Using aspects of the TEACCH structured teaching approach with students with multiple disabilities and visual impairment: reflections on practice

This paper reflects on how the first author has adapted aspects of the TEACCH structured teaching approach - developed for use with people with autism - in her work with students with multiple disabilities (MDVI) in a special secondary school for students with severe learning difficulties in England. A brief overview of the TEACCH approach and its distinctive components - physical structure, schedules, work systems and visual structure - is presented; and the reasons why and the ways in which aspects of structured teaching have been adapted and used with regard to three students (at different points on the MDVI 'spectrum') are described. The impacts of the use of this approach during the past three years upon the students and with regard to the first author's teaching are identified, as are limitations and problems identified. The paper throughout is written from the first author's perspective