Autistic students learn about real world in bookstore
The Autism News | English
From left to right, Dominique Arcand, Nathalie Henri, Brigitte Majiski (educational assistant), Nadia Bouillon, Diane Provencher (educational assistant) Melissa Pappineau, Alyssia Vaillancourt, Max the dog, Isabelle Dube-Lessard (educational assistant) and Amanda Lynne Brideau. Supplied photo.
By Heidi Ulrichsen – Sudbury Northern Life
A group of seven teenagers with autism and other learning difficulties are spending most of the month of July attending a three-week training session designed to help them become more comfortable in a workplace.
The students, who attend Conseil scolaire public du Grand Nord de l’Ontario high schools, are learning how to work at la Bouquinerie du Moulin.
The Bouquinerie is a French-language used bookstore and training centre which opened May 28. The store, located on Notre Dame Avenue, is run by the Centre FORA, a francophone literacy organization.
Among other things, the students are learning to price books, run the cash register, clean the store and help customers find reading material.
“They’re learning what working is all about. Some of them find it really hard to work every day. But it’s very rewarding,” said Lorraine Legault, a life skills teacher at Ecole Secondaire MacDonald Cartier, who is running the program along with three educational assistants.
“We’ve seen a lot of improvement already. It’s great. The smiles on their faces is the reward that we get.”
The program is being provided free of charge by the school board, she said. They are teaching a customer service training module developed by the Bouquinerie, but are also incorporating life skills in the program.
“We’ve done a rowing session. We’ve also had a visit at Bell Park, and we’re going to be doing a biking trip. We go and do our groceries every day at Food Basics. We walk over to Food Basics, and then the students come back and make their lunch.”
The students spend their mornings learning about working in the store, and then spend the afternoon learning life skills.
Fifteen-year-old Melissa Pappineau said she enjoys everything about the program.
“We eat pizza at Topper’s Pizza, and we work (at the store) with the books,” she said. “We put stickers on the books. If the book is $1, we put $1 on the book.”
Legault said she hopes some of her students will one day be able to get a job and live independently.
“I think all of our students, that we do have, someday will be able to get a job. They’re going to need more experience because most of them are 14-years-old, and just starting high school,” she said.
“There aren’t enough words to say how this three-week placement will be able to help them in the future. It is helping them to be able to follow a work structure and feel comfortable in a workplace.”
France Jodoin, manager of the Bouquinerie, said she’s loved having the students around.
“It’s been wonderful. We’re going to miss them quite a bit when they leave.”
She said she has enjoyed participating in the life skills program herself, including teaching the children to row and bringing her Labrador retriever dog, Max, in for pet therapy.
This is just the first of many training programs that will be put on by the Bouquinerie, she said.
“The next people we’ll have will be people recommended by le Centre Alpha-culturel, and they’re adults learning literacy,” said Jodoin.
“We’ll have a group of three in August and two in September. This is what we do. Eventually we would like to have a whole bunch of different adults, maybe who have just been laid off, getting training in a real store with real customers.”
Source: http://www.northernlife.ca/news/lifestyle/2009/jul/autistic230709.aspx
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