Sebastian is a large young man with a childlike smile and a fondness for bouncing a basketball. He communicates by arranging small pictures in the little laminated booklet that he wears around his neck, a system known as PECS.
The 21-year-old from the Sequoia Union High School District is one of nearly 50 special-needs students attending the Palo Alto campus of AchieveKids. The nonprofit organization, which also has a campus in San Jose, provides academic and life skills classes, as well as a range of other services, for children and young adults ages 5 to 22.
Sequoia and other school districts sending students to AchieveKids have heir own programs for special-needs children, but they may not be equipped to accommodate the severity of learning and behavioral challenges facing students served by the nonprofit organization.
On a sunny summer morning, Sebastian is leaving the Middlefield Road campus with speech therapist Raji Srirangarajan. In his hand is a Nintendo DS, but it’s not for playing video games — it’s been transformed into a Yakpod, a high-tech replacement for the decidedly low-tech PECS booklet around his neck. When Sebastian presses an image, a recording of Ms. Srirangarajan’s voice plays, so he’ll have both a verbal and visual source of information to help him communicate.
Sebastian had darted out into traffic, unaware of oncoming cars, so his mother asked the staff at AchieveKids to teach him how to use a crosswalk safely, and that’s just what he’s doing. On his Yakpod are images of “Walk” and “Don’t Walk” signs. Ms. Srirangarajan reminds Sebastian to press the corresponding the image on his Yakpod when he sees it on the traffic signal to make sure he understands what it means.
She stays by his side as he recognizes the “Walk” signal and crosses the street. He and Ms. Srirangarajan give each other high fives and bump fists in celebration.
“He’s an auditory person. He listens very well to instructions,” says Ms. Srirangarajan.
A device like the Yakpod lets her know whether nonverbal students truly understand her directions, she says.
“He hits the buttons and he initiates — that means he’s conceptualized the information,” Ms. Srirangarajan says. “For children with autism, it’s very important being able to express basic needs. Our ultimate goal is for them to be independent, or as independent as possible.”
Easing into independence
Tulin Melton, the AchieveKids director of development, explains that PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System) is used by nonverbal students. In its more elaborate form, it looks like a big plastic box with laminated pictures or written words that can be moved around via Velcro strips. Pressing on an image plays a recording that says its name aloud. “It’s cumbersome,” Ms. Melton says.
A Yakpod, on the other hand, is small, doesn’t attract attention, and can store a lot of information, she says. For students like Sebastian, who are about to age out of the program, a Yakpod is more portable and convenient than PECS when they are out in public.
“This is very new in working with nonverbal autistic students,” Ms. Melton says.
AchieveKids is a beta test site for the Yakpods, made by Assistyx. The founder and CEO of Assistyx, Phil Bookman, is on the AchieveKids board of directors.
Devices like the Yakpod are part of the school’s five-year technology plan. Now that the hardware infrastructure and Internet and intranet are in place, AchieveKids is focusing on the next phase: assistive technologies, Ms. Melton says. A part-time technology trainer has been hired, and a San Jose State University professor joined the technology committee, she says.
“We’ve taken this very seriously,” says Ms. Melton.
Cisco, Hewlett-Packard and Juniper Networks have contributed products and money to the cause, she says.
For nonverbal students, just being able to express the need to take a break or eat a snack is a big hurdle. Other students at AchieveKids are in academic classes, which aim to reintegrate them into public schools or junior college. For those students, the focus is on making sure they are familiar with software programs typically used in classrooms, like Microsoft Word or Excel, says Ms. Melton.
Serving students with
a range of needs
AchieveKids isn’t a public school, but it isn’t a private school, either. It’s called a non-public school, and it receives about 80 percent of its funding from the students’ home school districts in San Mateo, Santa Clara, Alameda and Santa Cruz counties.
County mental health departments provide another 14 percent of AchieveKids’ funding, which helps cover the cost of the mental health services it offers, not only to students but also to people from the community.
The remainder of its funding comes from donations.
Students may have multiple diagnoses, including anxiety or psychotic disorders, mental retardation, autism spectrum disorders and disruptive behavioral issues. Different classrooms focus on academics, life skills and vocational training, depending on the age and needs of the student.
AchieveKids has on-site psychiatry services, thanks to a long-standing relationship with Stanford University’s school of child psychiatry, says executive director Michael Gennette. Students also have the services of speech and behavioral therapists, he says.
Special-education services at public schools do very well for the vast majority of students, but students with more intense needs may benefit from being at AchieveKids, Mr. Gennette says.
“The staffing at public schools is not as intense,” he says. “We are one-to-one, or one-to-two (student teacher ratio). A public school (class) often has 12 kids plus a teacher and a couple of aides, so it’s more like four-to-one.”
As a non-public school, AchieveKids functions on behalf of a school district and follows the districts’ educational plan, he says.
“We’re a partner with them,” says Mr. Gennette.
