A.U. Autism Center prepares to restructure program

The Auburn University Autism Center currently houses two autistic classrooms, providing services to 13 students, including seven autistic students, according to Dr. E. Davis Martin, interim director of the AU Autism Center.

Center staff are currently working with local educators and the students’ families as the center prepares to restructure its program this fall.

“Phase I of the AU Autism Center’s goal was to demonstrate that children with autism could be trained alongside their typical peers,” Martin said. “The next step (Phase II) will be to place these children in an actual school setting with their peers.”

That second phase will come this fall as the center restructures — a move center leaders say will expand its services “to provide enhanced training for educators, health professionals and families interacting with autistic children.”

The Opelika-Auburn News first reported that the center would be restructuring its programs Tuesday.

The current students are divided among the two classes, with five in one class and eight in the other, Martin said. In the 5-student class, three are autistic and two are peer students.

In the eight-student class, four are autistic and four are peer students. Martin said there are two other transitional students currently receiving services at the AU Autism Center.

According to a statement from the AU College of Education, the change will be that the center’s current peer-model program for autistic children ages three to five years-old will continue to operate but the classroom site will shift from the on-campus facility to an Auburn City School System elementary school (Richland Elementary).

Martin said of its current enrollment, there are about four autistic students, who already live in the Auburn City School zoning, who will attend Richland Elementary in the fall.

He said some students living outside the Auburn City School zone are in the process of transferring to Auburn.

Martin said the center staff will be working with the parents of students who aren’t transferring to the Auburn City Schools system to find appropriate services in their areas.

“We not abandoning anybody,” Martin said.

Martin said the AU Autism Center has been working with the Auburn City School system for several months in planning the transition.

An advisory committee will later be established to define the “emerging vision” for the AU Autism Center, according to Martin.

“We want Auburn University to become a research hub where various departments and disciplines work together to find ways to address the issue of autism,” said Martin. “We’re excited about finding ways of making that vision come true.”

Autism is a complex neurological disorder that can impair an individual’s ability to communicate with others according to the Autism Research Institute which also finds that about one in every 150 children born nationally is to some degree autistic.