In the Functional Program our aim is to equip the learners with the maximum literacy skills that he/she can master, tailored to their individual ability and pace, whilst paying attention to the challenges that the learner experiences. In other words, we want to primarily encourage and develop their means to communicate.

The program includes specific speech and auditory activities in order to develop these skills. The pre-reading, pre-writing and other foundation skills that our learners can master, will also receive a high priority. The greatest difference is that we start our learners on an “autism-learning-to-read” program in order to start giving the learner the necessary tools to communicate in a more functional way.

This will include learning to build and decode words and as an outcome, and to be able to read and write or type on the computer. The learners will experience the program as creative and fun, but will gain the necessary skills with time. Our non-verbal learners will communicate by means of word cards and (with time) typed messages, and assisted technology.

Such a learner can be promoted to a remedial grade R or adapted grade 1 program, depending on their own unique abilities, progress and age, with further adapted levels to follow.