The Effectiveness of the TEACCH Approach - Term Paper Example

 The Effectiveness of the TEACCH approach as a treatment intervention for pupils with ASDs (Autistic spectrum Disorders) in the primary classroom Introduction ASD, acronym for acronym for Autism Spectrum Disorder, is a severe developmental disability that begins from the early stages in life. Almost all children with autistics spectrum disorders experience abnormal or impaired development in social relatedness and communication troubles (American Psychiatric Association, 2000, p. 70). Even though there is no cure for this life-long disability (Ozonoff and Cathcart, 1998, p. 25), many programs and intervention approaches like TEACCH, UCLA and AIT have been developed in order to help these children better handle their existing deficits. This paper examines the effectiveness of TEACCH developed by Eric Schopler for the treatment of students with autism. It is highly important that the approach designed to help students with autism must be able to promote independence and skills needed for adult functioning by assisting them to work and play themselves to manage their behavior and by motivating them through better psychological practices. Based on various literatures regarding the effectiveness of TEACCH, this research paper attempts to find that the program has been successful because students have shown interests and being motivated towards playing and working with given tasks. Framing of the Research Though TEACCH model has been criticized as it is only a behvaioural management system and not a teaching or learning methodology, the effect of this system is widely known that it is structured teaching that involves organizing the physical environment, developing schedules and work and play system, making expectation clear and using visual materials (Bartlett, Weisenstein and Etscheidt, 2002, 281). Various observational and other studies (Hume and Odom, 2007) have already found TEACCH as highly effective for promoting independence and skills of students with autism for adult functioning by motivating them towards working and playing with given tasks, in a better learning environment. This research paper considers the literatures that relate to the effectiveness of TEACCH for treatment intervention for students with autism and presents an explanatory research on the same, to conclude and emphasize that TEACCH is one of the best prevailing approaches for the treatment intervention for students with autism. Based on reviewing the literatures, this research paper examines how far TEACCH would be successful in a school or kindergarten to help motivate students with autism get involved with on-task engagement and work and play environments. The main issue being discussed in this research work is the effectiveness of TEACCH program for the treatment intervention of students with autism. The purpose of this study is to identify the perceived impacts of TEACCH program on the learning and behavioural development of autistic students and to examine how TEACCH approach can assist teachers to get their tasks done and gain better results with autistic students. Research Contexts: Autism, SLD, TEACCH and key terms related to the research Autism is a developmental disability that significantly affects verbal and nonverbal communication and social interaction, generally evident before age 3. Autism adversely affects a child’s educational performance (Bartlett, Weisenstein and Etscheidt, 2002, 279). Children with autistic disorder generally exhibit three clusters of symptoms, they are qualitative impairment in social interaction, impairment in communication and narrow as well as stereotyped patterns of behavior (American Psychiatric Association, 2000, p. 70- 71). Sicile-Kira (2004) stressed that Autism Spectrum Disorders are considered as the result of neurological disorder affecting the functioning of the brain. ASDs are four times more prevalent in males than in females (p. 16). American Psychiatric Association uses Pervasive Developmental Disorder as term to describe five related disabilities namely Autistic Disorder or Autism, Rett Syndrome, Childhood Disintegrative Disorder, Asperger syndrome and pervasive developmental disorder (Vaughn, Bos, and Schumm, 2007, p. 144). Autism and Asperger syndrome are often used interchangeably because both of these disabilities incorporate many of the same symptoms (Vaughn, Bos, and Schumm, 2007, p. 144) despite the fact that Asperger is milder form of Autism and children with these syndrome may have enough vocabulary but still experience difficulty in communicating with others. Other categories of Pervasive Developmental Disorder like Rett syndrome and Childhood disintegrative disorder are rare (Vaughn, Bos, and Schumm, 2007, p. 144). Most of the researchers believe that all these five categories of PDD (Pervasive Developmental Disorder) are neurological disorders and these have genetic basis as well, despite the fact that the modes of heritability and real etiologies are unknown (Welterlin, 2009, p. 2). Many other studies have identified that a number of environmental factors including viral infections, prenatal, perinatal and neonatal traumas, toxins and pollutants and vaccinations can cause as well as have significant impacts on developmental disability in children (Welterlin, 2009, p. 2). Faulty Social Environment has also been regarded as a reason for Autism. Schreibman (2005) argued that psychogenic theory implicated parents in the etiology of autism. Parental related factors like bitterness, anger, despairs and guilt can influence developmental disorders and thus autism is largely caused by the existence of unfavorable social conditions provided by parents (p. 76- 77). No matter whether parental related or environmental factors play significant roles in causing the disorders, most psychologists believe that Autism is mainly caused by brain difference in the way of brain development, followed by those factors mentioned above. Apart from this psychological explanation, some researchers and scientists have given biological explanation that ‘hot-sopt’ have been found on certain chromosomes. Brain circuits have been found different in children with autism (Sicile-Kira, 2004, p. 36). Specific Learning Disability Apart from Autism and PDDs, Specific Learning Disability (SLD) is also considered as a major disorder in one or more of the basic psychological processes. SLD includes disorders associated with disability in understanding or using spoken or written language. Students with SLD are likely to be unable to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell or do mathematical calculation etc. SLD includes conditions like Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, Dyscalculia, brain dysfunction and brain injury (Bartlett, Weisenstein and Etscheidt, 2002, 309). Out of these Learning Disabilities, reading difficulties seem to be most frequent characteristic of students with SLD (Vaughn, Bos, and Schumm, 2007, p. 69). Dyslexia is a severe difficulty in learning to read related to the decoding and spelling. Dysgraphia is a severe disability in learning to write and handwriting difficulties. Dyscalculia is a severe disability in learning mathematical conception and computation (Vaughn, Bos, and Schumm, 2007, p. 69). When it comes to the learning and educational performance of students with autism, it is clear that they are extremely different from other students as they experience impaired social interaction and difficulty with communication and therefore they require a special curriculum or method of teaching that can treat them well to enhance their motives to an appropriate leaning style. Regarding the learning and understanding ability of the students with autism and other PDD disorders, Quinn and Malone (2000) argued that Children with developmental disability are not merely slow in obtaining skills. They are not travelling at a slower pace, but they travel through a different route altogether. They also will arrive at the same point that a student with no developmental disability arrives, but they rather require some specific help and guidance along the way (p. 22). Inclusion and Social Skills An approach to include disabled students in all the facilities that are provided to their non-disabled peers is called inclusion. A classroom is a place where a teacher faces different students with different abilities, skills, bevaviours, and often students with different disabilities like autism, SLD, dyslexia, dysgraphia or dyscalculia etc. Placement of students with disabilities in the general education classroom is not required by law, but is still considered as a way to achieve placement in the least restrictive environment and thus educators are responsible to provide ‘inclusion’ so as to facilitate education of disabled students with their non-disabled peers (Vaughn, Bos, and Schumm, 2007, p. 27). Another approach in treating disabled students is ‘Social Skills’. Students with autism and often students with SLD are found to have difficulty in communication. In order to enable these students to effectively involve with social communication, Social Skills approach has been considered as useful. Social Skills approach helps them initiate appropriate social interaction, respond to social initiation from others and terminate social interactions when so is required. The basic concept behind is that a person is socially competent when he/she is able to interact socially in an effective way (Vaughn, Bos, and Schumm, 2007, p. 152). Literature Review This part of the research paper compares and contrasts different views of TEACCH approach and attempts to find the effectiveness of TEACCH for the treatment intervention of students with Autism. TEACCH Approach TEACCH, acronym for ‘Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication handicapped Children’ is a unique treatment intervention program that offers comprehensive services, research and professional training for children with autism and their families in the state of North Carolina, USA (TEACCH, 2009). TEACCH has been developed by psychologist Eric Schopler in 1970s as a comprehensive state wide program. TEACCH attempts to guide people with autism to develop their own unique potential rather than attempting to making them conform to the predetermined concept of ‘normality’ (Kurtz, 2008, p. 114). Shore, Rastelli and Grandin (2006) argued that, as far as SCERTS model (Social Communication, Emotional Regulation and Transactional Support) associated with TEACCH is concerned, it is more of a philosophy rather than an intervention (p. 169), because it is based on assessing autistic children for their needs using existing approaches to help them have productive lives. TEACCH model has been developed to investigate the misconceptions that 1) autism is basically an emotional disorder causing children to withdraw from their parents, 2) their parents are educationally privileged and from upper social class and 3) children with autism have potential for normal or better intellectual functioning (TEACCH, 2009). Effectiveness of TEACCH as a treatment intervention for Autistic students Many researchers have conducted various studies and observation of the results and effects of TEACCH program for the educational performance of the students with autism. The study conducted by Hume and Odom in 2007 has examined the effects of work system, which is an element of structured teaching as part of TEACCH approach, on the independent work and play skills of students with autism. The structured teaching is organized by setting visual information that informs students about participation in work or play areas. Similarly, study conducted by Ozonoff and Cathcart in 1998 examined the effectiveness of home-based intervention based on TEACCH, especially with parental involvement at home, for young children with ASD. They concluded that children in the TEACCH treatment group has significantly higher gains in various subsets of psycho-educational performances, including imitation, motor skills and nonverbal conceptual skills (Matson, 2009, p. 75). A study conducted by Panerai, Ferrante and Zingaley in 2002 compared the TEACCH program with a non-specific program for students with autism and it was found that Behaviour Scale were higher for children in the TEACCH group as compared with the other group (Matson, 2009, p. 75). TEACCH program has been considered highly effective and therefore it has been practiced outside the US, mainly in Asian countries including China (Matson, 2009, p. 75). Wang (2008) conducted a research on using TEACCH approach for treating students with autism in People’s Republic of China and his work highlighted that it was successful in the West, in Hong Kong and Taiwan and therefore a widespread implementation of it throughout China will be helpful to improve the educational perfromnace of students with autism. Ozonoff and Cathcart (1998) considered 22 children with autism for the study of the effectiveness of TEACCH program. The children they observed were 2 to 6 years in age. They formed two matched groups of children, a group with TEACCH treatment and the other with no treatment, and each with 9 boys and two girls. They assigned 11 subjects to the treatment group to respond and latter 11 subjects were assigned to the control group. The group with TEACCH treatment was provided 4 months home programming and they were tested before and after the intervention with the psycho-educational profile revised. This study helped them find that students who received TEACCH treatment had improved significantly more than their peers in the control group. The major areas that they were found to have improved are imitation, fine motor, gross motor, and non verbal conceptual skills. Their research concluded that TEACCH based home intervention was highly successful to enhance development in students with autism and to promote their psycho-educational subsectors (Ozonoff and Cathcart, 1998). Hume and Odom (2007) conducted a research with three students, selected on the recommendation of school district special education personnel to assess their on-task behavior and performance of completion of assigned tasks. The selected students were autism diagnosed and experiencing difficulty with completing tasks independently. These three students were given individual work in which students were to perform works mastered under the direct supervision of an adult. The work system in their study visually communicated four pieces of information to the students with autism, namely the tasks, the amount of the work to be completed, a signal that work is finished and instruction for the next activity (Hume and Odom, 2007, p. 1170). This study has found that all students showed increases and improvement in on-task bevaviour and increases in the in the number of tasks completed and play materials used by them. This study clearly indicates that TEACCH method is most appropriate for treatment intervention for students with autism since it has profoundly affected students’ performance in on-task behavior and in finishing the works assigned to them. The main difficulties that teachers experience with autistic students are related to the on-task behavior. Students with Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia are also finding difficulty with completing assigned tasks, or taking relatively longer time to finish the works. The study conducted by Hume and Odom (2007) highlighted that TEACCH program will be useful to improve on-task behavior of students with autism and therefore it will also be applicable and effective for students with SLDs like Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia. Bourgondien, Reichle and Schopler (2003) evaluated the effectiveness of TEACCH approach for the treatment intervention of students with autism by conducting an observational study with 32 participants, who were adolescents and adults with autism. The results of this residential program indicated that participants in the Carolina living and Learning centre experienced a significant increase in the structure and individualized programming in the areas of communication, independence, socialization, positive behavior management and developmental planning as compared to the other students who were not treated by TEACCH (p. 131- 134). This study also has concluded almost same that students who were treated with TEACCH program have been found to have improvement and development in various functional psycho-educational factors like positive behavior management. Another study by Panerai, Zingale and Trubia in 2009 showed that the effectiveness of TEACCH appeared to be confirmed and showed positive outcomes in the natural setting revealing the inclusive value as well. Their study compared the effectiveness of three different educational approaches for the treatment intervention of students with autism. The three programs were TEACCH in a residential centre, TEACCH implemented at home and Inclusive Education. When they assessed each subject twice by using Psycho-educational Profile Revised, they found that students who received TEACCH both at home and at residential were found showing positive outcomes. Based on the above study, Panerai, Zingale and Trubia (2009) argued that Inclusion of students with autism in a regular classroom is not sufficient for increasing their abilities. Even though Italian Inclusion Law has been found to be effective, inclusion itself won’t work with autistic children (p. 880). Analysis, Evaluation and Findings The main issue being discussed in this research is the effectiveness of TEACCH program for the treatment intervention of pupils with autism spectrum disorders. All the above detailed literatures and researches gave almost same results and views regarding how effective is TEACCH approach for motivating students towards work and play atmosphere, improve their positive behavioral factors, improve their on-task performance and tasks completion and promote their psycho-educational skills and qualities. The TEACCH model has been criticized as a mere philosophy and a mere behavioural management system, but, reviewing of the literatures detailed in the above section shows that it is moreover an effective education and learning model that has been found to be highly successful in various studies and researches. All the above literatures, based on different types of studies being conducted, concluded that TEACCH is comparatively more effective for the treatment intervention of students with autism. Hume and Odom (2007) found that TEACCH approach is useful to inform and motivate students to participate in the work and play areas. Ozonoff and Cathcart (1998) emphasized that students who received TEACCH treatment intervention had significantly higher gains in various subsects of Psycho-educational areas. Studies of Bourgondien, Reichle and Schopler in 2003 and Panerai, Zingale and Trubia in 2009 have also concluded that TEACCH program is more effective than other programs as it motivates and promotes positive behavioral factors of students with autism. The major findings of this research are detailed below: The TEACCH system of treatment intervention for students with autism is highly effective and useful for motivating them towards play and work environments. TEACCH appeared to be effective because students who received that treatment have shown significantly higher gains in various subsets of psycho-educational performances, including motor skills, imitation, and nonverbal conceptual skills. Students who received TEACCH treatment have higher behavior scales as compared with the other groups. TEACCH is not only applicable for students with autism, but also will be applicable and effective for students with SLDs like Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia. TEACCH has been found to produce positive outcomes in the natural setting TEACCH has also shown inclusive value Inclusion alone is not sufficient for treating the students with autism, but, mainstream schools need to adopt structured learning and TEACCH programs. Conclusion This piece of research work has examined various literatures and varying views on TEACCH approach for the treatment intervention of pupil with autism. The paper has used explanatory research method, as it analyzed literatures and stressed that TEACCH is more effective approach for the treatment intervention of students with autism. Theories, definitions and background information of different developmental disabilities like autism, SLD, Dyslexia, Dysgraphia and Dyscalculia are detailed in this paper in order to help readers compare disabilities and to better evaluate the TEACCH approach and its applicability for all those disabilities. Based on the literature reviews, the paper has highlighted that TEACCH is one of the most successful and effective approach for the treatment intervention of students with autism. The analysis and finding section of the paper provides a detailed list of findings that this research has found from reviewing various literatures. References American Psychiatric Association, 2000, Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders: DSM-IV-TR., Revised and Illustrated fourth edition, American Psychiatric Pub, Bartlett, Weisenstein and Etscheidt, 2002, Successful Inclusion for Educational Leaders, Prentice Hall, Pearson Education, Merril Bourgondien, Reichle and Schopler, 2003, Effects of a Model Treatment Approach on Adults with Autism, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol. 33, No. 2, Plenum Publishing Corporation Hume K and Odom S, 2007, Effects of an Individual Work System on the Independent Functioning of Students with Autism, J Autism Dev Disord, Springer Science Business Media Kurtz L A, 2008, Understanding Controversial Therapies for Children with Autism, Attention Deficit Disorder, and Other Learning Disabilities: A Guide to Complementary and Alternative Medicine, Jessica Kingsley Publishers Matson J L, 2009, Applied Behavior Analysis for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Springer Ozonoff and Cathcart, 1998, Effectiveness of a Home Program Intervention for Young Children with Autism, Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, Vol 28, No. 1, Plenum Publishing Corporation Panerai S, Zingale Mand Trubia G, 2009, Special Education Versus Inclusive Education: The Role of the TEACCH Program, Springer Science Business Media Quinn B and Malone A, 2000, Pervasive developmental disorder: an altered perspective, Illustrated edition, Jessica Kingsley Publishers Shore S M, Rastelli L G and Grandin T, 2006, Understanding Autism for Dummies, Illustrated edition, For Dummies Schreibman LE (2005), The science and fiction of autism, Edition: illustrated, Harvard University Press Sicile-Kira C (2004), Autism spectrum disorders: the complete guide to understanding autism, Asperger's syndrome, pervasive developmental disorder, and other ASDs, Perigee TEACCH, 2009, 2006, in Encyclopedia of Special Education: A Reference for the Education of the Handicapped and Other Exceptional Children and Adults, Wiley, Hoboken, NJ, USA, viewed 28 August 2010, from http://www.credoreference.com/entry/wileyse/teacch Vaughn S, Bos C S, and Schumm J S, 2007, Teaching Students Who are Exceptional, Diverse, and at Risk in the General Education Classroom, Fourth edition, Allyn and Bacon, Pearson Education Inc Wang D, 2008, Using the treatment and education of autistic and related communication Handicapped children (TEACCH) program to educate children with autism in the people's republic of china, Spring, ProQuest LLC Welterlin A, 2009, The home TEACCHing program: a study of the efficacy of a parent training early intervention model, Rutgers University, the state university of New Jersey, ProQuest LLC Read More