Hench Autism Studies Program (HASP)

Defiance College bridging gap for adolescents with autism
Unprecedented program envisioned as model for others nationwide

A small, Northwest Ohio college campus of approximately 1,000 students is setting a nationwide standard for educating about autism and educating those with autism.

Defiance College’s new Hench Autism Studies Program (HASP) is committed to filling a huge void in the lives of families affected by autism – the years of late adolescence and young adulthood.  DC president Dr. Gerald Wood unveiled the program Thursday in announcements in Toledo and Defiance.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 1 in 150 children are diagnosed with some form of autism.

 “What we see happening is a lot of awareness now on early childhood diagnosis and early childhood intervention, and that’s really important in the core development of an autistic person,” says Defiance native Eric Hench, who is the father of a son with autism and whose vision provided the impetus for the program. “But what is not being addressed is what happens to this population when they reach age 22 and no longer does the school system provide a safety umbrella. Obviously there is a need, it’s growing, and we wanted to do something about it.”

What Defiance College is doing is bringing together expertise and developing services in an innovative way. Elements include:

• An on-campus public school classroom for late adolescents with autism;
• A resource and referral center for families of children and adults with autism;
• Specialized training for undergraduate students to have peer interaction with students with autism;
• Focused coursework for undergraduate Social Work majors and additional training for licensed social workers;
• A new licensure within the Master of Arts in Education Program for  Intervention Specialist, Mild and Moderate K-12, with an emphasis in Autism

Because Defiance College (DC) has extensive experience with creating partnerships locally, nationally, and internationally, DC administrators and faculty were able to pull together existing expertise on and off campus to develop a model with tremendous potential to make a difference locally, and potentially beyond. 

Dr. Wood credits “the support and leadership of Eric and Deb Hench, a wonderful group of community and regional partners, and a knowledgeable and dedicated group of faculty led by the academic dean” with bringing the program to fruition. “It fits beautifully into the vision and mission of Defiance College to educate our students for responsible citizenship and service for the greater good.”

The foresight of the Henches provided the catalyst for collaboration between Defiance College and regional school districts, especially the Northwest Ohio Educational Service Center (NwOESC). Dr. Jo Ann Burkhardt, head of teacher education, said DC did not want to duplicate the work of school districts, but combine efforts for maximum effectiveness.

“The area school districts are highly skilled in developing programs, hiring highly qualified teachers, and working with parents to meet the needs of students with disabilities,” she says.

John Wilhelm, superintendent of the four-county NwOESC, appreciates collaboration in addressing something as complex as the autism spectrum. He calls it “one of the top rungs of our challenge ladder” as more children are identified as autistic.

 “This is something that Defiance College can really do, because it knows how,” said Burkhardt. “When I make presentations across the United States, the number one question is, ‘How do you convince your president and administration that working in social justice is important?’ I don’t have to,” she says, explaining that Defiance is already committed to a mission of civic engagement and social responsibility.

“Those are the roots of higher education,” Burkhardt continues. “How do you make the world a better place?” The unique confluence of resources at Defiance College has enabled the development of a program that could set the standard for similar programs nationwide.

“We were well positioned to take on this initiative,” says Dr. Catharine O’Connell, academic dean and vice president for academic affairs. “We had faculty expertise in appropriate areas within the social sciences and education. We had experience as a faculty working in close partnership through McMaster School projects. We are a community focused on the needs of late adolescents and had a ready pool of peer-age mentors and companions. As we worked on program development, all of the elements converged. To my knowledge, no one else is doing what we’re doing.”

Wilhelm says the program at DC “gives us the opportunity to bring other resources to the table when trying to find appropriate learning objectives for our high school aged students with some form of autism.”

The on-campus classroom currently has two students with capacity for four additional students. The College provided physical space for the classroom, and NwOESC staffed the unit with two teachers.

In their home school districts, students with autism are often placed in a multi-handicap classroom where teachers must address a wide range of physical and mental challenges. In the HASP unit, programming is specific to the student with autism and includes emphasis on peer interaction, one of the greatest challenges in a typical high school.
 
To provide peer interaction, the College created a curriculum for DC students. Select incoming first-year students were given the opportunity to volunteer for the program, and planners hoped to get 10 or 12 students. They had to draw the line at 23 volunteers. Many signed up because they have friends or relatives whose families have been affected by autism. The students are in a special class in which they study and discuss autism, and they have volunteered at Bittersweet Farms, a Northwest Ohio residential facility.

The college students provide socialization by having lunch in the cafeteria with students from the HASP classroom or sharing activities such as knitting and reading.

Now at the mid-point of the Fall 2007 semester, “we’re so much further than I thought we’d be,” says Burkhardt. “I didn’t expect that at week four or five that a freshman would ask a student with autism to come and each lunch with them.”

DC freshmen and HASP students meet in a book club every week and talk about their readings. Others meet weekly in a knitting club. The interaction provides opportunities for communication and modeling of social behavior, or “teachable moments.”

Teachers and students in the HASP classroom have created a business, Bumble Bean Coffee, to sell coffee, tea, juice, and homemade baked goods on campus three mornings a week. The business offers more teachable moments for students with autism to develop business and communication skills.

A crucial goal of the on-campus program is to help students begin to develop job skills and refine social interaction.

“We want to help them transition to successful and productive adulthood,” says O’Connell.  “Focused interventions in late adolescence can really make the difference in terms of providing these individuals with a hopeful future.”

O’Connell sees great potential in HASP.

“If this program grows like the McMaster School has grown, in several years we could have a clearinghouse for families providing information and support services; a thriving graduate program where people come who are interested in autism; undergraduate students committed to service seeking out Defiance because of their interest in autism; and an ongoing presence of young adults with autism on the DC campus with the entire campus community attuned to the kind of diversity these students represent.” 

O’Connell envisions HASP as a model for college-community partnerships dealing with adolescents with autism, supporting families, and providing best-practice education to both undergraduate and graduate students around the intellectual problem of autism.

And for the Henches, “We just hope that there is growing awareness that goes beyond autism, that people accept others that are different than them,” Eric said.