Division looks at new autism approach

Good Spirit School Division is one of two divisions in the province refocusing its efforts to educate autistic children this year with a new online tool.

GSSD and Regina Public Schools are in the process of implementing AutismPro, an online software package designed to help develop support for children with autism spectrum disorder and provide training for any staff members who interact with those children.

"What we found is that we have wonderful supports in place for students on the spectrum, but sometimes it's challenging to access them, and in some of our more remote areas it's not as timely as we would like," says Quinton Robertson, GSSD's superintendent of student services.

The new technology should help the division identify the specific needs of a student on the autism spectrum and assemble a "circle of care" tailored to those needs: a network of helpers which might include the classroom teacher, educational assistants, administrators, a psychologist, a speech & language pathologist, an occupational therapist, and others.

"We have a number of folks that would come together and utilize a common set of resources to start developing specific programming to increase the capacity of that student," says Robertson.

Training materials for staff members and assessment and learning tools for students with autism are also a part of the package.

For now, the program is being used on a small scale. Three students at three schools spread across the division will be taking part.

"We wanted to try it first of all on a pilot basis to see if it's something we want to jump into across the whole division," explains Director of Education Dwayne Reeve. "But it does look like it has some very, very strong, research-based support for people, and that's what we wanted to look at."

The school division will be assessing the impact of the program as the school year unfolds.

"I'm hoping to see increased capacity of the folks in the school," says Robertson. "I'm hoping to see greater levels of communication between school and home. I'm hoping to see a great deal of collaboration amongst the team members in those circles of care. And I'm obviously hoping to see the gap narrow between where the student currently is in their skills and development and where we would like to see them be."

Autism rates in Canadian schools are a growing problem. About one out of 150 children are now diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder.

"We thought this would be an appropriate time to start looking at the supports we have in place," Robertson says.