How does TEACCH work?

To understand TEACCH we must first understand how we think and communicate. Think about your favourite meal. For example let’s say it’s fish and chips. Did you see the words Fish and Chips in your mind? Most people would have thought about a picture of nice hot fish and chips on a plate. Think of your best friend. Did you think of their name written down or think of their face. Although we use words to communicate, we think in pictures.

When the first camera phones were coming out, one manufacturer’s advert showed a man taking a picture of several things (a meal, a bed, a toilet) and then he flew to a foreign country. In trying to find a place to eat, he showed someone his picture of the meal; trying to find a toilet, he showed another picture and so it went on. He was communicating using his pictures.

One thing we have discovered about Autism is that many people who suffer from it are scared of the world they don’t understand. For example, one service user we used to work with would be violent at home. He understood the staff, the other service users and the people who would visit. But, if you took him outside he would cringe and hang on to your arm for safety. He wasn’t comfortable with the unfamiliarity of the world around him and was scared.

As many of our service users do not communicate verbally, by using pictures we can begin to explain some of the things that we take for granted in the world around us.

TEACCH educates service users to understand and perform activities for themselves. It teaches them that everything we do has a start, a middle and an end. For example, when you use a pen, you start by getting it out, then you use it and finally you put it away. Breaking it down even further, when you put the pen away, first you put the lid on, then put it in its case and lastly put the case on the shelf.

When training a service user in a new routine, they have a series of pictures to help them work through the stages of a task. As an example, imagine a service user is learning to brush their own teeth. The beginning is to understand the whole task, so the first picture shows the service smiling and showing their teeth. The middle is to actually do the task, so there are a series of pictures showing how to put toothpaste on the toothbrush, how to brush all of the teeth and how to rinse. The end is to be congratulated by a member of staff or a family member. Therefore, the last picture shows all the staff in the particular house and a speech bubble saying ‘Well done’.

	What Is TEACCH?		How Do We Use the TEACCH Principles for Planning and Education?
	Is TEACCH Only Used for Planning and Education Using the Boards?