Specialisterne: leveraging the unique skills of Autistics at competitive market terms

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Recent posts have mainly focused on Autism-related organisations and events in the American state of Pennsylvania.

In September 2010, Vicci Tucci, president of Tucci Learning Solutions visited the Vista School in Hershey, central Pennsylvania, to formally award the school accreditation in the Competent Learner Model (CLM) for teaching children with Autism. The Vista School thus became the first in the United States to earn CLM Accreditation. The CLM’s components have been used in various school districts and settings in West Virginia, Virginia, California, Florida, Abu Dhabi, and Pennsylvania. The Competent Learning Model is based on Vicci Tucci’s study of Applied Behavioral Analysis; her research started more than three decades ago…

…Tucci’s model is centered around participation, behavior and communication, as well as seven core skills, which form the basis of all learning. It seeks to provide staff training, so that all instructors are on the same page and agree on methodology, and develops instructors as coaches to work with the students in critical areas.

The model is applicable to all ages and ranges of learning and has helped autistic students in areas such as learning to follow directions, participation, language progression and functional speech and vocabulary development.

By using incremental teaching steps, it is found that the most progress has been made, with the goal of having the students combine skills in the environments they find themselves in in order to be successful.

The CLM also had shown to produce a reduction of behavioral episodes with autistic students, because it works with them at where they are in their development and moves them forward…

…Vista uses applied behavior analysis (ABA) as well as the competent learner model (CLM). JR did relatively well when ABA was the only model. However, when CLM came into the school is when JR began to blossom. CLM came into Vista in the 2005-2006 (I think) school year. This was JR’s third year at Vista. How this program works I don’t understand. Those that implement it do and the results to me is what is important and they are very impressive. Academically JR is catching up to his typical peers quickly. He is able to identify the first six or seven letters of the alphabet, the first five or six numbers and sight words. He can add missing words to a story and he is and has been reading for about 5 years now and not just sight words. He has learned how to swallow capsules and pills thanks to the dedicated staff at Vista.

…I talk about Vista a lot and I am very impressed (I am hard to impress) with the results we have seen with JR. He’s improved so very much since this journey with the school began. The staff is very dedicated to these kids and they do an excellent job in educating them. I thank God every day for Vista and its staff…

Below is a link to a video on the Competent Learner Model (CLM) with narration by Cathy Scutta, the lead for the Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PaTTAN) Autism initiative: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SWG3amBBoZ8

(sources: The Vista School is First in the Nation to Earn CLM Accreditation - The Vista School, Hershey, PA -; WVU College of Human Resources and Education receives $50,000 research gift; Autism program praised | Times News Online; The Vista School | Living With Autism In Central PA)