Educational Services for Children – Dallas

Autism is a treatable disorder and early childhood intervention is a key component. ATC’s Crystal Charity Ball Educational Wing is approved by the Texas Education Agency and provides programming for individuals ages 3 to 21 in bright, well-equipped classrooms. Low student/teacher ratios are maintained to maximize individual attention and to address special needs. 

 

 

Every student has an individual educational plan designed to address his/her specific needs. All programming is designed to incorporate the development of communication, self-help, independent living, and social/recreational skills.  

 

 

Weekly outings and community activities are designed to enhance teaching and to develop awareness. Teachers provide the students with an atmosphere of acceptance and motivation, taking care to reward each step of accomplishment no matter how big or small.

 

 

The Educational Services at ATC specialize in providing education to students with autism by adapting the educational curriculum with teaching strategies that facilitate learning for the student. The teaching personnel also provide an environment conducive to the needs of students with autism with regard to lowering the stressors often associated with autism. The combination of environment and specific teaching strategies that utilizes best practices for students with autism help the child learn challenging material.

 

 

There are several programs within Educational Services that focus on the individual student’s needs. The TEKS group, which teaches the Texas Essential Knowledge Skills through several methods that are especially designed to help the student with autism learn and retain the material. Also within this group, social skills are stressed, such as team work, empathy training, volunteering, goal planning and implementation.

 

Transitional

When the student becomes an adolescent, the training focuses on skills the student would need in order to function within the community and work place. Transitional services provides pre-vocational and vocational skills training that addresses these needs. In addition, there is a focus on community social interaction and other community-based skills training to assist students with autism deal with the stress of working in the community.

Within Transitional Services, there are several vocational programs, such as Tiger Café. This program teaches students community shopping skills, food preparation, and customer service skills. The Tiger Snack Shop teaches students how to stock shelves, take inventory, purchase merchandise, manage money, and exhibit retail skills. These two programs also provide other students who do not work within these programs opportunities to practice money management and purchasing skills.

Also within Transitional Services, there is an extensive janitorial training program, which focuses on cleaning skills, and office management, which focuses on basic office skills, such as typing, filing, shredding, and laminating. Transitional Services also teaches horticultural skills, independent living and art.