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Jarman, a father of two
autistic children and a lawyer, formulated the concept to create the Vista
School, located at 73 Cedar Avenue in Hershey.
"When I started looking at options
kids had in the public sector, I started considering if there were private
solutions that may work," Jarman said. "Largely, schools are not
set up to be integrated with the home component in mind."
He looked to find a way to educate his
twin sons, Sean and Patrick, 7, and created a model for an integrated home
and school plan from working with other parents. Classes began at the new
school on Feb. 4.
The Vista School will use a therapy
called applied behavior analysis (ABA). In this method, lessons are broken
into small activities and children are praised for proper responses while
inappropriate behaviors are not reinforced.
"There's been nothing in this area
that adopted this model," Jarman
said. "With a command and control
structure, the kids will have a better experience."
According to Jarman, there are no
programs in the area, private or public, that provide ABA in the classroom.
Because of this, the Jarmans had been homeschooling their children.
"We had a system that was kind of
broken up, that never until now would bridge the gap and give the child a
consistent presentation through day," Jarman said. "We'll end up
with higher quality and a better outcome."
Autism is a developmental disorder that
normally becomes apparent in children within the first three years of age
and causes impaired social interaction, difficulty communicating, and
repetitive behavior. There is no known cause for the disorder.
The group of parents who helped to
create the school secured a private school license from the Pennsylvania
Department of Education and hired a consultant to craft a curriculum using
the ABA method.
Funding for the school is mainly coming
out of the parents' pockets as well as from gifts, grants and other
sources, but the parents hope to be compensated through due-process
hearings with the school districts.
"A lot of these kids have not had
positive educational experiences up until now," Jarman said.
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