Educational Services for Children – San Antonio

ATC’s  Zajicek Learning Center is a non public school accredited by Texas Education Agency (TEA).
The Learning Center provides educational instruction to children ages 3-21 in classrooms specially designed
to meet the needs of our students. Principally, the curriculum is driven by the functional assessment of verbal behavior (VB), which includes:

Domain 1: functional assessment of verbal behavior. Verbal Behavior analyses human behaviors through language (or whatever means the person communicates). It is “simply behavior subject to the same controlling variables as any other operant behavior” (Skinner, 1957, p. 8).

Domain 2: protocol of assessments from school districts and/or ATC to build individualized education plans for each individual (academic and vocational) based on the Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills (TEKS).

Domain 3: grouping: students are assigned to groups in the classroom based on their strengths and skill level, as well as the strengths and skill level of the teachers.

The Learning Center can serve up to 20 students who have enrolled through the auspices of in-state Independent School Districts, out of state Independent School Districts, or Family Protected Services. Low student to teacher ratios are maintained to maximize the students participation and learning potential. In addition, opportunities are available to benefit from additional speech and occupational therapy services through ATC’s Rehabilitation Agency. All programming is developed to facilitate functional communication, increase self-help skills, and increase social/community skills.

Teachers provide students with an atmosphere of acceptance and motivation, taking time to reward each accomplishment no matter how big or small. Daily classroom activities include:

Welcoming/calendar activities, toilet training, group instruction and independent instruction of Math, Language Arts, Social skills, Life skills, Art, Recreation/Leisure and Interactive Play.

 

Weekly outings and community activities are extended as an opportunity to offer Natural Environment Training (NET). NET is comparable to what school districts refer to as Community Based Instruction (CBI) where students are taken into the community to generalize goals and objectives outside the classroom. Students apply independent living skills while focusing on individualized education plans in a coordinating effort while in the community (the natural setting). It provides an effective and safe transition to the adult community living they may experience later in life.

 

 

 

The ATC Zajicek Center also supports school districts to further
enhance their educational services for children with autism.
ATC offers support to school districts so they may provide
specialized instruction to students with challenging behavior.
ATC offers the following services to independent school districts:

 

• In-home training: sessions  to work on self-help skills, leisure activities and communication skills

• Classroom and learning environment ecological inventory

  – School district personnel assessment

  – Knowledge assessment of personnel

  – Physical environment assessment
  

• Consultation and training based on the needs and discoveries of the ecological inventory, consisting of:

  – Basic training on autism

  – Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA)

References:
Skinner, Burrhus Frederick. , (1957). Verbal Behavior, Acton, Massachusetts: Copley Publishing Group

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.