May I Please ...........

Celebrating Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month

This project is a part of the Hispanic & Latinx Heritage Month celebration because it supports a Latino teacher or a school where the majority of students are Latino.

Dear Sir and Madame: Otis Elementary School is a great school in the inner city of Chicago. We have a supportive principal that allows many of the teachers to think and practice outside of the box. Unfortunately, the funds that were once available for great out of the box projects are now no longer available to the principal. It is with this in mind that we submit the following proposal for a community activity that will enable 17 severely autistic children at the Early childhood and primary level to experience ordering and eating out at neighborhood restaurants. May I please.... provides our children with the opportunity to venture into the speaking world with pictures. It also provides them with a venue to practice necessary social skills with the support of the teachers, speech pathologists, and teacher aides. Often time our students, because of the severity of their autism and lack of social skills, including screaming, running away, hitting and flapping, are neglected and left at home. Parents, many single, are reluctant to take their children out because of the stares and anxiety it produces for them and the child. Severely autistic children are impaired in their communication and cognitive skills. Our student population consists of children ages 3-10 who all fall within the broad spectrum of autism. Autism is described as a disorder, which manifests itself by identifying in a child missing skills such as; 1) functional communication, for example lack of speech 2) age-appropriate social interaction 3) appropriate play 4) turn-taking 5) echolalia speech 6) fixation on an unusual inanimate object and 8) a kind of repetitive motion such as rocking or flapping of the hands, arms or feet. In addition to these missing skills there is also almost always a developmental delay and an impairment learning process. Students in our classrooms use a Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) to request items that they want. This Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) is a language training program that is used to teach communication skills rapidly to those with limited functional speech. It is a system that promotes communication within a social context using pictures. Each student is provided with his or her own book with pictures of items that the student has learned. This book is used throughout the day at school and at home to request items desired or activities preferred. The additional challenge with our students is finding items and activities that provide them with many opportunities to use their communication books. What is more reinforcing than french fries and pizza! Burger Baron is a neighborhood hot dog place that has allowed us in the past to come in during non-peak hours and use PECS to place and order favorite foods. We know that 95% of our student population receives free lunch. Our visits to the community in the past have become a hardship for our families and we have had to discontinue these outings. We kindly request your assistance in providing us with enough funds for 2 outings to community eating establishments.