Talk of miracles or revolutions would be an exaggeration but as the progress charts on the school corridor wall show, something profound and positive is happening to a group of autistic children and their parents and teachers at a pilot project in Cork.
The Cork Comprehensive Applied Behavioural Analysis System (CABAS) Project was established last May on a five-year pilot basis to cater for 12 children with autism, all aged between three and five when they started. The Cork CABAS Project is the first of its kind in Ireland. It is based on the teaching methods of American Douglas Greer, professor of education and psychology at Columbia University Teachers' College, who began applying behavioural analysis to children with behavioural disorders and learning difficulties in the 1980s.
"It's based on applying behavioural analysis to all aspects of schooling," says Prof Greer. "From the children to teacher training to monitoring parents, we apply what we've learned in the science of behaviour and our intent is to scientifically develop expert teachers." How Prof Greer's method came to a find a home in Cork owes much to parent Pat Walsh. When his son Leo was diagnosed as having autism, Pat began researching the condition and met with with psychologists Yvonne Holmes and Dermot Barnes, who were also using applied behavioural analysis.
They told him about Prof Greer's CABAS method and after researching it on the Web and checking it out in Britain, where it has gained huge ground, Pat began talking about it to other parents of autistic children.
They began lobbying the then minister for education, Mr Martin, for funding and after officials from his Department investigated the method in schools in England, funding was provided in early 1999.
Twelve teachers were hired and began training while a premises was located in three vacant classrooms at Glasheen National School on Cork's southside.
The teachers were either psychology graduates or experienced in Montessori education and they underwent training with one of Prof Greer's assistants, Denise O'Sullivan, who spent six months here. "We started on a half-day basis," explains project director Olive Healy, "and in October, we extended to a full day from 9.15 a.m. to 4 p.m. The teaching is quite intensive, with each child having a teacher working with them. Each teacher spends a half-day with each child so we rotate throughout the week. "You could teach the same goals to different children but in different ways and everything is recorded and everything is graphed," says Olive.
The actual teaching method is based on three elements, antecedent, response and reinforce. "For example," says Olive, "the antecedent might be telling the child to clap their hands, the response is the child claps their hands and the reinforcer would be the teacher praising and rewarding the child." While the project's progress is recorded on the graphs of each child's learning experience which line the wall of the school corridor, perhaps the best evidence lies in the testimony of the children's parents.
Brendan Twomey reveals that his son Cian (4) was totally withdrawn when he began at the project. "He didn't interact, he made no eye contact, he couldn't speak but since he started here he interacts with the family, he's got good eye contact and his speech is beginning. We're breaking through a big barrier." John McCormick is equally enthusiastic about the progress his son Rian (4) has made and he points out it is not just the children who learn; parents can sit in on classes and access the teaching manuals and learn how to teach their children when they come home. "We tried to get Rian out of nappies, it was disastrous. Now he names each item of clothing as he dresses himself."
The programmes involve the child mastering each stage before progressing. "He's got to get 90 per cent twice in a row before he can move on to the next stage," explains Olive. "Say, threading beads on a string, the first step is picking up the string. He has to do that 19 times out of 20, twice in a row before he moves on to the next step of putting the beads on the string. And the same method goes on right up to reading and writing." For Aida and Stephen Costello, the change in their daughter Anna (4), one of just three girls at the project, has been equally evident as she has progressed from being withdrawn and possessing a very limited vocabulary to where she can now express what she wants to her parents.
While Prof Greer is cautious about making claims for his method, he does point out that the measurement and recording of a child's progress mean it's possible to say that a child using applied behavioural analysis methods will learn between four and seven times more than if they had not used the method.
"Our pre-school programme began in the US in 1987 and the number of children who have gone on to regular mainstream education has ranged from a high of 75 per cent to a low of 25 per cent. Those 75 per cent will be just like the regular kids, some will make it, some won't," he says.
He hopes that the Cork CABAS Project may develop into a centre of inquiry which will work closely with Prof Dermot Barnes at the department of psychology at NUI Maynooth, to help in the training of people so that the number of centres in Ireland could expand. Pat Walsh believes that the Cork CABAS Project can offer models in other areas, such as the arrangement between the project and Glasheen National School where the Department of Education pays capitation grants to the school for the 12 project children in return for the use of the classrooms.
He also believes the project offers a huge opportunity for anyone wishing to work with autistic children to gain invaluable work experience.
