Sherwood Center

Special Education

Sherwood Center provides intensive special education services to students with autism and related developmental disabilities. Autism is a complex neurobiological disorder that typically lasts throughout a person's lifetime. It is part of a group of disorders known as Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). The purpose of Sherwood Center’s Special Education program is to enable children and adolescents with ASD and related developmental disabilities to acquire and improve developmental skills in critical areas such as language/communication, activities of daily living, socialization and functional academics. Students attending Sherwood Center need these skills to be able to transition into other classrooms, other educational settings and new environments. Sherwood Center strives to form partnerships with families and providers. There is daily communication between classroom staff and families/providers to ensure consistency from one environment to the next. When additional supports are needed Sherwood Center takes the necessary steps to provide the families/providers with the knowledge and skills needed to support their child. The ultimate goal of the Special Education program is to help students learn new skills and build upon previously acquired skills so they can become as independent as possible in their homes and the larger community.

We offer special education programming based on applied behavior analysis and other proven methods, including the following, as appropriate to each student:

Occupational Therapy: Occupational Therapists provide assistance with motor skills and sensory diets.

Discrete Trial Training: Teaching by repetition and presenting learning in clear specific trials.

Community Inclusion: We work with students to achieve educational goals in community settings to make sure they can generalize skills learned in the classroom to all settings.

Transition Services: We offer informal assessments and provide access to a student operated business.

Precision Teaching: Classroom staff measure and record directly observable behavior and acade mic learning. Celeration Charts provide pictures of student pro gress, maintenance and regression. Throug h this method classroom staff will analyze which teaching me thod works the be st for each student.

Behavior Programs: We provide functional behavior assessments to help identify positive behavior support plans for specific behaviors. Classroom staff maintains data driven programs to monitor if teaching methods and/or interventions are making a difference.

Speech and Language Programs: Sherwood Center offers extensive programming for language building and communication skills. We offer low-tech assistive technology, Lovaas language training, speech th erapy, picture communication systems.