TEACCH
The long term goals of the Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH) approach are both skill development and fulfilment of fundamental human needs – such as dignity, engagement in productive and personally meaningful activities, feeling of security, self efficacy, and self confidence. To accomplish these goals, TEACCH developed the intervention approach called ”Structured Teaching”.
The Principles of Structured Teaching include:
- Understanding the Culture of Autism.
- Developing an individualised person and family–centred plan for each service user.
- Structuring the physical environment.
- Using verbal supports to make the sequence of daily activities predictable and understandable.
- Using visual support to make individual tasks more understandable.
The TEACCH approach is a family–centred, evidence based practice for Autism to enable individuals to function as meaningfully and as independently as possible in the community.
Why use Teacch?
• Teacch can be used at all levels and settings
• Structure
• Organisation
How
• Start where the person is at – Assessment – use strengths & interests
• Physical structure, minimise visual and auditory stimuli, reduce this over time of possible, develop schedules and task systems (usually work left to right, top to bottom but not always)
This tells the user:
- What task
- How much
- When am I finished
- What’s next
All new tasks are taught in 1:1 then moved on to independence following the ‘Transition – Work – Recreation’ sequence
