In the Community, With the Community, For the Community
www.minnlocal.com – Thursday, Sept. 15, 2011 – Apple Valley, Rosemount & Eagan Sun-Current
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MAC School FROM PAGE 1 possess a wide-range of abilities. “It’s a wonderful opportunity for the kids and staff to give them reinforcement opportunities and I think all the families feel fortunate that their students are here,” said Deb Otto, program supervisor at the MAC School. Applied behavioral analysis relies on trained professionals providing individualized therapy for autistic people. The goal is to reduce the signs and symptoms of autism in a rewardsbased setting where children are frequently rewarded for positive responses to the therapists. The Minnesota Autism School provides students an important component they were lacking in a traditional classroom environment – one-on-one individualized instruction. In most schools, there are dozens of students for every one teacher. At the Minnesota Autism School, each student has a behavior therapist, who spends the entire school day with them. The Minnesota Autism Centers in Woodbury and Minnetonka focus solely on reinforcing ABA principles. “The MAC program provides direct intensive therapy,” Marshall said. “Here, we hope children are learning about math, science and social studies.” In Minnesota, one in 67 children are diagnosed with autism. “With the increase of the rate of autism, so many kids require a behavior component to their day,” said Marshall. “It combines academics with a behavior program.” “Perhaps one child’s issue is compliance. Another’s could be a language delay. Those behavioral pieces can be dealt with by a professional here and then allow that child to be dealt with
The MAC School in Eagan is the first in the country to combine behavior management skills for autistic children with an academic learning component. The 40,000 square-foot school, housed in the former Tesseract School building, was completed gutted this summer. The building was re-modeled with new carpeting, walls, and bright paint colors. (Photo by Matthew Hankey • Sun Newspapers) academically.” The school currently has 65 students, with the goal of reaching a total enrollment of 80 by November. That goal is dependent on hiring qualified staff, said Marshall. Applicants must have college degrees in a related science to health care, such as psychology or sociology. An unforeseen benefit of the school is having dozens of health care profes-
sionals under one roof, Otto said. “Allowing all of them to share that expertise with each other will be really good, too,” she said. The school is housed in the former Tesseract School in Eagan, a 40,000square-foot building that was completely gutted and re-modeled with new carpets, walls and paint this summer. “We’re thrilled with the size of the
building because it allows for the therapeutic reinforcement of our students,” Marshall said. “It works great. We have a large outdoor play area, a gymnasium, music room, library, media room, and a quiet space.” Marshall said the goal is for the students to get the behavior management skills and quality education they MAC SCHOOL: TO PAGE 8