St. Theodore Holy Family Catholic School is doing things differently with special education by offering a full-inclusion program for students with autism.

Jennifer Bellon, principal, said the school is in its third year of the program, which allows autistic students to learn in the classrooms with other students their age. Bellon said full inclusion allows students to participate and learn academically and improve social skills with their peers.

“I’ve been told our program is a flagship for other schools,” she said. “I’m most proud because it’s working. You see the difference.”

Bellon said the school, which has 140 students in grades pre-K to 8, has 15 students diagnosed with autism, all on different parts of the spectrum. She said most of the students have a shadow who gives cues and reinforces learning with them in the classroom. But, she said, her goal is to eventually have students not need a shadow; some already have been able to eliminate them.

Bellon said that by having students in a regular classroom they copy what their peers do and learn to follow directions on their own.

“You can see that they are looking to see what their peers are doing and thinking, ‘What do I need to do next?’ ” she said. “All because they are in a classroom. I want to wean more from their shadows because I know they can do it.”

Bellon, who has a background in special education, said the program started because of a parent whose child was in a self-contained classroom at another school came to her crying several years ago. She said the parent wanted more for her child.

“I just knew it could be done,” Bellon said. “We started out with six kids. As more parents have learned of our program, it has grown.”

Bellon said teachers have embraced the program and work hard at using differentiated learning to accommodate all students. She said everyone is expected to teach like nobody is different, and that the method is working.

Kelly Hamilton said she enrolled her son, first-grader Ryan Smith, who is autistic, at the school last year. Hamilton said Ryan had been in kindergarten at another school in a self-contained class but it wasn’t working.

“We wanted him to be able to function normally in a classroom and be held to higher standards,” she said. “We had him repeat kindergarten here, and we have already seen so many improvements.”

Hamilton said Ryan has begun to read and can add and subtract. She said he is now taking tests in the classroom among his peers and without his shadow.

“Before having him simply sit at a desk and attend to anything was a task,” Hamilton said. “He just had not learned that skill, and it wasn’t something he saw on a day-to-day basis because that’s not how the self-contained classrooms are set up.”

Hamilton said Ryan is working on reading comprehension skills and writing. She said she encourages other parents of autistic children to start early intervention and enroll their children in a similar program.(MGNonline)