As Kelly Kooken stood in a 90-minute line at the Walt Disney World Resort in Orlando in March, her son Vincent was remaining calm.
“He’s doing really well right now,” Kooken, of Weston, said by phone.
Vincent is a junior at Cypress Bay High School where he attends a B.R.I.D.G.E.S. class for students who are on the autism spectrum.
“Waiting, the need for immediateness, he’s getting better at that,” Kooken said of her son who is learning to cope with life’s frustrations, which this day included crowds and delayed thrills at an amusement park.
The HDS Foundation, based in Miami Lakes, is looking to establish the B.R.I.D.G.E.S program in a Miami Lakes-area high school by the fall.
The acronym stands for what students are taught over two years: Budgeting, resources, independent functioning, development, growth, empowerment and social skills, all experienced at school and during community field trips.
The program is for teens who have developmental delays or are diagnosed with autism and who are also on track to earn a high school diploma and graduate.
At Cypress Bay High School, B.R.I.D.G.E.S. students in eleventh and twelfth grades have done a scavenger hunt at Publix; learned to order food online from restaurant websites, dined at restaurants and were taught about cyber safety.
The purpose of the trips is to increase the kids’ confidence and help them participate in society and be less isolated.
They are required to attend pep rallies and prom, too, and to chat with friends during school lunch.
To help set goals, the students also get to request and meet people with varied careers who recently included a Marine biologist, an architect who works at LEGO, a songwriter, an animator and an astronomer.
“They have dreams like everybody else,” said Elizabeth Falk, one of two program managers at the foundation that has offices at 15175 Ludlam Rd. in Miami Lakes. “And this is a step to help them get there.”
Currently, the foundation has 10 students in the program at Homestead Senior High and 23 enrolled in two classes at Cypress Bay High School in Weston.
“Right now, we’re looking to take in one school in the Miami Lakes area,” Falk said. “We want the teacher to apply. We train the teachers and work very closely with them and the school administration to get it going.
“There is no cost to the school,” she said.
Falk said about 70 children have graduated from the program.
Kathleen Gorman-Gard, an author and speech language pathologist, is one of two teachers at Cypress Bay High School who use the B.R.I.D.G.E.S. program.
She has taught the course for seven years to kids who are recommended to it by other teachers because they need to develop social skills.
“They already get academic support but there has never been a class on how to make friends, problem solve, get along with other people,” Gorman-Gard said.
The students receive $100 each semester and learn to open a bank account, use an ATM and compute tax and tips.
The students also work from a budget and cooperate to make purchases from Office Depot, Gorman-Gard said.
She said of the program, “There is probably no other course like this. It is a lot of work for teachers, it takes up evenings and there are weekend events.”
Part of its success is parental support. She said families can watch their children bloom. By the second year, “They really turn into leaders and grow.”
The kids also learn about personal hygiene, and some are working on thinking before they speak, she said.
“There are a few who have to learn about using a filter, other times we talk about whether something was appropriate,” Gorman-Gard said.
“Some blurt out everything and believe me, it’s a challenge,” she said. “One student has been telling Your Mama jokes everywhere. He’s got that under control now.”
It’s always gratifying for an educator when a student comes home from college and visits their former high school.
“One student graduated from Florida Gulf Coast University,” Gorman-Gard said. “He told the kids he didn’t like the class at the time. But at college he realized how valuable it was, realizing he had to interact and speak up for himself.
“He couldn’t rely on his parents to do that anymore, he had to be able to get along with a roommate or ask a classmate to go for lunch,” she said.
Kooken, the Weston parent, said of the program, “It teaches parents to let go a bit, too. The child has little disasters or big disasters in class or in public, and it’s a learning process for him, and for us. We’re always trying to avoid a reaction or a blow up.”
In his class, Vincent is learning patience, has broadened his ability to cope and communicate and to do things independently, his mother said.
He is talking to people in the community, can navigate his way around and let someone know if he gets lost, she said.
“Finding a way around [outbursts] is not helping,” Kooken said. “The frustrations that may lead to a blow up have to be dealt with. [This program] is really wonderful.”
Teachers may apply for the HDS Foundation’s $5,000 B.R.I.D.G.E.S. grants at https://bit.ly/38tg4qT.
The deadline is June 30. For more information contact Falk at Liz@HDSFoundation.org.