Classrooms have been redesigned with autistic children in mind, calming some and revving others
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Jace Grudowski, 3, was having the time of his life in the multi-sensory room of The Children's Institute yesterday, his squeals of delight stealing attention from the open house that was being held to unveil two new classrooms.
Annie O'Neil, Post-GazetteJace Grudowski, 3, visits the "sensory room" at the Day School at the Children's Institute during an open house. The rooms are specially designed for children with autism. Jace is too young to attend the school but his mother, Kelly, said she thinks he might attend one day.
Click photo for larger image.
And that was just fine with the event's organizers, because Jace and the children like him, with autism and autism-related disorders, are the focus and future of The Day School at the institute in Squirrel Hill. The new classrooms -- and the three more that will be opened in the coming year -- are and will be for them.
The new classrooms offer 14 students a structured, quiet environment where they can learn at their own pace. Divided into two groups -- younger and older children -- they are taught by Janet Woods and Chris Beatty.
Dr. Mary Denison, school psychologist and manager of the autism program at The Day School, said the classrooms and other facilities were designed by a team that included occupational therapists, physical therapists, music teachers, classroom teachers, speech therapists, the school librarian and others.
"We said, 'What would be the very best program we could provide?' We came up with it, and then we presented it to the administration at The Children's Institute," Dr. Denison said. "And their response was, 'Yes, you can have everything you want.' "
The funding, according to David Miles, president and CEO of The Children's Institute, came from two bond issues through the Allegheny County Hospital Authority, which provided $16 million. Other grants and donations also helped.
Ann McGuinn, chair of the institute's board of directors, said the expansion and renovations are essential to address the growing need for helping autistic children.
"Where 10 years ago it was one in every 10,000 children, now it's one in every 166. It takes your breath away," she said. "We're trying to get ahead of the curve, we're trying to catch up with the needs. I'm not sure we'll ever catch up with all the needs."
The multi-sensory room is part of this future. In it, the children are exposed to music that pulses in a water bed, a vibrating mat, fiber-optic lights, a giant rocking chair and a mirrored disco ball. But it is not a playroom.
"We use it for therapeutical purposes," according to Michele Stein, the lead occupational therapist for The Day School. "For a child who is overly excited or unable to sit and participate in a classroom activity, we might bring him here to try to calm him and relax him. Other children, we need to kind of amp them up to get them to participate more."
Among those invited to the open house was Kelly Grudowski of Millvale, who smiled as she watched her son, Jace, bounce and climb on the furniture.
"He's doing well," Mrs. Grudowski said of her moderately autistic son. "Communicating is not there yet. That's our biggest challenge.
"If he's not speaking by the time he's ready for kindergarten, this is definitely the place that we want him to come to, because I'm not sending him to a regular school if he can't talk.
"It would be a load off my mind to send him somewhere where everybody knows exactly what he needs and is sensitive to his needs."
She picked her son off the big rocking chair and pulled him to her.
"You Mommy's boy?" she asked before smooshing a kiss into his cheek. She then turned to discuss The Children's Institute again.
"If he comes here and they teach him to call me 'Mum,' that would be wonderful," she said. "Because he doesn't call me anything. He can't do that yet."
First Published November 10, 2006 12:00 am
