Students, special education children mix in Peer to Peer program

TRAVERSE CITY — Four middle school students stand around a Ping-Pong table at the East Middle School cafeteria, paddles at the ready.

The students — some with autism spectrum disorder, some without — get together every Thursday afternoon. Then one student lies down on the table. Later, one of the players reminds him to take a paddle out of his mouth.

The weekly, half-hour experience is part of the school's Peer to Peer program, which pairs special education students with children their own age. The program is in several Traverse City Area Public Schools buildings and is growing in other school districts within the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District.

The teachers who run the program say special education students benefit from the social interaction, while general education students learn about disabilities and how to interact with different types of students.

Austin Hanson, 14, is a student with autism spectrum disorder who affirmed his support of the program before he went back to Wii bowling against his assigned peer, Kyle Taylor, who is also 14.
"It's nice to help them and teach them new stuff," Taylor said.

Teachers and experts who work with special education students also extol the virtues of the program.
"Students with autism spectrum disorder or other development disabilities are more responsive to taking direction or suggestion or watching the model of the peer over an adult," said Deb Drayton Nelson, the TBAISD supervisor of programs and services for students with ASD.

She said student peers can tell special needs students to stop bad behavior easier than an adult.
"Typical kids on a playground might say, 'hey, knock that off' and it's not a big deal, but when an adult says it to them it's more of a reprimand," she said.

Nelson said TBAISD started peer-to-peer training about eight years ago, but the program didn't really take off. She said about five years ago the program got buy-in from teachers and administrators at Traverse City West Senior High, and the school lead the region ever since.

Other schools and school districts followed suit, and now it's in Kalkaska Public Schools, Buckley Community Schools and Kingsley Area Schools. Area charter schools also started implementing the program, which can be applied to all ages and vary from a formal class — like one at West Senior High School — or simply as assigned lunch buddies or a game-playing session.

She hopes the experience sticks with mentors who will one day become employers, neighbors and leaders in the community, Nelson said.

"They at a very young age have learned how to accept and support and capitalize on what every body has to offer," she said. "It gives us an opportunity to have an even richer community than we have now in our region."

Laurene Kallioinen's son Jack, 14, is a special education student in the peer to peer program at East Middle School. She said her son gets a role model out of the program and sees examples of social interactions that don't come naturally to him.

"Just seeing the compassion and patience in (the peers) is amazing," she said.
At East Middle School, general education students take a few minutes to debrief with teachers after a half-hour session with the special education teachers.

They're encouraged to ask questions about what they've seen. Scott Jongekrijg, a TBAISD teacher who works at East Middle School, said students often ask how they can get their special education counterparts to respond to them.

"One of the things of autism is they have a hard time communicating. If you ask one of my students a question, A. they may not respond at all or B. you're going to get a really simple, one-word answer," he said. "I'm trying to set up things where kids have to interact."
He said he encourages general education students to correct special education students and keep them focused on the task at hand.

East Middle School student Zacharee Parker, 13, said he used to see special education students walk down the halls.

"They're not really talking to anyone," he said. "I thought I'd be a friend to them."
Andrew Bruce, 12, said initially the special education students wouldn't talk to their general education peers. But now they recognize them, talk to them, and high-five in the halls.
"I thought it was pretty cool," he said.

Jame McCall, TCAPS Associate Superintendent of Student Services, said special education students benefit from the socialization.

"We have children who have not been included much in their life and this is their opportunity," she said. "We're seeing such great growth socially."
Billi Hoeppner, a TBAISD teacher at East Middle School, said her students look forward to Peer to Peer.

"They say, 'my friends are coming, where are my friends,'" she said.
Dan Rice is a teacher at Traverse City West who runs an ASD-mentoring class. His students take the one-semester course in which they work with students three times a week. Some of the special education students don't talk.

Rice said his students learn acceptance, patience and understanding. He said for some students the experience affirms that they'd like to go into the special education field or some other practice helping people with disabilities. A psychologist and autism specialist also comes to class and trains the students.


"They learn these kids are part of our society, they're part of our school and they help to bring them to the community of the school," he said. "It's really cool to see them interacting in the halls together and the library together and being friends."

article source: http://www.record-eagle.com/news/local_news/students-special-education-children-mix-in-peer-to-peer-program/article_00eb5223-944d-5317-95f2-8ab65d65628f.html