ABLE Academy helps special-needs students in Fort Myers

Parker, a 10-year-old boy who lives in Fort Myers, wasn’t responding to his teacher’s questions at a public school. If he did, it took him four or five seconds. His classmates ostracized him for this and other things that made him different. At night his mom forced him to do homework he had no interest in, even as he fell further behind in class. He didn’t fit in.

Now that’s changed because of a new clinical school in Fort Myers, called the ABLE Academy. It’s for children with autism and many other disorders that keep them from making progress at the preschool to high school level, where general lesson plans and large social settings aren’t conducive to learning lessons, making friends or maturing.

ABLE also provides counseling for families, including parents like Parker’s mom, Daphen Smith. Although the school is expensive, Ms. Smith had found what she wanted for her son.

“(Parker) said, ‘Mom I finally found a place where I fit in,’” she said. “Which broke my heart because you’re always trying to find a place for him to fit in, and you can’t make someone fit in. He was my little square peg.”

Colleen Cornwall, director of ABLE, started tutoring special-needs children in Naples in 1996. The 35-year-old was a behavior analyst for the School District of Collier County for 14 years and has a doctorate in special education. She founded the not-for-profit ABLE Academy school in 2005.

That Naples-based school had grown from three to 20 students. And because parents began commuting from Lee County, she started her first class at the new Fort Myers location this fall.

“The need was really there so we started a satellite (school),” she said.

That was good news for Fort Myersresident Kari Mackay, because her 10-year-old daughter is autistic. They were prepared to make the hour-long commute to Naples every day.

While ABLE is for any special-needs child — Parker, for instance, is diagnosed with a bipolar disorder — many of the students are autistic.

One in 150 people are autistic to some degree, according to ABLE Academy. Because the “spectrum” of autism is tremendously broad, that can mean many things. The disorder ranges in severity from non-functioning adults to the highest functioning ones. Experts have speculated that Albert Einstein had a type of autism termed Asperger’s syndrome.

At ABLE, each student gets special attention.

“You can’t compare the one-on-one

attention (students get),” Ms. Mackay

.................. .......... said. “I can’t rave enough about ABLE. We’ve definitely found it a blessing.”

But paying the pricey tuition can be a burden, even though there are state scholarships and ABLE has started its own fund to help parents in need.

“We just do what we can,” Ms. Mackay said. “But it’s a stretch. It’s a pricey tuition. This is her fourth private school and the most costly. But she really is getting the education that she needs.”

The teachers at ABLE are all boardcertified as behavior analysts and most are pursuing advanced degrees.

“We are really proud of the fact that we have a high number of very qualified individuals to do this work,” Ms. Cornwall said.

The ultimate goal is to help students with special needs become productive members of society, be effective communicators, eventually be gainfully employed and “leave our program with the dignity they deserve,” Ms. Cornwall said.

A curriculum is built around each child’s personal interests. For instance, if a student likes playing with trains, a lesson plan will start off by using trains.

“We start with the child’s motivation and turn that into the lesson,” Ms. Cornwall said.

So far, the school has helped Parker with his self esteem.

“It’s helped our relationship because now we’re not arguing over home work,” Ms. Smith said. “Now I get to be the cheerleader instead of the teacher for the first time. Today they went on a field trip to Pine Island. My son and I were having a conversation about it. Before, he was having a difficult time even telling me about his day.”

The school is temporarily located in a business and office complex in South Fort Myers. One day, Ms. Cornwell said she hopes to have a school here with outdoor space and continue to teach ABLE’s principles to other schools. 