Education is driven by a Clinical/Educational Team.
In most schools dealing with students with severe needs, the program is driven mostly by academic content. Teachers are in the lead, and clinical experts try to support the child so that he or she can adapt to school.
At CLU, school is a clinical intervention, but the program is designed in collaboration with a team that includes:
- Educators
- Clinical and Educational Psychologists
- Psychiatrists
- Marriage/Family Therapists
- Language/Speech Therapists
- Occupational Therapists
Students are reviewed on a weekly basis by the team.
Transdisciplinary Model
This collaboration allows team members to implement aspects of interventions performed by other team members and other disciplines. For instance, the psychotherapist is aware of the language interventions prescribed; the teacher implements through multiple daily interactions the interventions prescribed by the clinical and educational psychologists, etc.
Master/Apprentice Model
Because we value attuned, personal relationships and problem-solving over economic relationships (motivation through rewards), students are willing to be engaged in what is called a Master/Apprenticeship relationship. This has to do with the establishment of close and trusting relationships between the child and adult.
Emotional skills are always learned in infancy and early childhood through interactions between the child apprentice and their emotionally masterful parents. Children with autism have great difficulties being engaged in such a relationship. There is a lot of work involved in helping a child become a part of such a relationship, but this is a primary feature of Teacher-Student relationships at CLU.
Graduated Transition Back to Public School
Attendance at CLU represents an intensive level of intervention. It is not meant to become a long-term school placement. The goal is to teach students dynamic thinking skills, and to help them recover from the psychological damage they've previously encountered. With this accomplished, students have to learn to adjust to normal environments that are not adapted to their special needs. CLU collaborates with referring school districts and the clinical team to develop transitions back to public school.
