“Applying TEACCH- Treatment and Education Autistic Children Communication Handicap’ was the theme of a workshop recently taking place in Dien Bien province (from July 27-30).

The workshop was organized by the provincial Department of Education and Training with the support from MCNV, as part of the two sides’ cooperation in 2020.
The 24 trainees were teachers of the Dien Bien Support Center and teachers of children with disabilities in the province. The workshop was conducted by Dr.Nguyen Thi Kim Quy, former Head of the Educational Psychology department, Hanoi University of Education.

Trainer – Dr.Nguyen Thi Kim Quy (left) give instruction to the trainees

TEACCH is a lifetime approach designed to assist children with autism. TEACCH was first practiced in the 1970s by psychological experts in the University of North Carolina, US. Nowadays, TEACCH has become a comprehensive clinical and psychoeducational programme to support people with autism worldwide.

Based on the fact that autistic children tend to have a visually based learning style, TEACCH focuses on the use of visual and structured teaching rather than verbal instruction.

In the four-day training, under the guidance of Dr.Nguyen Thi Kim Quy, 24 trainees were provided with a theoretical foundation of TEACCH, trained on how to apply TEACCH techniques in helping students develop skills such as imitation, perception, fine motor, gross motor, etc. As part of the workshop, the trainees also got hand-on experience in planning a TEACCH lesson by themselves.

Below are some of the testimonials:

The TEACCH approach is very useful and practical. We’ll take account of and  incorporate this approach into our work guideline, lesson planning and apply into the academic year 2020-2021 as well as in the years to come.

Mai Thi Hong Nhung, Director of the Dien Bien Support Center

“I am strongly impressed by TEACCH as it focuses on children’s skills, instead of their weaknesses. What I like the most from the course was the skills and knowledge I have acquired in designing a TEACCH-based lesson by myseld”.

Ca Van Thu, Head of the Organization-Administration, Treatment and Counselling Department, Dien Bien Support Center.

“After the course, I have become aware of the positive outcome brought about by early detection and early intervention for kids with autism/communication handicap. I’ll dig deeper into this field to apply it into practice effectively, and try my best to design supporting activities to apply TEACCH to students with mild condition of autism.”

Pham Thanh Hue, Vice Rector of Hoang Cong Chat Preschool, Dien Bien district, Dien Bien province

Located in the Southwest border of Vietnam, Dien Bien province has a population of nearly 550,000. According to a statistical research conducted in 2018, the number of children with disability in the province is over 3,000 (age 0-18), of which 643 kids have never been to school (21%), 773 have dropped out (24%). The rest of the children are going to local schools (from preschool to high school level), accounting for 55%.

  • MCNV kick started supporting healthcare and rehabilitation for persons with disabilities in Dien Bien province in 2014. In 2016, MCNV and the Dien Bien provincial Department of Education and Training signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to declare the willingness to establish and mobilize funding for the construction of the Support Center.
  • The project was subsequently financially sponsored by Thien Tam Foundation (VINGROUP), pledging to provide funding for part of the infrastructure (a 2-storey buiding with 8 classrooms).
  • In October 2019, the Supporting Center was officially put into operation. With financial and technical supports by MCNV, the staff of the center have been benefited from various capacity building activities.
  • Since December 2019, the Center started to admit students with disabilities. The Center has so far providing teaching and daycare services for 40 children with different forms of disabilities.