Young students enjoying benefits of in-house program at Wood Road in Hillsborough.
By:Sally Goldenberg
A beaming Marianne Shandor said she and her 10-year-old son, Peter, can walk through the automatic doors of a supermarket and travel down the aisles together, free of anxiety.
Years ago, that would not have happened.
Peter, who was diagnosed with autism when he was 3, would throw a tantrum upon entering a store. He often refused to proceed through the automatic portals, Ms. Shandor recalled.
"He cried a lot. He screamed. He tantrumed. He pulled my hair. He pulled my daughter’s hair. He threw things. It was a nightmare," she said of his earlier patterns.
"He’s much better than he was when he was little," she added.
Peter’s aggressive behaviors were not an act of disobedience. Autism, a lifelong developmental disability whose cause is unknown, is often characterized by throwing tantrums for indiscernible reasons, according to an article by Dr. Stephen M. Edelson of the Center for the Study of Autism in Salem, Ore.
The neurological disorder which is recognized throughout April during Autism Awareness Month manifests itself through social, verbal and behavioral abnormalities, frequently resulting in language difficulty, physically aggressive behaviors and insistence on routine, according to Dr. Edelson.
Peter, who began his education at the Woods Road Elementary School program for children with autism nearly seven years ago, can now verbalize simple sentences to express his physical needs and desires and answer some closed-ended questions, Ms. Shandor said.
When he started the district program he did not utter a word, she added.
"I think it’s directly related to being in the program. He receives speech as well as occupational therapy," she said.
Thea Pallay, a teacher at the 10-year-old program in Woods Road, said that many students progress in spoken language over the years.
"We have kids who come here with no language and now they speak," Ms. Pallay said.
The program, which has the capacity to serve 18 students in Woods Road and the Hillsborough Middle School, employs Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) a popular technique that entails goals and reinforcement. Currently, 15 students at Woods Road and one student at the middle school are in the program.
"Those goals and objectives should be measurable goals and objectives," said Special Services Director Bill Lyons.
With one or two teachers working with each student, the instructors educate based upon Individual Education Plans (IEPs), which are written and revisited each year by the parent, teacher and the Child Study Team.
ABA involves Discrete Trial Teaching a method developed in the 1960s that requires instructors to record data regularly to measure a student’s progress. For example, a literacy goal in Peter’s IEP may be copying sentences from the Daily News newspaper to measure his handwriting and reading abilities, Ms. Shandor said.
"They follow his IEP to the letter," Ms. Shandor said of the teachers at Woods Road.
Positive reinforcement, in the form of material rewards or encouragement, plays a role in helping students master goals contained in their IEPs, according to literature on the Woods Road program.
Through educating students with autism in Hillsborough, the district saves anywhere from $15,000 to $42,000 a year per student in private school tuition and can garner revenue from out-of-district students placed at Woods Road, said Assistant Superintendent for Business Thomas Venanzi.
Which is why, Ms. Shandor said, a cut to the program would be detrimental.
Superintendent of Schools Robert Gulick proposed slicing two hours from the summer program at Woods Road, but the Board of Education quickly reinstated the funds.
Ms. Shandor, who publicly opposed the cut at a recent board meeting, said the district should value the program because it gives students richer opportunities than they would have in a private school setting.
Peter’s social skills have improved more in the program than they would have in a private school setting because he interacts with a non-disabled population.
He recently began distributing attendance slips to teachers throughout the school.
"When he started, an aide went with him. Then he was shadowed. Now he does it independently," she said.
"For socialization, that’s a big part of the program because it’s something he does every day," she added.
Like most children with autism, routine is vital for Peter’s peace of mind.
"He likes his routine. He’s probably the only child in the state of New Jersey who cries when there’s a snow day," she said.
In addition to Peter’s daily task, he and his classmates interact with the older students in the elementary school by playing games together.
In Robin Besser’s autism class at the middle school, students in the general population have grown more comfortable playing games with her student, she said.
"When I would at first go to talk to them about it, they would kind of look at me, not understanding. I think most of it was fear, not knowing what autism was," she said.
But middle school students seem to value the time they spend with her student, she added.
She plans to enhance their sensitivity by making weekly announcements about the disorder and posting informational signs throughout the school for Autism Awareness Month, she said.
Mr. Lyons agreed that placing students in the autism program with nondisabled students in the school is beneficial for everyone.
"We’ve seen over the years good, positive experiences for our kids in the program. They’re not kids that are made fun of. They’re not kids that are put down. They’re very much accepted," he said.
Students in the program are entitled to a free education until the age of 21, according to a state mandate. The high school is equipped for the program when the students are of high school age, district officials said.
Ms. Shandor said she hopes the prospective high school program involves vocational training.
"I think it’s imperative that they have a vocational program," she said. "Obviously he’s not going to college. He could do some type of service work."
Until then, she will continue to enforce his hobbies, such as playing a keyboard and watching Disney movies, she said.
And when she and her son walk down the aisles of Stop & Shop, she said she is thankful for the program at Woods Road.
"That program has given me a child I can live with."

