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Centro Ann Sullivan del Perú – CASP
An Educational Program Developed to Teach People with Different Abilities
To be Independent, Productive and Happy, to Show What They Can Do, and to be
Included in All Activities in Life as a Valued Member of Society
2008
Liliana Mayo, Ph.D, General Director of CASP
Adjunct Professor of University of Kansas
Judith M. LeBlanc, Ph.D, Professor Emerita, University of Kansas
Consultant/Professor of CASP
Rosa (Yemi) Oyama, M.A., Director of Research and Projects of CASP
The purpose of this paper is to highlight the educational philosophy, orientation, and approaches and programs of Centro Ann Sullivan del Perú – CASP. It is not expected that one can learn how to do all these things from this paper. If you are interested, CASP hopes you will contact and, even better, visit us to learn more, through our professional education programs, about the educational technology and organizational approaches used to provide the best education possible to help all people with different abilities (even those the severest cognitive, physical and behavioral limitations) to become productive and valued members of society.
Centro Ann Sullivan del Perú (CASP) is a nonprofit, nongovernmental organization located in Lima, Perú, that is recognized for being a model research and demonstration educational center dedicated to teaching people with different abilities (the term used to highlight the abilities rather than limitations of the students), their families and professionals in Perú and around the world. CASP accepts students, regardless of age, including many who frequently have not advanced with other educational and treatment approaches, and also families and professionals who come from all over the world to learn the educational approach used at CASP.
The following poem was written by the teacher who inspired us, taught us and consulted with us since 1985…the person who helped us create CASP, a Peruvian based, international program developed and operated by Peruvian professionals for people with different abilities.
“I am a person with different abilities”
Judith M. LeBlanc, Ph.D.
University of Kansas
May 1997
(Taken from the Opening Address: International Symposium on Autism, Cancun, Mexico)
I am a person
A person with dreams
A person with goals to accomplish
A person who wants to succeed in my chosen work
A person who wants to love and be loved
A person who wants to be accepted and have friends
A person who wants to be valued for the contributions I make
A person who wants opportunities...
To be independent, productive and happy in life.
I am also a person with different abilities....
A person who wants the same things as you in life
I do not want to be dependent.
I do not want decisions made for me.
I do not want pity or to be treated differently.
...I only want opportunities to learn
...and to demonstrate what I can do.
These few words say everything that people with disabilities might wish to communicate in this millennium. They ask for quality of life equal to that of everyone else. They ask for freedom to make decisions for themselves. They ask for education so they can learn to be independent, productive and happy in life. They ask to be accepted for what they can do. In essence they ask to be treated like any one else and to be included in all aspects of life (home, school, community and work)
To fulfill this request requires changes in professional, parent and community attitudes and expectations. It requires changes in educational practices. It requires opening doors so people with different abilities are included in every aspect of community life.
What might seem simple becomes complex when translated into treatment and educational programs that guarantee that people with different abilities have the education and opportunities they deserve so they can function at their optimal level. It also requires large changes in attitudes and expectations by society so people with different abilities have the same opportunities as anyone else to show how they can take their place as valued members of their families, communities, and society.
Families and professionals working and learning at CASP are fulfilling their children’s and student’s goals despite the many hardships all face along the way because they have family members, students or friends who are people with different abilities. They form a team that believes in their friends with different abilities and together they have creatively succeeded in teaching them to be independent and productive. They are thus happy and included in all life’s activities.
CASP is dedicated to improving the lives of people with different abilities in Peru and all over the world. It provides lifetime educational programs for about 400 students (in the state of Lima) of all ages from birth through adulthood. The warm, friendly and cooperative family atmosphere of CASP that underlies the educational programs is noticed immediately by all who come for a visit or to learn. One of CASP’s beliefs is that all students can learn, and if they do not it the procedures being used are not teaching the student effectively.In addition to dedication, the staff must be persistent and patient enough to keep trying other procedures until students learn. The experimental teaching approach allows teachers to design another teaching procedure if the one they are using does not produce desired results. Persistently following the program’s motto of “Making possible, the impossible” resulted in the creation of the unique CASP program one step at a time.
History of CASP
Liliana Mayo, Ph.D,founded CASP in Perú in 1979 for eight students with different abilities. With the help of her parents and colleagues, Dr. Mayo began the program because there were no centers for people with severe and profound retardation, autism and behavioral problems in Perú. She named CASP in honor of Ann Sullivan the internationally known teacher of Helen Keller who was blind and deaf.
When the Center opened in 1979, it occupied the first floor and garage of the home of Dr. Mayo’s parents, and served eight children with “different abilities”(the descriptor preferred by CASP for people typically referred to as disabled). Because the number of families seeking entrance into CASP rapidly grew, its location was moved in 1985 to a larger site and small, prefabricated wood building built by private donations and volunteer help, after the Peruvian government donated some land. In order to meet the increasing demands for education and services, the CASP building has gradually transformed over the years into a three-story building that is the first totally accessible construction in Perú that was made possible thanks to generosity of national and international private and organizational donations.
CASP began with eight and now serves about 400 students/workers, 21% of whom are currently working in real jobs, and 17% who are included in regular schools. The remainder is learning the social and other skills necessary for them to also be in those programs. The School of Families at CASP is the only known educational program for educating families and it also follows the Functional/Natural Curriculum.
Hallmarks of the CASP Approach
The Functional/Natural Curriculum and the School of Families represent the organization of CASP educational programs. These unique programs offer new advances in the education of people with different abilities and could do the same in the education everyone.
The Functional/Natural Curriculum. This curriculum was created based on what Judith M. LeBlanc, Ph.D., of the University of Kansas, taught to the staff. She has voluntarily work with CASP since 1981. The specialists implemented procedural suggestions, and following the experimental approach to teaching, Dr. LeBlanc and the staff determined what resulted in success and what did not. What was successful was included in the educational curriculum and procedures. Through the years the staff now makes most of the suggestions for changes and this process continues each year.
The general goal of a functional/natural curriculum is to teach knowledge and skills that can be used by and useful for the student across a lifetime in their experimental learning psychology. To obtain this goal we teach for generalization of learned behaviors across environments, teachers, and materials rather than always teaching in the same educational environment.
The curriculum is based on the words of its name, i.e., the word functional means something that is useful or that serves a specific function and the word natural means situations, arrangements, or events that typically occur in a particular environment
At CASP the word functional thus refers to the educational objectives that are chosen for the learner. The emphasis is placed on teaching objectives that are useful for the learner today or will be useful in the students’ future lives. This means that the objectives include only those things that the students can use immediately according to their chronological age. For example, color is not generally taught as an academic exercise but rather when a student needs to discriminate colors in order to do a task or job. This assures that what is learned will be practiced in natural environments as it is learned.
The word natural refers to arrangements of the teaching environment and procedures so the teaching situation simulates, as closely as possible, naturally occurring events in the real world. It is used by CASP to describe the “who, what, when, where and how” of the implementation of the educational procedures. Thus what is natural can differ according to cultural and physical environments and organizational variables that are natural for the world in which the students live. Thus the CASP approach can be used for all people, across countries and in all ways of life regardless of whatever limitations a person might have.
The School of Families. This program, initiated by Dr. Liliana Mayo in 1979, grows and expands in content across the years. Families participate as members of a team with the professionals in the educational process of their children. In this teamwork each learns from the other and thus families also contribute to the continual improvement of the procedures and organization of CASP. Family participation in the education of their children is critical to a person’s generalized use of learned skills in all environments. All families participated in this continual education program for as long as they continue their association with the center, which in some cases is for the lifetime of the student. Families sign contracts to participate in the education of their family member who is enrolled in CASP. The education is focused on teaching families general information regarding people with different abilities, specific information regarding how to teach and include their children in the home and community, and ways to keep themselves and thus their children motivated. Emphasis is placed on the families maintaining high expectations for their children. Parents and professionals from the Lima area or who are visiting CASP are always invited to attend the School of Families meetings held twice a month.
Treat me like a Person. The best education occurs in the context of respecting and treating students in the same way you want to be respected and treated. At CASP this is simply translated into, “Treat me like a person.” Thus restrictive procedures are not recommended in the teaching process. If this philosophy guided how everyone in the world lived, the quality of life of people with different abilities (in fact for all people) would be enhanced, and society would be rewarded with people with different abilities becoming productive rather than dependent.
The Phrase “People with Different abilities”. To educate all who come into contact with people with limitations, CASP created and uses the phrase “people with different abilities” rather than “disabled, deficient, incapacitated, limited, dysfunctional, handicapped, etc.”. (This term is not a recommended substitution for medical and research indicators of populations.) It is used to focus on the abilities of a person rather than on their limitations… which incidentally we all have. How we describe people strongly influences our thinking and attitude about them and thus in how society responds to them.
CASP Beliefs. The procedures and teaching approaches used in CASP programs are based on fundamental beliefs that reflect how the staff, family members, and students work together to achieve their common goals. If we believe that all people in the word have a right to be educated for success in life, then people with different abilities deserve these educational opportunities.
We believe all people want to be independent, productive and happy and should thus be provided the education and opportunities to achieve this goal so they can be successfully included in all of society’s activities.
We believe that all people should be included in home, school, community and the work place.
We believe that parents and families, if they learn the skills they need, can be very effective teachers of their children.
We believe that parents and professionals should work as partners in the education of people with different abilities, each learning from the other and valuing the contributions of the others
We believe that all people should be educated with individualized plans that focus on their abilities and interests so that they can be successful and happy in life.
We believe that education should focus on strengthening what students do well rather than what they cannot do.
We believe that all people can learn if we can find the correct procedures to teach them.
We believe that everyone in children’s environments must show them we believe in them and expect them to do their best with our help. We should help them know that they can be successful.
We believe that all people should be treated like we would like to be treated…with kindness, respect, and love at home, at school, in the community and at work.
We believe that educational environments and homes should be happy environments in which everyone can learn and have fun.
And we believe that people with different abilities have the same dreams and goals as anyone else and that all in the world people want to be independent productive and happy
Expectations and Opportunities. High expectations of parents and teachers are essential for maintaining the motivation to keep trying. Expectations, however, must be accompanied by a good educational program and positive approaches to working with students with different abilities. We believe in what students can do. We also know that they can do more than we think they can, and believe that they will succeed…if they are motivated and praised for what they do. As they master new skills we raise expectations and they always meet them if we have sufficient patience to accept their speed of learning. We thus know they can meet the challenges of their lives just like anyone else if we educate them.
We constantly remind ourselves, our families and community members, that all people with different abilities can learn sufficient social, academic, and work skills to become contributing and valued members of society.
Focusing on abilities rather than on unusual and disruptive behavior.
Instead of implementing treatment programs to change disruptive behaviors, CASP focuses on teaching appropriate skills and behaviors to people who exhibit this behavior. This results in increased ability levels and in decreased disruptive behavior. As the students learn they are rewarded for good work. They thus learn they need not engage in maladaptive behaviors to get attention.
People who have special problems also have special abilities. Why then are they frequently described in terms of their disruptive or unusual behavior? A child who perseveres on tasks can be a great success in automated, repetitious and sometimes boring jobs that others find uninteresting. Another who is very social can learn to greet people and guide them in restaurants or stores.
If a student’s behavior is disruptive in the classroom or home learning activities, the CASP staff follows two procedures. First the student is redirected to an appropriate activity and then praised when engaging in that activity. Second, because students usually engage in disruptive behavior to get the attention of teachers or parents. Thus these adults are taught to attend to other children in the family or classroom with a lot of praise for doing what the adult has asked and ignoring the student who is engaging in disruptive behavior. This is referred to as indirect instructional control, i.e., praise given to students who doing what is asked can also become instructions to the student who is disruptive. Thus no direct attention is given to a student’s disruptive behavior. If direct attention is given to disruptive behavior, it will only increase so the student can receive more attention. These procedures initially take more time to reduce disruptive behavior than using food reinforcers, tokens and/or time out from classroom for that purpose. In the long run, however, they take less time because the change in the student’s behavior comes under the control of natural reinforcers in the environment. Continual use of reinforcers that are not found in the natural environment thus is then not needed. Student’s who are reinforced with food and tokens, on the other hand, will not work in the absence of those items, and they revert to their prior disruptive behaviors, unless the families and/or teachers very gradually reduce the use of these reinforcers which is very time consuming and difficult. It is, however, important to remember that the adults must first become friends with the students so their praise is effective.