New York, NY 13th March, 2015: Rebecca School, a specialized school that promotes the education and development of children of ages 4-21 with autism spectrum disorders among others, participated in the Interdisciplinary Council on Development and Learning (ICDL) International Conference in November, 2014. ICDL is a “nonprofit organization dedicated to redefining and promoting each child’s development to their fullest potential.”
Gil Tippy, the Clinical Director and co-founder of Rebecca School and Rae Leeper, the Educational Coordinator and a founding member of the faculty at the school, attended the conference and talked at length about their views on the drawbacks of the educational system in the United States and other places in the world. They also stressed upon the changes that should be brought about to be able to cater effectively to students with special needs.
ICDL was founded under the leadership of Dr. Stanley Greenspan (1941-2010) who also served as a consultant to Rebecca School since its inception. Both ICDL and the Rebecca School are based on the Developmental Individual-Differences Relationship-Based (DIR) model/Floortime therapy developed by Dr. Stanley Greenspan.
According to the DIR model/Floortime intervention, children develop cognitive skills in tandem with the development of their range of emotional experiences and interactions.
Tippy spoke at the ICDL conference about how school curriculum based on the DIR model meets the requirements of the Common Core Standards and how effective it is with promoting the education and development of children on the autism spectrum.
He spoke emphatically about how “the current educational system places too much emphasis on memorizing lessons, doesn’t involve following a kid’s lead and doesn’t respect the fact that the children they deal with are at-least as smart as the educators and have ideas that have at-least as much value as theirs.”
Leeper, the Educational Coordinator, followed up Tippy’s speech with her explanation of the system at place in Rebecca School, the low student-teacher ratio (“8 students to one teacher”) and the effectiveness of Floortime therapy for children with an ASD and similar disorders.
Rebecca School is located at 40 East 30th Street in New York City. It is a 35,000 square foot facility with five floors and 14 classrooms. The classrooms are located at the perimeter of each floor and the center of each floor is occupied by therapists’ offices and ‘Quiet Centers’; quiet places for children to recover from overwhelming situations and emotional dysregulation. The school opened in September 2006 with 48 students and 53 staff members and the student population has been growing ever since. Rebecca School’s administration is known for placing emphasis on using play, art and music as therapeutic means of fostering emotional interactions that, in turn, help develop children’s cognitive abilities and strengthen their grasp of academic skills.
To know more about the school or to request a tour, you can visit: http://www.rebeccaschool.org/admissions/tourinfo-request/