The school building itself was wholly inadequate. The child might not be ready for school. The teacher "despite her good intentions continues to be afraid and cannot overcome it."
In such cases, it might be worth preparing the child for enrollment by first improving his abilities. This, for example, is the approach taken by Casa Maria Bambina, a medical-psychological-pedagogical institute in Rome.
Casa Maria Bambina
Here therapy and education focus on basic activities—the foundation for school life.
These activities include:
- mobility and motor skills (walking, using hands)
- pre-school activities, such as body awareness, colors, and so on
- language: speaking and making oneself understood in any way possible
- self-care skills: eating independently, using the bathroom, and so forth
The work plan is carried out with great precision, following a thorough assessment by a physician and a month-long observation period by a therapist.
The purpose of this period is twofold: to build a relationship between child and therapist, and to discover the child's interests and potential. Most sessions are one-on-one.
Activities must not only emerge from the child's interests but must also engage him in ways he can perceive. Naturally, he must be encouraged and rewarded for his efforts and successes.
Take Angela, for example. Profoundly handicapped from microcephaly, she learned to walk toward a color television that would turn on as she approached—showing a videotaped dance program she loved.
Gym equipment and especially audiovisual materials allow precise work even with severely disabled children. For less severely affected children, a relatively short period—three to six months—prepares them for meaningful integration into the school environment.
Simply being present among others is not enough. True integration requires participation, and the ability to participate. This is why we found the "Scuola Chicca" model so valuable.
Two teachers, Cecilia and Giuliana, tell us about it.
Scuola Chicca
We have been teaching at "Scuola Chicca," a small satellite school of Istituto Assunzione, for about two years.
Our school was created to meet the needs of parents who could not find an appropriate and productive placement for their children in public school.
We are two teachers—and though that may seem excessive for just three students, we assure you it is not. We could reasonably handle up to seven students with mild to moderate disabilities. One of us completed teacher training and is earning a psychology degree with a thesis on autistic children; the other trained at Rome's orthophrenic teacher institute.
Our school operates as a special school—we use specialized teaching methods from a didactic perspective—but our students are not "ghettoized" as a result.
They do not spend all their time in our school alone. Rather, they are placed in regular classroom settings for several hours each day, where they genuinely participate and contribute.
The older students, for instance, participate in a middle school class and are integrated into subjects such as music, art, and technical education, and even some language arts hours. It would of course be pointless to place them in mathematics or science, since they cannot follow the current national curriculum.
In an arrangement like ours, the students receive careful attention, with methods studied down to the smallest detail, discussed, tested, and changed with infinite patience and above all with great love.
We try to build an affectionate relationship with them, and perhaps that is what gives them courage. Encouragement helps them more than anything else. And when they do their best, they become a little more independent.
They study all the subjects taught in any school, naturally adapted to make them as comprehensible as possible. The two oldest will probably sit for their middle school exams this year with an almost complete curriculum—something that would never have happened in a regular classroom.
As for social connection: they have their own class. Being three students in sessions where they work alongside others, they are satisfied. Conscious of their limits, they are happy to cooperate with the others. They do not know, or at least do not suffer much from, the terrible isolation that comes from forced and coerced placement in a regular classroom.
Cecilia Volpi, Giuliana Tafani