CONNECTING WITH THE SCHOOL
CID as part of Highland

The students in the CID program spend the majority of their day in their CID classroom. All mainstreaming is based on individual student needs. Some students eat lunch in the lunchroom, while others, who are learning basic feeding and behavioral skills eat lunch in the classroom. Some students mainstream during morning meeting while others need reverse mainstreaming. Reverse mainstreaming is done in the CID classrooms or during adaptive physical education class to provide the students with language, social and skill modeling.

Since so much of the autism disability is a social disorder, it is important that there are activities in place that will help meet these social skill needs. Highland and the CID program have many such activities. Some students participate in regular mainstream activities. This is when a CID student joins neuro-typical grade level peer classes. Some students mainstream into specialist classes (i.e. music, art, physical education) as well as going into neuro-typical peer classes for morning meeting and other academic activities.

For some students, mainstreaming is too stressful. As a way to maintain comfort for the students in CID and keep a low stress level we do something called reverse mainstreaming. Reverse mainstreaming is when typical peers come into the CID classrooms. In the CID rooms the neuro-typical peers or "buddies" play games, do art projects, and do movement activities. It is a non-threatening way to work on social interaction. Another time that buddies join CID students for reverse mainstreaming is in D/APE (developmentally appropriate physical education). In gym the buddies model gross motor skills and play group games with the CID students.

Much of what is learned at school is not learned from a book. It is learned by how we relate to and interact with the other people around us. Teachers teach many academic lessons but the "social stuff", the unwritten rules, are learned by having interactions with peers. For many students with autism these social skill opportunities are missed.

The added bonus of all of these different activities is that the learning goes both ways. The buddies or classes that are involved also learn many social lessons as well. It is education for everyone!

Meeting the needs of our students
You may have seen students being pulled around the school in a wagon or you may have heard stories from your children about students pulling teachers in the wagon. There is a wonderful reason for this occurring at Highland.

In the CID program, many different tools are used to meet the needs of the students. Pulling a heavy wagon, riding in a wagon or pushing a cart can be very calming and centering for some of the students. Because of the special sensory needs of our students we use many different activities that provide a variety of sensory input.

When students pull or push something with heavy weight it provides proprioceptive input. This input uses both the gross and fine muscle groups. It is referred to as deep pressure input. The deep pressure sends a calming message to the brain. We also use a variety of therapy vests, weighted blankets and lap buddies that send input to the brain. The extra weight can be very calming for the students.

When the students ride in the wagon they receive vestibular input. The vestibular input provides the brain with a sensation of movement. The input also sends a calming message to the brain. Most of the classrooms have swing hooks mounted into the ceiling so that students can have access to various swings during their day. The swinging motion provides the vestibular input that helps our students regulate their sensory systems. The use of therapy balls and trampolines also provide vestibular input.