Preschool Autism Program Enlists Classmates to Help Teach Social Skills

A preschool classroom which mixes
 typically-developing children with
others on the autism spectrum.

Being polite, taking turns, and the like can be difficult for many preschoolers, but even more so for students with autistic spectrum disorders.

One fledgling early-childhood initiative is finding that getting classmates involved in helping autistic students can help boost the social skills of all children in the classroom.

Children Thrive in Inclusionary School

There's a small school at the University of Washington where many kids with developmental disabilities first learn to talk, count and play. The kids learn these skills in classes with their typically-developing peers, from birth through kindergarten. KUOW's Ann Dornfeld reports from the EEU: the Experimental Education Unit.

Pat O'Kell is watching his son Finn's kindergarten class at the EEU from an observation booth with one–way glass.
O'Kell: "If you sit in these booths and watch for a little while, everyone's sort of struck by which ones are the typical kids, and which ones are the special needs kids. It gets kinda hard to tell. They all kinda blend together and they're all just kids to the teachers and to each other, which is the great thing about inclusion."
About half of the kindergarteners at the EEU have autism or other disabilities, half of the kids are typically–developing. The students have a wide variety of skill levels, but they learn side-by-side.