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Award-Winning Agency Mixes Education, Fun: Special-Ed Students' Program Lauded Again

Posted on: Tuesday, 3 January 2006, 12:00 CST

By Meg Mcsherry Breslin, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Tribune

Jan. 3--In its effort to give special education students unique opportunities to learn through hands-on activity, a DuPage-area special recreation association is going well beyond the bowling and movie trips of its past.

Among the programs are a pet therapy class that exposes autistic children to animals, a practical skills program that has students map out train trips to locations around the city and trips to nature centers to experience early Americana.

The Northeast DuPage Special Recreation Association was recently recognized for its work by the Illinois Association of Park Districts. The statewide association gave the association its outstanding-program award for the development of EXCEL--experiential community education and leisure program. The program offers special education students a chance to attend activities directly tied to state educational learning standards.

"In the past, a lot of special recreation associations would just offer basic recreational activities, where we'd just take kids bowling or play a sport with them," said Jeena Greenwalt, manager of youth services and outreach for the DuPage County association. "But as state and federal school standards became more prominent, everything had to change."

As a result, the association revamped its programs to ensure students were enjoying themselves while meeting strict educational standards at the same time, Greenwalt said.

For example, students recently took part in a holiday heritage program in which they went to a nature center cabin in Wood Dale.

Their social studies lesson had them travel back to the 1800s, where they learned how to churn butter, cook a lunch over the fireplace and dip candles.

This is the eighth time in 12 years that the Northeast DuPage Special Recreation Association has been recognized with a professional award by the state parks association. The DuPage association will formally receive its award at an annual state parks conference in January.

The special recreation association, based in Addison, reaches residents in 11 park districts and villages in northeast DuPage and west Cook Counties. The EXCEL program, available to teachers in those areas by request, assisted more than 1,000 students in the past year.

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Copyright (c) 2006, Chicago Tribune

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Source: Chicago Tribune

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