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Services Across the Lifespan for Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder
“TEACCH

TEACCH® Certification Program

As the number of professionals trained by the UNC TEACCH® Autism Program increased, the demand for accountability and quality services for individuals on the autism spectrum also increased. To address these needs, TEACCH established a comprehensive Certification Program for educators, psychologists, social workers, speech therapists, and other service providers in the field of autism.

The TEACCH Certification Program helps to protect the fidelity, integrity, and quality of the TEACCH model and to provide educators and clinicians with a professional certification that allows them to document their use of evidence-based practices. This program includes two certification levels, Practitioner and Advanced Consultant.

For more information, please review the detailed program description that follows.

The University of North Carolina TEACCH® Autism Program was established in 1972 to serve as a statewide program for serving autistic individuals, their families, and their service delivery providers across the lifespan. In addition to providing direct services to autistic individuals, TEACCH has been committed to developing training programs for professionals who serve individuals on the autism spectrum.
When TEACCH was established in 1972, the rate of autism was estimated to be 1 in 2500 individuals. Since that time, there has been a growing awareness of autism across the world and the rates of autism have risen dramatically. The Centers for Disease Control estimates that the current rate of autism is 1 in every 36 individuals. (Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network, CDC, 2023).

As the number of autistic individuals has increased, there has been a comparable increase in demand for the use of evidence-based practices by education and mental health professionals. The National Professional Development Center on Autism Spectrum Disorders includes the use of antecedent-based approaches and visual supports as evidence-based practices. These techniques have been found to maximize independent functioning in autistic individuals across the lifespan and to be appropriate for use in the home, school, and employment settings.

The intervention approach developed by the UNC TEACCH Autism Program is called Structured TEACCHing (Mesibov, G.B., Shea, V. and Schopler, E. (2005) The TEACCH Approach to Autism Spectrum Disorders. Springer, New York.) Structured TEACCHing is an antecedent-based approach grounded in the understanding of the symptoms and learning styles of autistic individuals and the use of visual supports to provide meaning, promote independence, and capitalize on the individual’s strengths and interests. The framework of Structured TEACCHing focuses on:

  • Physical organization
  • Individualized schedules
  • Work/activity systems
  • Materials structure and visual supports
  • To support multi-disciplinary professionals in their implementation of Structured TEACCHing principles to enhance program effectiveness in their work settings.
  • To provide educators and clinicians with a professional certification that allows them to document their use of evidence-based practices.
  • To protect the fidelity, integrity and promote the quality of TEACCH intervention approaches.
  • To provide an opportunity for professionals interested in conducting their own training programs to receive an Advanced Consultant Certification.
The two levels of certification, Practitioner and Advanced Consultant are distinct in their competencies, benefits, and privileges. Click on buttons below for more details including application requirements, process, and costs.

TEACCH Certified Practitioner  TEACCH Advanced Consultant
TEACCH Certified Practitioner Directory  TEACCH Advanced Consultant Directory
team Autismus logo

The University of North Carolina TEACCH® Autism Program and Team Autismus GmbH & Co. KG have an ongoing collaborative relationship regarding training in Structured TEACCHIng, where TEACCH recognizes that the training provided by Team Autismus GmbH & Co. KG reflects the current practices and research in Structured TEACCHing across the lifespan.

Team Autismus GmbH & Co. KG website

For additional questions or more information, contact:
UNC TEACCH Autism Program – Certifications – CB#7180, University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7180
Email: TEACCH_certifications@med.unc.edu | Phone: 919.966.8191