MRDD Services

Many special education students fail to integrate with normal students because of their lack of social/sexual competence.  Some special education students misuse their sexuality to achieve popularity or flaunt sex-related language.  Some become objects of ridicule, teen parents, or victims of abuse because of their naiveté in social/sexual matters.  To help these students, APPS educators are available to meet with these students one-to-one or in small groups, or provide classroom lessons on a host of subjects that can be tailored to specific needs of your disabled students.

We also have available to loan to teachers the Circles Curriculum.   The Circles Concept helps individuals with unique learning needs, especially in the social area, use specific information in ways that are socially acceptable and personally enhancing.  Circles helps to bridge the gap between knowing and using information by connecting cognitions related to social/sexual development and practice to a sense of self-control, autonomy, and powerfulness.  The result is the relocation of social control from external sources, such as parents, teachers, or staff to internal forces of decision-making and self-direction.

The Circles Concept is simple.  Its principles are concretely represented on a life-size set of color-coded concentric circles suitable for role-play activities and rehearsal strategies, as well as on a tabletop size, personalized set of concentric circles.  The principles, when learned, are then applied to sex education topics through the use of video mini-dramas of high interest and low complexity.  These stories serve as examples and stimuli for specific discussion and are observed and re-enacted by students.