Para educator Marilyn Bailey, back, helps Chandlar Adolph move through various yoga poses during an outing of the Free State Summer Autism Program at Dance Hues dance studio on Wednesday, July 14, 2010. A Kansas University professor has contributed to research that could lead to technology that could screen for autism-related disorders.

Para educator Marilyn Bailey, back, helps Chandlar Adolph move through various yoga poses during an outing of the Free State Summer Autism Program at Dance Hues dance studio on Wednesday, July 14, 2010. A Kansas University professor has contributed to research that could lead to technology that could screen for autism-related disorders.

From an outsider’s point of view, the scene looked pretty chaotic as students and staff from Free State High School’s summer autism program took a trip to a restaurant.

Of the dozen students on the outing, several were yelling, one was crying, and others expressed emphatically that they simply didn’t want to eat there.

One by one, staff members worked to calm the students.

The program and the community outings are all part of social skills lessons the program emphasizes during the summer months when the students are away from regularly scheduled classes.

“These kids need to be out in the community as much as anybody else,” said staff member Emily Hughes. “Our biggest goal is to help them learn how to be independent.”

Through the five-week program, the staff works with the 13 enrolled students on handling money, ordering food at restaurants and how to act when interacting with the community.

Staff also learn about each student’s verbal and non-verbal behaviors as their way of communicating.

“It’s their way of telling us ‘this is uncomfortable,'” said Becky Armstrong, one of the lead teachers for the program and a speech pathologist at Free State. “Our job is to try and figure out what they’re trying to tell us.”

The program, which runs four hours each day, Monday through Thursday, builds and maintains the skills the students learn during the autism program at Free State during the school year.

“A lot of times there can be regression throughout the summer,” Armstrong said. “And then sometimes when they come back to school it takes a month or so to catch back up to where they were.”

The regular outings help to maintain those skills, said Jake Thibodeau, another lead teacher for the program.

Thibodeau, who engages the students in the classroom like a seasoned stand-up comic, said he worries that when the group is out in the community, the public sees only what at times can be disruptive and intense behavior.

“They’re just trying to express themselves,” he said. “They have wants and needs just like everybody else. … I want the community to see these people as individuals.”

For the staff, the work can be challenging. The key, say the staff, is patience and kindness, leading to some strong relationships.

The summer program is wrapping up, but the students and many of the staff will work with each other once school starts in the fall.

On a recent outing to a dance studio, hugs, high-fives, praise and laughs kept the students, and the staff, smiling.

“This is why we do what we do. Because we love working with kids with special needs,” Armstrong said. “It’s a great, awesome, gratifying experience.”