A few days before Thanksgiving this year, students, teachers and teacher aides scrambled to get ready for the big feast at Woodrow Wilson School.
The smell of cooking turkey and other holiday treats floated down the halls of the 100-year-old building along with the sound of excited voices.
The holidays mean a lot in most schools. But for the 10 self-contained classes involved in the Bayonne School District’s Life Skill Centers program, this Thanksgiving program wasn’t just an expression of gratitude, but a lesson in survival.
Kids saddled with the extra burden of autism learn the basic skills that will eventually allow them to make their way into the wider world beyond school.
“We did the work; Simpson Baber paid.” – Carol A. Trojan
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This program in two elementary schools, Woodrow Wilson and Washington Community, is the middle piece in a comprehensive series of programs in Bayonne that help autistic kids from pre-school through to high school and even somewhat beyond.
For pre-school kids, Bayonne has the Busy Bee Center for Children with Autism, located at Bayonne Medical Center, an early intervention program that is about seven years old. This is a cooperative effort of the City of Bayonne, the Bayonne Board of Education, and the Simpson Baber Foundation.
Margerite Baber, who founded the program, funds a number of programs, including the transformation of the classroom used for the Thanksgiving feast. Simpson Baber gave $15,000 to pay for the cost of converting the room.
“We did the work; Simpson Baber paid,” said Carol A. Trojan, director of Special Services for the school district.
The room – which features tables and chairs, a stove, a refrigerator, and even a washer and dryer – is designed to help kids with various degrees of autism learn to function in the every day world.
Autism touches a lot of kids
Autism impairs brain development in the areas of social interaction and communication and impacts one out of every 250 children. Symptoms could include inappropriate play; extreme social withdrawal; intense discomfort with new situations, people, or surroundings; preoccupation and fixation; or behavioral problems. Autism is a nightmare for parents, Baber said, because children don’t follow the usual progression you would expect. Caught up in their own mental loop, autistic children do not develop in the natural way, learning lessons from experience the way most children do. They can learn and develop, but often this is a time-consuming and very frustrating effort.
Yet looking around the room on this Thanksgiving, you can easily see the impact the class has on the students, many smiling with the satisfaction that they helped create the feast for themselves.
Even as students, teachers and school administrators shared in the thanksgiving, the clothes dryer spun with towels and other items, one more lesson in real life that students learned for that time when they would move on to high school and then perhaps into a job or career.
Cooking
The feast included two turkeys and a remarkable amount of trimmings and desserts (all either sugar free or low sugar). They were the responsibility of the students and teachers, each working hand in hand to provide for their own Thanksgiving.
Each teacher was responsible for providing a portion of the feast, and worked with the students so that they get experience in handling various aspects. Everything was homemade.
Students even went to the supermarket with coupons and lists where they were assigned to find the items they needed.
The program has seven teachers and 54 students, as well as teacher assistants. One or two students are accompanied by an aide who helps them through their chores.
While this was a celebration of the holiday, it was also a way for these students to learn basic things they will need to survive out in the world: how to look for and find what they need, and how to count their change.
Schools Superintendent Dr. Patricia McGeehan said part of the process is to get these kids used to real life conditions, which includes noisy places and flickering lights, both of which often have negative effects on people with autism.
“We want to get them acclimated to those conditions,” she said.
Starting with the Busy Bee program, students come into the elementary school, where they continue to build a base of experience to carry on into the high school, where an even more comprehensive program helps them learn working skills.
At the high school, each student gets a vocational assessment, giving educators an idea of the level of skills these students have. Some may go on to college. Some may go into trade schools. Some may even transition into jobs or into programs where they can continue to use the skills they learned here.
“Some are more significantly impacted than others,” Trojan said.
Getting kids to help themselves
Lawrence S. Steinman, assistant director of special services and the coordinator of transition, said the high school works with local businesses and other groups to provide paid and unpaid internships.
Some of these kids can remain in the school system for up to 21 years of age before they have to find a career path.
Once students leave the elementary school setting, they are given a functionality assessment when they enter the ninth grade, and are watched over until they finish high school.
To help them find a spot in the world after high school, each student gets a job coach, who works to find them a place.
Some of these students have taken on nonpaid internships at Liberty Science Center, including Baber’s son, Steven. Currently, students have internships at Bayonne Medical Center, Liberty Science Center, AJ Wright, the Frank Family Theater, and the former YMCA.
Trojan said some of the students are more severely impacted than others, so some will be able to move on to jobs that eventually will pay them.
“We want to prepare them for the working environment,” Steinman said. “So we are teaching them what they need, such as how to follow directions, work in a group, and advance their work skills and communication needs.”
A student may simply not know how to express him or herself, or may not know how to ask for information.
“The goal is to give them a level of independence,” Steinman said.
Currently, the high school has about 30 to 40 unpaid internships and a number of paid internships.
Some students have gone on from an unpaid internship to being hired as an employee since they have spent five or six years learning the ropes.
“Employers know what they are getting and know these students already know what to do,” Steinman said.