TEACCH

WHAT IS TEACCH?

TEACCH stands for 'Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication-Handicapped Children.'

Division TEACCH started in 1966 as part of the Department of Psychiatry of the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina in the USA.

TEACCH cannot be reduced to a technique, not even to a set of techniques, not even to a method. It is a complete program of services for autistic people which makes use of several techniques, of several methods in various combination depending upon the individual person's needs and emerging capabilities.

The primary aim of the TEACCH programme is to help to prepare people with Autism to live or work more effectively at home, at school and in the community. Special emphasis is placed on helping people with autism and their families live together more effectively by reducing or removing 'autistic behaviours'.

THE TEACCH CONCEPT

The principles and concepts guiding the TEACCH system are:

• Improved adaptation: through the two strategies of improving skills by means of education and of modifying the environment to accommodate deficits. 
• Parent collaboration: parents work with professionals as co-therapists for their children so that techniques can be continued at home.
• Assessment for individualised treatment: unique educational programmes are designed for all individuals on the basis of regular assessments of abilities.
• Structured teaching: it has been found that children with autism benefit more from a structured educational environment than from free approaches.
• Skill enhancement: assessment identifies emerging skills and work then focuses upon these (This approach is also applied to staff and parent training.)
• Cognitive and behaviour therapy: educational procedures are guided by theories of cognition and behaviour suggesting that difficult behaviour may result from underlying problems in perception and understanding.
• Generalist training: professionals in the TEACCH system are trained as generalists who understand the whole child, and do not specialise as psychologists, speech therapists etc.

The strategies put forward by TEACCH do not work on the behaviour directly, rather on underlying conditions that will foster learning experiences. They also make use of recent cognitive psychology research results about some differences in particular areas of the brain processing in autistic people versus other people.

When behaviour problems occur, they are not treated directly. The approach calls for efforts to understand the underlying reasons for the behaviour problem, such as; anxiety, physical pain, difficulty with task, unpredictable changes and boredom.

RESEARCH

A comprehensive study was carried out by the Department of Health and Social Services in Northern Ireland (D. Sines, 1995-6, A Study to Evaluate the TEACCH Project, University of Ulster). Of the 72 parents and professionals who responded, 86% described TEACCH as effective; citing examples of improvements in self-help skills and social skills, and a reduction in inappropriate behaviours. Communication, concentration and independence were also improved. Over 90% claimed that TEACCH has enhanced the quality of life of children and adults with autism.

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