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The Brampton Guardian
Program offers special ed students life lessons
Friday June 6 2008
By Roger Belgrave, Staff Writer
Developmentally challenged students in St. Edmund Campion Secondary School’s Planning for Independence Program (PIP) find relaxation and stimulation for the senses in the specially equipped Snoezelen Room.
 
Jordan sidled up beside the stranger and gently placed a palm on the back of the man’s hand. It’s the teenager’s attempt at introducing himself to this unexpected visitor chatting with teachers in his special education classroom.
His teachers quickly remind the St. Edmund Campion Secondary School student there are social boundaries that shouldn’t be crossed without permission.
Ironically, Bryan De Sousa and the rest of the staff in the school’s Planning for Independence Program (PIP) spend most of the time trying to stretch the boundaries of their students. The program, catering to students with severe disabilities, attempts to give participants skills needed for some level of independence. Most of the eight students currently in the Campion program have been identified as autistic.
The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School board has more than a dozen PIP programs at schools in the region.
Students who have spent most of their lives depending on the kindness of others desperately need the practical skills offered here by special education teachers and Educational Resource Workers (ERW). When they turn 21-years-old, the students will be required to leave the public school system nest and lose access to a range of special education programs. Someday, they may also have to leave home and parental care.
“We have seven years to teach them whatever they’ll need for the rest of their life,” said De Sousa.
Fiorella Di Rubbo’s daughter Maria has been in the Campion program for two years. The 16-year-old is globally developmentally delayed and non-verbal. She is a child in a teenager’s body.
Di Rubbo, husband Vince and younger daughter Bianca moved to Brampton five years ago from Vaughan to specifically access the special education programs available for Maria at the Catholic school board.
Di Rubbo, who was dissatisfied with programs and the level of services available in Toronto and Vaughan, is much more pleased in Brampton. She raved about the dedication and enthusiasm of teachers and staff as well as the program’s openness and willingness to have parent input.
“From one great experience to another, it’s just been phenomenal,” she said.
“The difference here is they really work with the kids one-on-one.”
Whether she is opening doors, walking on her own or taking the school bus, Maria is showing signs of independence. She is even exhibiting some typical teenage brashness, much to her mother’s delight and regret.
Options limited
Di Rubbo is filled with dread when contemplating her daughter’s eventual departure from the school system.
“I’m really afraid because there’s nothing else out there,” she said. “I’m not prepared to put her in a home. I’m so dead against that. As long as my eyes are open, she’s going live here because that frightens me the most- to not have my daughter in my home and there’s not a program out there.”
What limited programs do exist for families after children leave the school system typically have long waiting lines.
“We’re working towards the wants and needs of students,” said De Sousa.
From the Snoezelen Room to Boardmaker communication software, the latest tools and technology available are employed to create a comfortable environment for students and teach skills that could provide some degree of self-sufficiency.
The school’s Snoezelen Room is a specially equipped oasis for frustrated or agitated students, as well as an effective tool for staff trying to calm and reach those students.
To the uninformed eye, the small room resembles an isolation chamber furnished by interior designers inspired by the psychedelic ’60s. In actuality the room is cleverly set up and equipped to provide occupants with therapeutic respite and sensory stimulation. Stimuli to various senses are delivered using lighting effects, colour, sounds, music, scents and other sensory cues.
“We have specialized computer programs for some of them,” said De Sousa. “It depends on the needs of the students.”
Computers and instructional software allow staff to teach students practical, everyday skills through verbal and visual cues. Non-verbal students have access to software programs that help them type sentences or read stories.
Graphics programs can simulate a trip to the grocery store or help students become familiar with road signs, hazardous household labels, handling money or other tasks. This rudimentary knowledge, most in the general population take for granted, are invaluable life lessons for students with physical and cognitive impairments.
Staff regularly co-ordinates excursions to the neighbourhood supermarket to familiarize students with using public transit and shopping for groceries. On other days, teachers work with students in the fully equipped classroom kitchen teaching them to prepare simple recipes and meals.
“That’s part of the life-skills training,” explained De Sousa.
From social skills to making a sandwich, the program focuses on loosening the binds of physical disability. At the same time, program staff feels duty bound to raise awareness about the developmentally challenged and let the outside world know their students are capable members of the community.
Visual arts, drama, cosmetology, religion, physical education, family studies, geography, history, math, English are all courses special education students are able to take alongside regular students. Lunch periods are also often spent in the cafeteria with the rest of the school, said De Sousa.
Staff is realistic in developing student goals and guided by a slogan to seek empathy, not sympathy for their class.
“Sympathy is not what anybody needs. They need to be empowered,” De Sousa insisted.
Peer mentors from the school’s mainstream classrooms are encouraged to volunteer for work with students in the Planning for Independence Program. It’s another level of school integration that helps the PIP students acquire skills, build friendships and acquaint the general student population with the developmentally challenged.
Some students might have regular jobs working in the school cafeteria or collecting recycling from classrooms as part of the work experience program offering some exposure to the workforce.
Some schools even provide job placements off school grounds.
“It depends on the needs of the students how much we actually push the student or what activities they get involved in,” said De Sousa.
There are limitations on the depths of integration. For some students, limited by their physical or cognitive challenges, there is a point when integration is neither beneficial to special education students nor mainstream classrooms.
“We want to integrate as much as possible, but health and safety has to be paramount for staff and students,” De Sousa explained. “It’s a fine balancing act.”
Michael Kennedy has worked with special education students for 14 years and spent the last eight as an ERW with the local Catholic board.
“The basic goal of the program would be to give these kids the skills to be able to live outside their parents’ home, to give them some form of independence so they can just go for a bus ride or anything,” Kennedy said. “Just tying up their shoelaces can be rewarding to these kids.”
It can be draining and sometimes physically hazardous when working with some students prone to violent outbursts. However, Kennedy realizes his workday does not compare to the 24 hour, seven day a week, lifelong workload of parents with developmentally challenged children.
His reward is in helping students take the steps that get them over the monumental hurdles presented by their disabilities.
“I know that I’ve made a difference in that kid’s life. I’ve given him a skill that can change his life for the rest of his life,” Kennedy explained.