LifeTown for Parents
"Lifetown gives special needs children the
ability to express their identity and make
choices."
Sawilowsky
As parents of children with disabilities, you
know that you are the most important advocates
for your children. You always want to have the
highest quality resources available for your
children.
Since 2008, LifeTown has operated in Central
Ohio to provide programming that enables
students with a wide spectrum of disabilities to
learn academic and social skills to function in
the real world. An initiative Schottenstein
Chabad House LifeTown began through a
partnership with Columbus City Schools to
develop a near-perfect simulation of a
traditional community environment, complete with
a hair salon, bank, store, movie theater and
more. It allows a child to experiment with
realistic situations where social risks are
mitigated and controlled.
LifeTown’s program and environment are unique
to Ohio. The only other facility in the nation
like LifeTown is Weinberg Village at Feber
Kaufman LifeTown near Detroit, Michigan, which
served as our model. We have worked closely with
Weinberg Village and their staff and consultants
to build our facility and curriculum.
A study released in 2009 by Dr. Shlomo
Sawilowsky, a Wayne State University
statistician and Assistant Dean of the College
of Education, provides scientific evidence that
Weinberg Village, is currently the most
effective mechanism available for providing life
skills to children with special needs.
Researchers observed actual behaviors and
monitored if students from randomly selected
schools were able to replicate previously taught
skills. Research showed virtually no recidivism
and, in some cases, a doubling and quadrupling
of skill repetition from one Weinberg Village
visit to the next. According to Sawilowsky,
traditional schools typically rely on community
based interventions or field trips to teach
social interaction in different settings.
Although those interventions can be effective,
the researchers found that the innovative
Weinberg Village environment provided increased
learning outcomes and the ability of children to
retain the skills they had learned. “Lifetown
gives special needs children the ability to
express their identity and make choices,”
Sawilowsky said. “It is the gift of
self-determination for children who can aspire
to a higher quality of life.” According to
Sawilowsky, this research provides support for
replicating Lifetown facilities in other
locations throughout the world, such as our
LifeTown facility. “There is not a commercial
pilot out there who did not learn by simulating
what it is like to fly,” he said. “Lifetown
gives children a chance to feel what it’s like
to ‘soar’ in much the same way.” An initial
study of our LifeTown program, by the Sawilowsky,
has provided strikingly similar results.
Like Weinberg Village, our curriculum is
designed to directly support a student’s
Individual Education Plan (IEP) to help the
child demonstrate competencies in critical skill
areas. Based on a building block approach to
learning, each lesson at LifeTown focuses on
money management, math, socialization,
communication and problem solving. The lessons
involving pre-employment skills cover another
range of important skills for the older student.
With the multiple sessions per year, students
use the previous lessons as a springboard to the
next. Many of the lessons, especially in the
area of transition work skills, require multiple
sessions within a given lesson.
As a parent of a child with a disability, you
can call your school and request them to sign up
your child's class to visit LifeTown to give your child the opportunity to learn
and experience the world like all children do.
We serve all schools in all districts in Central
Ohio.
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