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Our Training Programs
TOHUM Autism Foundation School admits children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), as well as children in early childhood who have not yet received an official diagnosis but show signs of autism and have been referred for special education by specialists, into its early childhood, preschool, and school programs. With this inclusive approach, we aim to serve all individuals in need during the critical early intervention period. In addition, career development and life skills programs are offered for individuals with autism transitioning into young adulthood.
High-quality practices covering all developmental areas, with a primary focus on communication and social interaction skills, are provided through intensive one-on-one training sessions and group training. All these practices are carried out to ensure children's access and participation in home, school, and other social environments.
From the first day children enter the classrooms, their existing performance is assessed to provide individualized learning experiences tailored to their interests and needs. During these experiences, their progress is regularly monitored and evaluated in order to motivate, encourage, and support them.
Early Intervention Program
These are practices offered at school and in children's homes for children aged 0-36 months during the early childhood period, which is critically important in the development of children with autism. The main purpose of this program is to create an educational environment that will enable the child to reach their existing potential at the highest level and to make learning experiences efficient by ensuring the child's active participation.
Activities aimed at children's cognitive, social/emotional, fine and gross motor, and language development are carried out through interactive and play-based applications. The children's educational programs target learning-readiness skills such as matching, imitation, expressing desires, and following instructions, as well as developing joint attention, problem-solving, establishing cause-and-effect relationships, communicating with those around them, playing with toys, playing with peers, and skills such as feeding, toileting, and dressing/undressing.
Preschool Curriculum
Offering services for children aged 37-78 months, this program provides applications in both school and home environments. This program aims to support children's physical, mental, adaptive, and emotional development, enhance early academic and literacy skills, and foster language, communication, theory of mind, peer interaction, social, and self-care skills.
Intensive individual sessions and group activities are planned toward these goals. In addition to work done at school and home, support services are provided to enable children to benefit from daycare and preschool educational institutions together with their typically developing peers.
School Program
In this program, communication, functional academic, social, physical, self-care, daily living, and community living skills are implemented in school and home environments.
In addition to these skills, skills necessary for social and daily life and skills supporting them to spend their leisure time appropriately are also included.
Career Development and Life Skills Program
This program serves students aged 14 and older. Daily living, community living, self-care, prevocational, independent living, and social skills are developed for students in the young adulthood and adulthood periods.
Within the scope of supported employment programs, activities are carried out for the vocational training of autistic adults in various business fields such as cleaning, food, apparel, logistics, pharmaceuticals, jewelry design, and textiles.
Family Education Programs
It is of great importance that families strengthen their practical skills to turn daily communication opportunities into learning moments and become effective guides in coping with encountered difficulties. We view our families as our most valuable stakeholders in monitoring and enriching our programs, and through this strong collaboration between home and school, we aim to maximize our children's potential.
Institutional Visits
To take our students' developmental process beyond the school walls, we invite our parents/facilitators to be active parts of our learning environments. Thanks to our regular in-class observations and practical training processes, our families have the opportunity to witness their children's individual education firsthand, personally experience our teaching methods, and develop practical skills to support this process in the home environment.
With this interactive engagement model, we aim to maximize the child's holistic development by establishing a synchronized learning language between the school and the family.
Home Visits
Home visits are planned at regular intervals so that our students can learn the skills necessary for their home lives, with the aim of experiencing and generalizing the skills they learn at school in home and other social environments as well.
Online Family Counseling
We are eliminating distances by reaching out to our families living outside of Istanbul or abroad who do not have the opportunity to come to our center, through our evidence-based practices.
Through our online family meetings and educator support programs, we meticulously track our students' development based on targeted skills, supporting each child's progress at their own pace using evidence-based methods.
No matter your location, we stand by our families to help them feel competent and empowered on this journey.
Speech and Language Therapy
Speech and language therapy is a process that not only enables children with autism to learn new words, but also allows them to explore different ways of communication. During sessions, they are sometimes supported in using a new word, and other times in expressing themselves through glances or a small gesture.
Sessions last 45 minutes and are planned according to the children's individual developmental needs. Participation in more than one session per week is possible. Families can attend session observations to closely monitor their children's development.
With regular sessions, children's vocabularies expand, making it easier for them to express themselves more comfortably with words and participate in conversations. Alongside these developments, it is observed step by step that children become more independent, clear, and social in their communication.
Occupational therapy
Occupational therapy contributes to children becoming more independent both at school and at home by supporting the development of sensory integration, fine and gross motor skills, attention, organization, and social skills.
Occupational therapy sessions last 45 minutes and are planned according to each child's individual developmental needs. It is possible to attend more than one session per week. Families can participate in session observations to closely monitor their children's development.
Our occupational therapy room offers children the opportunity to move, explore, and actively participate with its wide space and rich material of various toys. The development of children is supported outside of the sessions as well, through homework given to families to reinforce the skills learned during the sessions.