Teaching 6 children with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Dear Donor,

We always appreciate your support and would like to share with you our story.

We have a small center, where preschool children come to receive speech, occupational, physical and social play therapy.

We work closely with the parents of these children and provide them strategies and techniques to assist them in understanding their children's needs and supporting carryover of skills learned in therapy to their home and other preschool environments.

Some of our children have been asked to leave traditional day care and preschool centers due to their disruptive behavior or inability to learn in this setting. Many of our children come from bilingual homes, where the challenges for these children are great. We have therapist specializing in English, Russian, and sign language.

Children with autism often become upset and frustrated when adults are inconsistent with them and when routines or schedules are disrupted. We provide structure and consistency, which are vital for a child to learn. All our children are supported and can participate and learn in this small safe environment. They are learning to use signs, sounds, and words to play and request with their friends and families. They are also learning how to manage their behavior in a group so they can return to a school setting or just attend family functions.

Currently 1 in 68 children is estimated to be on the autism spectrum. These children are often very intelligent. They require a different path to learn. We are here for them, and with your help we can continue to provide needed materials for the children and their families.

We invite you to look at our center and the children at play on our Facebook page: facebook.com/penndco

We invite you to support a child with your donation.

We thank you for your help.

Sincerely,

                   Tetyana Varenychenko, Project Leader

Dear our Donors!

We would like to inform you about our successive social skills group of children who have autism spectrum disorder or social communication difficulties and effectively participate in our program. We use the Hanen Program for Parents of Children with ASD, and we use valuable strategies for their children, including Hanen strategies, stone therapy, art therapy, brush therapy, visual tools and toys, visual schedule, and assistive technology.

We have a small classroom, six students with ASD and three therapists who have used the most effective strategies for their children, including Hanen strategies, visual tools and toys, and assistive technology.

The main goal of our program is making friends at different stages of child's development. We follow through all stages: the own agenda stage, the requester stage, the early communicator stage, and the partner stage helping our children to communicate and allow them to lead.

The main idea of our program is Let's Make Friends, and our focus is on child's ability to play with other children. It can take a long time to develop child's social skills and communication skills, however all therapists and family members have supported their children to make efforts in all activities. Every child needs to take small steps.

We would like to share with you our photos which can present you how our children participate in a social skills program having fun and developing their social skills.

A great big thank you to all our supporters, donors and families who have supported us to create the valuable placement and program for our special children who have needed to enjoy collaborative activities making the best interactions as well as the best friends.