TEACCH

TEACCH, Treatment and Education of Autistic and Related Communication Handicapped Children, was developed in 1972 by Dr. Eric Schopler at the University of North Carolina. It is a structured teaching method that can be used in schools, homes and communities.

In the article “The TEACCH program in the Era of Evidence-Based Practice,” published in the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders in 2009, Mesibov and Shea stated that “the essential mechanisms of Structured Teaching are (a) structuring the environment and activities in ways that are understandable to the individual; (b) using individuals’ relative strengths in visual skills and interest in visual details to supplement relatively weaker skills; (c) using individuals’ special interests to engage them in learning; and (d) supporting self-initiated use of meaningful communication.” This way of teaching uses individual schedules that allow children to move around their area in a very independent way. Children are provided with their own “workstation” with designated pictures and visuals that move from left to right to maintain an intuitive workflow that can be generalized into the work setting as they grow older. This form of structured teaching is not limited to only visual learners but also can be adapted to more high functioning learners in the form of independently written agendas, which might include tasks that need to be completed within a certain amount of time.

Mesibov and Shea stated that TEACCH recommends physical structure - the removal of distractions in the environment, organizing and communicating events of the day, organizing of individual tasks, and lastly linking individual tasks into a sequence of activities that is most meaningful and productive. This structure of organization can be very beneficial for those who thrive in a structured environment but may lead to rigidity if flexibility and changes in schedules are not embedded into the teaching system. Nonetheless, learning this structure and being able to adapt it into an everyday routine may be very beneficial to individuals with autism. 

In a 2013 article published in BioPsychosocial Medicine Journal, TEACCH was used as a pilot study for social skills training for children with high functioning autism in Japan. In this study, Ichikawa el al. concluded that high-functioning children with autism were able to develop social skills and reciprocity while reducing their mothers’ stress levels using the structured teaching.

There are so many resources on TEACCH ranging from workstation tasks to format of teaching that can be found online. TEACCH can be beneficial to children and families working towards promoting independence. The structure can even be adapted into the work environment when individuals with autism begin to join the workforce. For more information on TEACCH please go to: https://teacch.com/

References
Mesibov, G.B., & Shea, V.A. (2010). The TEACCH Program in the Era of Evidence-Based Practice. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 40, 570-579.

Ichikawa, K., Takahashi, Y., Ando, M., Anme, T., Ishizaki, T., Yamaguchi, H., & Nakayama, T. (2013). TEACCH-based group social skills training for children with high-functioning autism: a pilot randomized controlled trial. BioPsychoSocial medicine, 7(1), 14. doi:10.1186/1751-0759-7-14

Erica Lau, M.S. BCBA, LBA
Associate Clinical Director Seattle, WA
November 12, 2019