THE TEACCH Program

The TEACCH (Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication handicapped Children) program is a comprehensive structured teaching approach designed for individuals with autism and communication disabilities and their families. The TEACCH program was developed by Eric Schopler in the late 1970s.

The principles of TEACCH’s structured teaching include (a) understanding the culture of autism; (b) developing an individual person- and family-centered plan for each student, rather than using a standard curriculum; (c) structuring the physical environment in a way that will assist students with autism to understand meaning; (d) using visual supports to make the sequence of daily activities predictable and understandable; and (e) using visual supports to make individual tasks understandable.

The principle of modifying the environment to accommodate the needs of students with autism is the foundation for structured teaching (Schopler, Mesibov, & Hearsey, 1995). Four main components are connected to this process:

  1. Physical organization. Physical organization refers to the physical layout of the classroom or the area for teaching. Physical organization helps or hinders a student’s independent functioning and his recognition of and compliance with rules and limits. It is designed to provide students with visual information to direct their activities in a predictable manner.
  2. Scheduling. Since students with autism have problems with sequential memory and organization of time, they need schedules. Visual schedules let the students know what activities will take place and in what sequence (Schopler et al., 1995) and assist them in predicting events, lessening their anxiety.
  3. Work systems. Work systems tell the students what activities must be completed in independent work areas by visually specifying what and how much work must be done and indicating when each task and the work session are complete (Schopler et al., 1995).
  4. Task organization. Similar to work systems, task organization determines what work students do independently, what needs to be done within a task, how many items must be completed, and final outcomes (Schopler et al., 1995).

For further information go to this link.  (www.teacch.com).