Educational Options

All education interventions used with your child need to be:

a) specific to your child
b) predicted on the outcome of a Psychological Assessment or Individual Educational Plan (IEP) or  both
c) evidence-based
d) delivered by professionals who have the correct training and resources to deliver the requirements of the Psychological Assessment and/or IEP
e) measured regularly. You, as parents or guardians, should be consulted and it should be reviewed at least every year but preferably every 6 months.

In Ireland at the moment, the following options exist at Primary School level:

1. The Department of Education and Science (DoES)  are to deliver what they call the eclectic model in one of three settings;
   
   a) ASD Unit in a National Primary School
   Typically, these classes have 6 children with ASD and the educational intervention is delivered by a National School Teacher who has the assistance of a Special Needs Assistant (SNA) whose primary responsibilities are to assist with issues such as toileting, arranging the child's environment etc.
   
   b) Special Needs School
   The interventions are the same as outlined above but it is likely that your child will be educated alongside children with other intellectual difficulties. 
   
   c) In a mainstream class in a national primary school, with some assistance (typically some Resource teaching and an SNA)
   In our experience, this setting is only suitable for high functioning children whose diagnosis is extremely mild or High Functioning Autism or Asperger's Syndrome.
   
   In all of the three settings described above, there may be a limited input from a Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) and Occupational Therapist (OT). The amount of input seens to vary widely in different settings throughout the country. A list of the classes above are available on the DoES website www.education.ie. 
   
        
2. The DoES also fund what they describe as 13 'Pilot Projects' which deliver intervention to the children through an educational philosophy known as Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA). These centres of education, which have on average been in existence for 5 years or more, deliver intensive one-to-one (where necessary) scientific intervention to the children. The majority of the tutors in these centres of education have Primary Degrees in Psychology with many also holding Masters Degrees and Doctorates in Psychology. These centres of education deliver both a longer school day and a longer school year to ensure retention of the skills acquired by the children and to prevent regression during the long school holidays. 
   
   All of these centres of education were set up by parental lobbying and in some instances, court cases. A list of these centres of education can be found under the Services section of this website, entitled 'Regional Services'. 
   
   Whilst there may be some slight variances in enrolment policies, most of the centres of education insist that a child is between the age of 2½  and 7 years of age at point of entry and will require your child to have an Educational Psychological Assessment, which recommends an ABA placement. The DoES will not place your child in one of these centres of education without this report.
   
   The centers of education also seek to employ full time SLT's and OT's.
   
   Unfortunately, there are currently in excess of 345 children awaiting placements in these centres of education and there are 12 parent groups in different counties around the country lobbying to have 12 more centres of education opened. Contacts for these groups and their geographical locations are listed in the Services section of this website. 

Visit the websites listed below for more information on the various options available.

Institute for Applied Behaviour Analysis (IABA) www.iaba.com
The Lovaas Institute for Early Intervention (LIFE) www.lovaas.com
TEACCH Autism Program www.teacch.com
The SonRise Program www.son-rise.org
The Boston Higashi School Inc www.bostonhigashi.org