Giving Compass' Take:

• Robin Lake reports on the methods employed at NYC Autism Charter School to help autistic students come into their own.

• How can public schools deploy these techniques to support autistic children? 

• Find out how philanthropists can support students with autism. 

My day at the NYC Autism Charter School began by joining the staff to help welcome each of the 33 students into the school with smiles, high-fives, and big hellos. Despite their profound autism, nearly all the students (their ages range from 5 to 21) ride buses provided by the New York City Department of Education to school each day and walk independently to their classrooms.

That might not seem remarkable, but consider that most of these students are significantly verbally and cognitively impaired, and many deal with severe anxiety and frustration from trying to navigate a world that overwhelms and confounds them. To help their students succeed each morning and afternoon, staff dot the stairwell and occasionally ride the buses to provide guardrails for them, standing back as much as possible to encourage independence.

The morning routine is representative of what happens throughout the school day. The youngest students are patiently taught to learn how to learn. For many of them, just sitting at a table and conversing with a teacher and other students is a goal that takes months to achieve. An intensive system of individualized goal setting, data collection, and intervention strategies is constantly being deployed, based on the Applied Behavior Analysis therapy methods developed by psychologists as a way to shift behaviors using positive incentives and reinforcements.

Read the full article about NYC Autism Charter School by Robin Lake at The 74.