FAQs
Frequently Asked Questions
How do I get my child into Morgan Autism Center’s program?
What types of students are enrolled at Morgan Autism Center?
What do the atypical behaviors indicate?
How do we address the underlying deficit?
What is the Morgan Autism Center Model?
What are the opportunities for mainstreaming?
Do students return to their school districts?
What are some of the behaviors we might see at Morgan Autism Center?
How many students/clients attend Morgan Autism Center?
What is Morgan Autism Center? Morgan Autism Center School Program is a nonprofit, non-public school, serving students who cannot be served within their own district schools. Students are typically referred from other parents, school districts, physicians, private therapists, regional centers and other agencies.
How do I get my child into Morgan Autism Center's program? Typically, the parents and the school district come to a mutual agreement at an IEP that the classrooms being offered within the school district will not meet the needs of the child. Then, they will look for a more specialized placement, such as Morgan Autism Center. Once it is determined that a child will benefit from a placement at Morgan Autism Center, usually the child’s home school district will contract with Morgan Autism Center to provide the special education services.
What is an IEP? Programs for students are developed at the annual Individual Education Plan meeting, including parents and appropriate school district staff. The IEP then becomes a tool with which to provide an education, pursuant to Federal Law 94-142, California Education Code, Title 5, and it is also a legal contract.
What types of students are enrolled at Morgan Autism Center? Diagnoses served include Autism, Asperger’s Syndrome, Pervasive Developmental Disorder, and related neurological and learning disorders. Many students have accompanying disabilities, such as epilepsy, cerebral palsy, chromosomal disorders, and visual/hearing impairment. All students demonstrate significant deficits in perception, communication, learning and behavior, and function below their age levels in most areas.
What do the atypical behaviors indicate? Too frequently, people respond to the symptoms of the child’s dysfunction rather than recognizing that the symptom is a manifestation of the underlying neurological deficit. Teaching and behavioral strategies must be directed toward accommodating the deficit.
How do we address the underlying deficit? It is critical to understand the thinking processes of the students we serve. This will help us understand how their processing deficits manifest themselves. Especially with children with autism spectrum disorders, but also applicable to other disabilities, are concepts that are important to keep in mind while working with these students. Because of their challenges with information processing and attention shift impairment, it is very difficult for the students to disengage from an activity, attend to incoming information, integrate, organize, and then consciously recall this information to adapt to their environment. The things we do so easily hear a stimulus, shift our focus to the incoming information, plan our response, and then act on the new information are extremely difficult tasks for the autistic child. These inabilities are often misunderstood as deliberate failure to respond, non-compliance, or choosing not to listen. The teacher, through careful task analysis, structuring of tasks, and support, becomes the instrument through which the child’s thinking processes can become more organized.
What is the Morgan Autism Center Model? The Morgan Autism Center Model is based on the understanding of five basic principles: 1.Understanding the importance of attention 2.Reliance on rote or procedural memory to develop positive behavior patterns 3.The importance of structure that is consistent and predictable 4.Meaningful reinforcement 5.Errorless learning
How do we train our staff? When first hired, our staff spends two to three days in the classroom, first observing the students, then participating alongside current staff, and reviewing files. The senior staff make themselves available both before and after school for questions, and for six weeks, the new staff attend morning meetings to learn the Morgan Autism Center method and its application.
What are the opportunities for mainstreaming? Morgan Autism Center provides both reverse mainstreaming and mainstreaming opportunities to students. The reverse mainstreaming involves students from local schools visiting our students for structured play/social skills and friendship building. Mainstreaming opportunities are decided on an individual basis, where we work closely with the local school districts to provide a positive mainstream experience.
Do students return to their school districts? Some students are able to return to their local school districts after a time at Morgan Autism Center. The IEP team makes this decision.
What are some of the behaviors we might see at Morgan Autism Center? Hyperactivity, distractibility, low frustration tolerance, significant attention deficit, aggression, self-abuse are some of the typical behaviors seen.
How are the classes set up? Children are placed in classrooms based on age, size, academic ability, and social skills. Each classroom has between 4 to 7 students. Our staff to student ratio is 1:1. Each class also has a credentialed teacher, and all students have daily fifteen minutes of speech with a certified speech therapist.
How many students/clients attend Morgan Autism Center? In our school program, we have 56 students. In our adult program, we have 33 clients.
