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[Anonymous]

#3884

Hi i am the mum of one who is diagnosed with ASD. for the last year i have been searching for the “best” for my boy in terms of education and also in terms of medical help as he has a lot of immune issues.

I came here not to support teacch but to try to tell other parents that teacch, in my opinion is ineffective, and often damaging to our children. I also think that if parents and teachers take the time to really investigate and compare teacch with other educational approaches that teacch would soon become a thing of the past.

In my opinion, teacch was created for teachers, not our children. It is based on 1960’s psycho/behavioural mumbo jumbo and has no peer reviewed research to back it up.

As more and more parents demand that their children receive the best, i think that teacch will dissolve and no longer be used.

Parents are complaining about teacch but very few get heard because they are so busy trying to secure effective education for their children, that they dont have the time to take on teacch.

I hear parents say that teacch has been “great” for their children, that their children have “improved”, yet this is purely anecdotal, without evidence.

I would say to these parents, “improved, compared to what?”

Parents are never asked, as consumers, what they think of teacch and I for one would love to see national consultations with parents about the teacch program. But it seems, parents are not being consulted, only “professionals”.

I also dont see parents “begging” for teacch, the way they do for other modes of educational intervention. There are very parents who form teacch “support” groups, or who go to the high court to fight for teacch. Teacch is hoisted upon our children, when in fact, parents need to have access to the intervention of their choice.

I personally, would never send my boy to a teacch school. I am appalled at the lack of understanding of autism, by my local SLD and the off the cuff remarks about how the children “do well”.

Where is the evidence? where is the proof? Do they “do well” for “autistic children”?? or are they “doing well” compared to their NT peers?

there are so many questions to be answered and it seems that parents who do have serious questions are not being heard because teacch has a stranglehold on the schools in the UK.

This compares most unfavourably to the United States where other interventions which are scientifically backed are funded free of charge and that do “work” and show scientific progress.

very sad state of affairs here, and someone is making huge money out of it at the expense of our children’s lives.

I dont know if this message will be removed, but if you are reading it now and come back to find it is removed, ask yourself why I, as a parent of an autistic child is so vehement against teacch?

Because my child deserves the best.

[Anonymous]

#4968

Hi Janice, I don’t think you’ll find your post is removed. There’s no hidden agenda here. It’s an open forum and everybody is entitled to their own opinion and what works for one child may well be inapropriate for another. As parents we know of lots of children who have followed various programs such as Lovas, sunrise, higashi etc. with widely varying degrees of success. However, that is not to say that any one of these approaches are superior to the other. It is also very hard to ‘scientifically’ assess success. Do you gauge it on exam results, test results, number of words spoken or what?? The only ‘scientific’ approach we use is do we feel our children are progressing and are they happy. It seems to be as accurate a gauge as any of the others and is the same ‘gauge’ we use for our ‘normal’ child.
I think TEACCH is predominantly used because economically one coherent, UK wide, strategy needs to be adopted for the majority. It is a ‘cradle to grave’ strategy which seems to be beneficial in the majority of children/adults. Whilst it would be ideal for everybody to access whichever program is felt to have the most benefits for their individual child, sadly this is often not economically viable.
I don’t feel that anybody is ‘making huge amounts of money at the expense of our children’s lives’. There are much easier ways to make money than working with our children.
I hope you find the ‘best’ for your son as indeed I hope everybody does. As parents I always feel that your thoughts are always should I have done this, should I have done that, what if … You always feel you should have done better but I have no intention of beating myself up for the rest of my life, I’ve got my children to look after… Dave.

[Anonymous]

#4969

Hi Janice,

sorry to hear that it sounds as though you’ve had a bad experience of TEACCH in an educational setting and I appreciate you may have found it ineffective for your child. However I am concerned and would be interested to find out why you are so vehemently against it, why to feel it is ‘damaging’ to children with ASD and what alternative you would promote.

Whilst it can have a limited effect with some children I have certainly never found it to be damaging to any child i have ever worked with.

The Team I work for support parents in introducing TEACCH based interventions to the home environment and have found it to be extremely successful in the vast majority of cases. TEACCH is often mis-represented as a school based approach, as you seem to be suggesting, but this is certainly not the case. If used appropriately in the home parents CAN see a change for the better in their child’s behaviour, understanding, consentration and, as importantly, they feel empowered and back in control. It can encourage self-esteem in both the young person with ASD and the parent.

I accept what you are saying about other interventions in school but we have found when TEACCH is not working in schools it is because it is no being used correctly.

I have to disagree with you when you say that parents do not ‘beg for TEACCH’ in the way they do other interventions as this is simply not true. I know a number of parents who have gone to great lengths to battle with SENCo’s LEAs etc. to enable their child to have access to TEACCH provision in mainstream settings as well as in Special schools.

You seem to be very concerned about the amount of money that people are making out of TEACCH and would be interested to know what sums of money you are talking about and whether this is more than parents would have to pay for other interventions. For example I know of a number of parents who have looked into other approaches and have found the cost of introducing them at home to be too expensive for them, as a family, to commit to.

I think it is unrealisitic to suggest that parents can opt for whatever type of intervention they choose in school. This surely would not be workable. You would end up with teachers dabbling in a variety of sensible and weird and whacky approaches without being able to specialise and develop to a highly professional level in any one of them.

You seem to say that TEACCH was decided on a whim as the approach to use when teaching children with ASD. Obviously I cannot speak for other counties but I know that in this county the decision was made by a multiagency team who spent time visiting and assessing different provisions and interventions before deciding on TEACCH.

I am saddned that, as a parent of someone with ASD, you do feel so vehemently against TEACCH and wonder if you have had a bad experience with the intervention or whether it just wasn’t right for your child.

[Anonymous]

#4970

I am one of those parents who did fight to get teacch done with my boys,and now they implement throughout the whole school.I am autistic and teacch would have been wonderful.Teacch is a lot more humane than ABA which is only good for teaching animals trickshttp://autismandaspergersinthefamily.freeforums.org/index.php

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