Opening Doors For Kids With Autism
Often, children with autism are unable to integrate into mainstream schools and classrooms. Autism Centre for Excellence (ACE) plays a pivotal role in providing a curriculum that fits the needs and abilities of such children and prepares them for integration to the best of their abilities. ACE is an initiative aimed at utilizing cutting-edge research and standardized educational practices to improve the outcome for children with moderate-to-severe autism.
ACE has been conceptualized in collaboration with Boston based New England Center for Children (www.necc.org), which has four decades of experience in transforming lives of children with autism through education, research, and technology. The programme at ACE is completely data driven and based on the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), with an approach of a 1:1 student-teacher ratio. It is a standardised model of teaching and intervention for autism, which, over time, can be replicated across schools and communities in India.
ACE initially began in February 2014 with three classrooms with eight children in each class and 20 teachers on board in Gurgaon. The programme has been created as a seamless environment between teachers, parents, and care-givers so that skills can be rapidly learnt and applied in real life.
ACE needs support for the following:
- To provide intensive professional training to educators and teachers within the organization as well as in the community to fulfill the unmet need for Autism expertise in India.
- To create satellite ABA classrooms in mainstream schools across the Delhi-NCR region to provide high-quality intervention in integrated settings, and to sensitize students in typical classrooms.
- To establish a full-scale vocational program with job opportunities for young adults on the spectrum.
To know more and contribute to the project, mail us at editor@thecsrjournal.in
