chart consist of routine that a child need to do everyday. 

For beginners, they used wooden puzzle to train fine motor skills.

For intermediate, they used lego blocks as a imaginative figures for story telling session.

They also listen to various songs during the morning session such as ABC songs, children rhyme and so on. whereas for advanced level students, they are more towards writing, interacting with teachers. The trace dotted lines for alphabets.  

students responses

when we went into the classroom, the students were so excited to see us and they came and approach us by shaking hands, say good morning. The children are quite focused on their work that they teacher gave them. only two of the children were unable to concentrate, they were standing on the chair and walking around.

Teaching approaches that the school adopt

Early Intensive Behaviour Intervention

Early Intensive Behavioral intervention was originally developed in the 1960s by psychologist Dr Ivor Lovaas,also known as Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA), this is a highly structured and intense form of therapy which aims to teach linguistic, cognitive, social and self-help skills by breaking them down into small tasks. Discrete Trial Training (DTT)is the main strategy used within this programme whereby the trainer instructs the child using a series of learning opportunities or ‘trials’. Praise and rewards are used to reinforce good behavior.

DEVELOPMENTAL APPROACHES

"Development" refers to the process of acquiring skills in stages, from simpler to more complex. (For example, a child must babble sounds before he can say words; conquer words before he can utter phrases.)  In Greenspan's view, the area of development where children with (Autism Spectrum Disorder) ASDs are most impacted is that involving higher order thinking and relating, from shared attention, to back and forth interactions, to problem solving, all the way to abstract thought. An adult follows the child's lead to engage in play that will hopefully provide opportunities for connection, and therefore, to ever more complex emotional and social relating. If a child were lining up trains, for instance, an adult might get on the floor right beside them and line up trains, too, trying to catch the child's interest and his glance, and to share his pleasure or his frustration.

My thoughts after visiting the school is it looks more homely environment where the children will have a peaceful environment to study. They wont have fears in them. It is my first chance to get to see how does the IAC operates and what types of teaching learning they are adopting. To be a teacher in a special needs school, one must be really patient and experiences to handle all kinds of behavior.