School focused on the individual

October 3, 2009

Program welcomes kids with special needs
By Erin Wiltgen

chh@heraldsun.com; 918-1035

HILLSBOROUGH -- Even with a long-anticipated expansion on the horizon, the Little School promises it won't lose its commitment to high-quality child care and attention to the individual.

A child development center in Hillsborough devoted to hands-on multi-sensory learning, the Little School emphasizes more than just the basics.

"We recognize that it's really important to know what your child ate and how often they use the potty every day," said Christa Niven, co-founder of the school. "But we feel like a true quality center should use something much deeper and richer and should be able to tell the parents at the end of the day how their children grew that day, how they saw the world that day."

To help ensure such individual attention, the Little School has three teachers in every classroom as opposed to the typical two.

"We don't want them changing diapers all day long," Niven said. "We want there to be enough teachers in each classroom where they are able to have truly educational moments. We want the teachers to feel like teachers."

In addition to quality care, caring for autistic children and children with sensory integration issues became part of the mission almost from the start. Sensory integration difficulties can be caused by a range of catalysts, from prenatal alcohol exposure to traumatic brain injury or even cochlear implants. A few characteristics children can display are extremes of activity level, trepidation of swings, seesaws or heights, aggression in response to someone accidentally bumping them or avoiding physical contact with people and with certain "textures."

Niven said a family called the school before it even opened asking admittance for a little boy with probable autism. The parents had called everywhere and been turned away immediately, even at the school where the mother worked.

When Jennifer Dock, co-founder and co-director of the school, and Niven agreed to take the child without a second thought, the father began sobbing.

"I didn't know there was a reason to say no," Niven said. "I realized this was a very serious issue when that man began to cry."

Despite the connotation that goes along with teaching special needs children, Niven said having autistic children hasn't added an extra burden. The county sends specialists to help teachers with children who have special needs. Niven said all it takes on their part is a willingness to open the school's doors.

"That's our happy accident," she said. "We always had willing hearts. There was no question for us whether there was going to be a place for every child in our school."

And not only does it not bring a burden to the school, Niven said, but having autistic children actually helps the school.

"It makes us better," she said. "It makes us happier. It makes our community more whole."

Autistic children themselves benefit from an environment that's not necessarily just for kids with special needs, a situation that doesn't challenge them, Dock said.

"One of the most potent things you can do for a child with autism is to include them with typically developing children to foster the skills you're teaching them," she said.

Including autistic children benefits the other students as well, Dock said, partially because changes that are made for autistic kids in a classroom actually help others.

For example, one child with sensory integration issues struggled to express himself in the moment. He would get more upset each time he had a hard time communicating. A county on-site provider gave the teacher a visual prompt, so that each time the child struggled to communicate what was wrong with him, he could hold the prompt and the teacher would know something's wrong.

Suddenly, whenever that child held the prompt, not only teachers but other children in the classroom would ask him what was wrong. And other students, autistic and non-autistic, began using the prompt to express themselves as well.

"All children are trying to be stronger verbally," Dock said. "And all children are trying to figure out and are developing their social skills. Honestly, we don't need to stretch and change to accommodate these children. We stretch for all kids. The most important thing we do is to see each child not as a label but as what does he or she need."

And what each child needs, according to the Little School curriculum, is an environment to engage in hands-on, creative learning with a focus on each individual student. Students learn by expressing themselves through music, painting, drama, song, movement and play. At a conference on Oct. 2, Dock even learned how to use outdoor spaces as teachers and use farming and gardening in the curriculum.

Although each child leaves the school knowing the alphabet and numbers, the Little School emphasizes problem solving as well as basic knowledge parents see as crucial for entering kindergarten.

"We spend a lot of time advocating for children and really communicating with the families that the top five things that parents think that kids need to be ready for kindergarten are actually the bottom five that kindergarten teachers want," Dock said. "Teachers want kids who can negotiate their day, use impulse control and problem solve."

And the Little School sees to it that the children within its doors learn those skills within a context that fits them as individuals. With so many teachers, the one-on-one experiences give children the time they need to process lessons at their own pace.

"Just to be able to walk on the porch with one teacher or take a walk in the woods, to do that without putting stress on the other classroom teacher makes a huge difference," Dock said. "And it's simple."