Students entering the Sensory Room at The Learning Center-Manchester peel plastic handprints from the wall and stick them to one of three laminated sheets over the question: “How is your engine running?”
For most kids at this day school focused on autism and behavioral disabilities, the answer is “engine high.” The room holds a circular trampoline, a hopping ball and a climbing wall, activities designed to “regulate energy,” Director Cathy Danielczuk said during a tour of the Prospect Street school on Friday.
A growing need for the specialized education offered at The Learning Center is pushing an expansion. School officials have applied to the planning and zoning commission to build a 42-space parking lot. An expansion of the 8,795-square-foot school is under consideration, officials said.
The school for students ages 3-11 is part of Cromwell-based Ädelbrook Behavioral and Developmental Services. Founded as an orphanage in 1915, the organization serves about 300 children and young adults who are on the autism spectrum or have behavioral and health challenges.
The Manchester school’s 30 students have been referred by school districts in the region. Sixty-two school systems and the state support the organization’s $40 million annual budget, Ädelbrook President and CEO Alyssa Goduti said.
Enrollment at the Learning Center in Manchester soon will grow to 36 students, the maximum number that can be served in the current space, Danielczuk said. She and Goduti said there is a waiting list to get into the school.
Nationwide, 1 in 59 children is diagnosed with autism and the rate has grown steadily for the past 20 years, according to the National Autism Association. Although no two children on the spectrum are alike, boys are four times more likely to have autism than girls and about 40 percent of all diagnosed children do not speak.
A main focus at The Learning Center, Danielczuk said, is improving students’ communications abilities. The school offers intense, often one-on-one lessons and therapy. In several classrooms on Friday, five or six students were under the care of a teacher and two support staff. Lights were dimmed in one classroom. In another, a boy sat on a large ball instead of a chair.
School staff also are trained to physically restrain students to keep them from harming themselves or others, but restraint always is a last resort, Goduti said. The school also includes a kitchen and cafeteria, a small gym, spaces for art, music and computer-based education and an outdoor play area and sensory garden.
Jesse Leavenworth can be reached at jleavenworth@courant.com
