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Children With Autism Learn Life Skills at School's Coffee Shop
Filed under: Medical Conditions, In The News, Special Needs
Kids with autism learn life and business skills by running their own coffee shop. Credit: Getty Images
At Woodrow Wilson Middle School in Edison, N.J., children with autism or multiple learning disabilities step out of the classroom and into the business world on Friday mornings. Setting up in the home economics room, 12 students in a special education class run a coffee shop, selling coffee, tea, doughnuts, cookies and cupcakes to the school's staff -- even delivering to classrooms on request, the New York Times reports.
Since October, the children have rung up more than $1,000 in sales at the shop, which was developed by teacher Thomas Macchiaverna to help encourage social skills, instill business acumen and impart life lessons.
The students -- all boys between 11 and 13 years old -- take turns doing the various jobs, like cashiering or delivering orders, which helps bolster a range of different skills. But Macchiaverna tells The Times that, above all else, the students get to practice people skills at the shop, where the customers can sometimes be demanding.
"The overall goal here is to make these kids functional members of society," Macchiaverna tells The Times. "It's a different avenue than the standard educational curriculum. It's outside the box, which you have to be with this kind of program."
As diagnoses for autism spectrum disorders have risen in New Jersey, the number of special education students in public schools has increased 3.5 percent to 199,207 since 2008, The Times reports. In Edison, where 80 of the 850 students receive special education services, the coffee shop is an example of the way schools across the state are trying to expand their special education programs to better meet the needs of students with autism and severe learning disabilities.
In Northern Burlington Regional High Schools in Columbus, N.J., special education students run an auto-detailing shop at the school, cleaning cars for parents and school staff. And at Southern Regional High School in Manahawkin, N.J., autistic students started their own ice cream business and a gardening center where they grow and sell plants and vegetables, The Times reports.
Yet, there are but a handful of successful programs like these in the state. To address this issue, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie recently proposed the creation of more public schools devoted to children with autism. For school districts, this would help lessen the financial burden of special education, while providing students with a more consistent level of instruction.
Although the coffee shop met with some early challenges in the fall, the students have settled into a comfortable routine and the teachers love it.
"It's not about the coffee or the cookies," school Principal Patricia Cotoia tells The Times. "It's about the interaction and seeing how capable the kids are."
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ReaderComments (Page 1 of 1)
2-23-2011 @ 2:38PM
Carol said...how I wish my child had been taught to interact with others this way. We would have fewer problems with his real life jobs...
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2-23-2011 @ 2:50PM
aj14 said...Every Friday when my son was growing up, we’d head to Tower for a CD to celebrate his week. Tower was a place where he was completely at home, where he felt like he belonged, where hardly anyone stared. One such Friday while perusing the bins, he piped up: “I want to be in the music business.” For me it was a fleeting moment into Rio, without autism.
It had been a tough week that week, full of testing. The Doctor had sat me down and told me to get real. That my expectations for Rio’s ability to grow were unfair to him. So, I ‘got real’ and asked, ‘Do you want to work here?’ , knowing even that would be a miracle. Rio looked at me. ‘I want to be a rapper and own my own label. You got to dream bigger than that, Mom.’
A rapper? Impossible. His language was usually nonsensical and endlessly repetitive. Then something extraordinary happened in my life that lead me to meditation....and i began meditating with Rio. and pieces of the autism, the tics, the repetitive speech disappeared...and language came in...and within weeks they were talking about a profound developmental leap out of nowhere, and within a few months i witnessed his first conversation...about music. and fell to my knees and wept. Dream Big is his message...Indeed. check him out Rio and friends on youtube...up2 you grand prize winner. also check out flyintoautism.com....a collabo betwn very talented Autistic Kids and famous recording artists....Rio raps on the first cut, Who Am I? which states, we are the chosen few...not much but what can you do.... xxx Judith...Rio, it's an honor.....
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2-23-2011 @ 5:29PM
kATHY said...Our high school students with multiple disabilities including autism run the "Cardinal Cafe" in the cafeteria of our school. The work skills, social skills, and preparation for the world of work in supervised concessions makes this an extremely viable program. The monies go back into purchasing additional product. Students go to Sam's Club with the teacher to purchase additional materials.
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2-23-2011 @ 6:18PM
charles hedbring said...My gosh, PS77K in Park Slope Brooklyn NY is a public school whose adolescent autistic students were doing that practical learning activity way way back in the late 1980s and using Apple IIe and early MACs as part of their task. They would print out the day's menu, go from classroom to classroom, take limited lunch orders via check marks, and make change. A great program, back when autistics were rigorously diagnosed as autistic. Believe it or not, I believe one or two teachers from those days may still be there, though we are talking 25+ yrs ago! (Dr Charles Hedbring, programsteppe.com)
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2-23-2011 @ 6:39PM
Tracy said...I would just like to say that I commend programs like this for helping our kids with autism meet the social challenges in a way the can practice and understand. The only thing I would like to know is when will they start a tax prep business or a medical practice section or a similar situation . All children with autism are not the same AND autism does not equate with stupid or unintelligent or unable to consider holding one day a job that isnt considered blue collar. Many autistic people are very intelligent. They have issues with social interactions and making safe choices and with change. Please dont start pigeonholing our children into food service and car wash hopefuls. It makes it seem like you think they should expect nothing more. Low expectations achieve low results - raise the bar to what each child or adult with autism can actually reach for dont keep it so low they stumble over it.
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2-23-2011 @ 11:58PM
ragdoll said...When our child was five years old, we found out that she was having problems at school, we had her diagnosed at John Hopkins and we were told that she was in the high end function of autism, at the time my husband and I were like "so, now what do we do? what does that means?.. it means she well be able to attend some regular classes at school, we were told we were lucky. Our daughter has never had a friend or fiends, she can talk to the kids around her but she does not have the "social skills" that so many of us take it for granted. Art, Creative Writing (she has written children books and creates all the drawing to explain what is happening in the story) and Puzzles are her main strength, just two months ago I was wondering what can my child be able to do after college (we have always said to her that she needs to have a career, not a job). While I was at work, I get a phone call from the school and I am asked to come in for a "meeting". I leave work early and when I get to my daughter school, I am escorted to the music room where I am told to sit and watch my child play the piano while the music teacher looks at her with a proud smile, she is playing the piano.. (she is not trying to play "Mary had a little lamb") I mean she is really playing the piano, OMG! after playing four songs, her teacher turns and looks at me and tells me; "she wanted to show you, what she has learn and has been working on since she stared a month ago". I did not even know that she was interested in playing the piano.. her music teacher tells me that after working with her for about two weeks he notice that she was able to learn and to move to the next lesson very quickly and that she even helps other students to learn how to play the piano, its like second nature to her! He tells me that he can not believe it because he has students that have been taking piano lessons for about one to two years and they are still having problems learning the basic, your daughter has a wonderful gift. Never judge a book by its cover, because you never know ...
2-23-2011 @ 7:21PM
Barb said...Gov. Christie needs to re-read the federal special education laws about "Least Restrictive Enivronment". A school specifically for autistic students, "public" or not, is the most restrictive environment possible under federal law, and it's illegal to put students in those programs unless their needs cannot be met ANYWHERE else. School districts are required to educate students in the least restrictive (ie most like what the average student receives) environment in which their needs can be met.
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