- Contributed photos
All students do swimming. The activity is used as therapy. At left, sleeping time at Promise Learning Centre.
THEY MAY be brilliant, yet at the same time they are challenged to respond to stimuli and communicate in the same way as the normal child would.
If you have not already guessed it, we are speaking about autistic children whose increasing numbers present a unique challenge to parents.
One of their biggest challenges is education. The Promise Learning Centre in Kingston is the only school of its kind which offers training to autistic children aged 6 to 19, in the island.
La Stephanie Guthrie, teacher at the Centre for the last five years, says that she has found her job to be an exciting challenge. Working with the 12-16 age group she comments, "I learn from them as they learn from me. They (each) come in different packages."
The Promise Learning Centre is a special education institution which caters to the needs of children with learning disabilities and autism. It began in 1988 as an extension of the McCam centre. The school was officially opened in 1993 with seven students on the roll.
"We are now on our own," says principal Marjorie Hylton.
The school has produced many excellent results, judging by the performance of its graduates. One of them, Anthony Newland, is quite articulate. He recently sat his Caribbean Examinations Council subjects and was also awarded two silver medals for music from the Jamaica Cultural Development Foundation (JCDC), as well as a gold medal for drumming. Anthony is also an artist and plays the guitar as well as the recorder.
There are plans to expand the centre to include boarding, as it is the only one of its kind and parents as far away as Trelawny have expressed interest in such a facility. How much of a challenge is autism to parents?
Autism is a developmental disability which affects approximately 22 out of every 10,000 births. It is usually diagnosed during the first three years of life and is four to five times more prevalent in boys than in girls.
Those with autism typically have trouble with verbal and non-verbal communication, socialisation and play activities. Children will exhibit behaviour such as repeating body movements (rocking, flapping hands). They will also insist on following strict routines. In some cases, they may also display aggressive or self injurious activities (hitting their heads repeatedly against walls, etc.)
At the Promise Learning Centre, routines are followed which, once the child becomes familiar with them, "everything goes like clockwork," says the principal. If there are any disturbances in their schedule they will literally rebel. Changes in routine have to be preceded by counselling.
The professionals at the centre emphasise that early intervention is vital. Research indicates that those with autism respond well to highly structured, specialised education programmes. They have been successful in getting several children to care, physically, for themselves in ways that parents find quite amazing.
Teaching is customised to the specific needs of each individual child and is delivered in a consistent, comprehensive and co-ordinated manner.
The foremost need of the centre is to improve its physical plant, as the building it occupies is an old one. The current curriculum at the centre, as well as the programme to overcome their communication and social challenges, also includes computer training, swimming, music, art and more. There is also a fashion designing programme, food and nutrition, woodwork and driving lessons for the older students.
The centre will include speech therapy in its programme as of September 2003. Parents are happy to know this, Principal Marjorie Hylton states.
- Avia Ustanny
