Illinois school for children with autism fears loud engine plant coming into neighborhood

From the Chicago Tribune: In the picture, a child takes part in music therapy.

For autistic kids, finding a classroom may be a challenge. Long linear corridors may trigger the urge to bolt. And the hum of fluorescent lights distracts, keeping them from focusing on the task at hand.

So when Giant Steps Illinois, the state's oldest education facility for autistic kids, decided to move to a permanent site in Lisle, the architect kept those factors in mind.

He broke up the hallways in the former office building, creating canted walls. He painted walls in bold shades that would help students identify parts of the school, and he brought in lots of natural light.

The result is a new building that not only provides students with a calming, familiar environment, but also triples the school's space and gives teachers and students much-needed elbow room to try out new ways of learning.

But nearly two months into their new digs, after spending $9 million to buy the building and $750,000 in construction costs, school officials are worried that a future neighbor could ruin what they've so carefully crafted.

Navistar is hoping to move its world headquarters from Warrenville into the former Lucent property at Warrenville and Naperville roads, across the street from Giant Steps. School officials are worried about Navistar's plans to house a diesel engine testing site at the location. Executive Director Bridget O'Connor said Lisle officials told them initially that only "white collar research" would take place at the site.

"Our biggest concern is environmental," O'Connor said. "Most parents feel the environment played a part in their children's autism. Now we hear that Navistar will have its diesel engine testing yard 120 yards from the school yard."

Navistar officials say they're hoping to add facilities at the site to test components of diesel engines, trucks and school buses. They say they will work within the noise limits of the village.

"Diesel engines today are cleaner than gasoline engines," said Navistar spokesman Roy Wiley. "The emissions are practically zero."

About 100 people attended a planning and zoning commission meeting Tuesday to speak out against Navistar's proposal, including nearby residents and Giant Steps' representatives. Lisle officials said it's not a done deal; they will decide by the end of the month.

Children with autism have a difficult time interacting with people and the world around them. Communication and sensory interpretation also pose a challenge, and with 1 in 95 children born today with autism, parents often find public schools can't adequately address their children's needs.

Barbara Holland-Conte's son, Jack, 12, went to a local public school through second grade, but the Naperville woman thought educators were not specifically addressing Jack's needs with an individualized approach. Now that he's been at Giant Steps for five years, she's noticed that Jack uses more words, strings them together in a sentence and has become more social. At the new site, he's learned to get around the building on his own.

"To see Jack in this environment made specifically for kids with autism . . . ," she said, trailing off as she choked up. "It's so much bigger. He can walk around freely without bumping into someone. All that natural light, to have that surrounding, it just makes you feel better."

Creating a space that allowed students to be independent and to navigate on their own was imperative for school officials.

First, they identified four neighborhoods or sections -- primary, intermediate, junior high and high school -- by natural habitats and painted those rooms in identifiable color schemes to make it easier for students to find them.

In one section of the school, primary or kindergartners to third graders would be in the "jungle." There, the walls were painted yellow, orange and light green. Intermediate students or second to fourth graders (there's some overlap depending on a student's ability) would be at the "mountains" so their sections were painted in dark green, purple and blue. On the other side of the building, the latter color scheme was repeated for junior high students who were in the "deep ocean" habitat. High school students in the "everglade" also would see yellow, orange and light green.

Teachers also put photos of animals found in these locations on the walls and placed matching pictures on students' daily schedules.

"Transitions are difficult for our kids," O'Connor said. "So we wanted to use transition as a learning experience. We're constantly providing them with all the visual cues they need so they can manage rooms. Once they've identified the habitat with the color scheme, they're using the pictures to help them. So they're looking for bears and mountains where the bear lives. It's a way of engaging them."

The school was started in 1997 by a group of parents who rented a three-room facility in Westmont. It grew to a 17,000-square-foot building in Burr Ridge, where it remained for eight years. Giant Steps purchased the 72,800-square-foot facility off Warrenville Road in Lisle with a donor paying a significant share of the price. In late September, students moved in.

The program now includes some 107 staff members, including a teaching assistant assigned to each student, and more than 60 students. It hopes to add an adult vocational program. The site has kitchen and laundry facilities to help students learn life skills, three music rooms, a computer lab and a training room to help teach everyone from law enforcement officials to community members about autism. A recreation center provides after-school programs for autistic kids who are not part of Giant Steps.

School districts often refer students with more severe cases of autism to programs like Giant Steps for intensive educational and therapeutic programs designed around the student's Individualized Education Program. The goal in most cases is to eventually integrate Giant Steps students into the public school environment with their peers.

When designing the new space, the architect spent time with students at their old Burr Ridge school.

"We wanted to see how the kids behaved, how they interacted with others around them," said architect Dante Domenella. "We then incorporated those factors into the design."

Another key factor in the design and layout was movement. Often students at the school learn while moving. One classroom has a climbing wall and balance beam. The school will be adding 16 swings throughout the building -- from hammocks to platform and cocoon swings that allow students to lie on their bellies while reaching down to write on a piece of paper.

Teachers also use a wooden scooter-like device, called a pedalo, that a child operates with a pedaling motion, shifting body weight from side to side.

"Movement always has a critical component of getting their attention," O'Connor said. "It breaks up the monotony. We find that if you put them in motion, on a pedalo, on roller blades, it frees up their brains so they can spell words and do math problems."

So on a recent day Holland-Conte's son, Jack, walked across a room on a pedalo before coming back to a counter-like desk where his teacher assistant and teacher watched him sequence numbers from 1 to 20. He did it three times total, but his teachers had to allow him a break to play on the pedalo before his third attempt.

The facility also has a sensory room where students can submerge themselves in a ball pit that vibrates to the sound of music whenever they need a break. The building is big enough to have a separate wing for students who act out and need individualized attention.

"Before these kids would have nowhere to go," O'Connor said. "You would have a student crying and pretty quickly other students would fall apart. (The new building) has changed their ability to function during the day."

But just as they celebrate the new facility, the Giant Steps community is worried about Navistar's diesel testing plans. O'Connor said she found out about it only last week. A school for students with autism cannot coexist with a diesel engine testing facility, she said, and the school was here first.