While nobody knows exactly why autism is on the rise, the skyrocketing incidence of the condition is putting increased financial and programming pressure on school districts and parents alike. Hence, Monarch Teaching Technologies' VizZle.
Just a year into the commercial sale of VizZle (it stands for visual learning), sales are strong and the product has gardnered a passel of awards, says Terry Murphy, CEO of the Shaker Heights-based company. According to Murphy, between 400 and 500 individuals are now using VizZle outside the Monarch School (also in Shaker Heights), where the program was developed and piloted. Murphy says half the public schools in Loraine County are using VizZle, as is the Pasadena, Calif., school district. Schools in Durbinville, Capetown, South Africa, recently signed on as trial users.
"Research has shown that children with autism are tremendously gifted visual learners; they do not learn in the traditional way where a teacher can stand up at a blackboard and lecture on a topic and kids will take notes," says Murphy. "But if you can show them what you want them to do, or they can show you if they don't have language . . . then they can make their needs known to you and you can make your needs know to them."
According to Murphy, "teachers need to be able to personalize the material, so we created an online toolbox with all the tools in there to build your own visual supports. You can build your own lessons, build your own materials. So it's an authoring system. But once people build them, they can save them to a (shared) public library, and we have 1,800 activities now."
The company, founded in 2005, has grown to 14 employees and "couple of contractors."
Source: Terry Murphy, Monarch Teaching Technologies
Writer: Gene Monteith