April 10, 2024, 11 Alive, Atlanta. GA: Marcus Autism Center helps train teachers in rural Georgia to support kids in the classroom
Anchor: April is Autism Awareness Month and 11 Alive has covered the challenges that a lot of families deal with, the long wait lists to get diagnosed and the need for more specialists to support these children. . . .
Reporter: In Thomaston, Georgia, the tables on these day are turned, meaning it’s not the students but teachers filling the classroom.
The instructors come from Marcus Autism Center in Metro Atlanta. The Marcus Team, dedicated to caring for kids with autism spectrum disorder, hoping to teach local teachers some of those very same skills.
Jenna Dunaway: Obviously there was a need for this type of training. The teachers expressed the need.
Reporter: Jenna Dunaway . . . says students can have a wide variety of behavioral challenges, but since training started, staff are better supported.
A teacher who is also the mother of a son with autism was included.
Reporter: And ultimately it’s not just challenging behaviors the trainings address, but how to teach those who learn differently.
Provider: We know that neurodiverse students learn differently. If they don’t learn the way we teach, we have to teach the way they learn.
That’s what we’re helping teachers to figure out.
