Worrall Students With Asperger's Report The News on PBS

BROOMALL–PBS recently aired the Asperger's class of Worrall Elementary School, where students have the opportunity to "go live" on their own local newscast called Action-7.

Betty Ann Bowser of PBS interviews Randi Rentz, Asperger's syndrome specialist at Worrall, and Kristin Dercole, speech and language pathologist at the school, about the class's special year-long project.

According to Help for Asperger's, the year-long project is designed to develop expressive language, written language, social and life skills, non-verbal body language, pragmatic skills and the hidden curriculum. All of these skills are worked on during the school year and used to increase the self-esteem of the students with this specific disability, according to Help for Asperger's.

The project entails helping the students learn to work video equipment, designing backdrops and props, researching, and writing and editing their own stories, according to Help for Asperger's.

In addition, according to Help for Asperger's, students take on roles of an actual news station such as anchors, reporters, camera people, editors, sportscasters, weather forecasters, traffic reporters, etc.