Class at
Vernon Hills High School teaches social skills, stress management
Part of Erron Gerstein's socialization lesson includes
learning polite conversation. Erron, who has autism, is enrolled in Vernon
Hills High School's "Tutorial: A Program for Independence," which
is targeted to students on the autism spectrum. (Michael Tercha, Chicago
Tribune / May 14, 2012)
|
By Amy
Alderman, Chicago Tribune reporter
May 16, 2012
Making connections can be a challenge for many
teens, but it has been especially tough for Erron Gerstein, an 18-year-old
student with autism at Vernon Hills High School.
Although he wanted to socialize with other
students, simply approaching them was often daunting.
But Erron has become more bold since he enrolled
in "Tutorial: A Program for Independence," a new class offering this
school year.
"Starting a conversation — it was
hard," he said. Tutorial instructors "teach me how to take the
initiative or make a conversation. I get to be around people I enjoy."
The program, created to address the increased
enrollment of students with autistic spectrum disorders in the past five years,
is designed to help the youths better interact socially and be better prepared
for life after graduation. Erron is one of five students who meet with a case
manager the first and last period of every school day to work on social skills
and develop stress management techniques.
The students learn time-management and
organizational skills to help them break down large assignments. They also
role-play, which helps expand their social awareness by making eye contact, asking
questions and acknowledging statements, program administrators say.
Often, the students rate their mornings,
afternoons and weekends on a scale of "dreadful" to
"perfect" as a way of processing the events of a full school day,
special services teacher Rebeca Garcia said.
The program can be a stepping stone to college
or to a transition program such as the Special Education District of Lake
County, where they learn independent living and job skills, said Robin
Myerberg, special services supervisor at Vernon Hills High School.
Experts say programs like Tutorial are springing
up in high schools throughout Illinois to address students who will age out of
public high schools.
Mary Kay Betz, executive director of the Autism
Society of Illinois, said students diagnosed with an autism disorder need
transitional programs to help integrate them into their communities.
"There's definitely a need for it and
definitely increased awareness within our school districts," Betz said.
But the success rate of such programs has been
mixed, she said. "There really is no best practice yet."
Some programs ask students to achieve certain
goals or participate in activities that don't suit their personalities.
"You take the program and fit it around the
child," Betz said. "No program is a one-size-fits-all."
Christian Eric Straube, a psychologist who
specializes in counseling people on the autism spectrum, agrees programs such
as Tutorial are helpful as long as the skills and techniques students learn
extend out of the classroom.
"It would make sense to practice in
multiple settings. A child on the spectrum — they're so concrete in the way
they think," Straube said.
"They might know a skill, but they might
not know how to transfer that to a job or a restaurant."
Tutorial students are encouraged to participate
in after-school activities with regular education students who volunteer as
mentors. The volunteers model appropriate behaviors to help the students with
autism work on their social skills. It helps teach them how to behave as part
of a group, Myerberg said.
"A lot of times they go home after school
and they're just at home without any community involvement — without their
peers. This way, they're able to go to school activities with their peers, just
like everybody else," she said.
Many of the students have become much more
independent since Tutorial began, said Garcia, the special services teacher.
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