Communication and Autism Each child with a diagnosis of autism will have varying abilities with language and communication. If you know more than one autistic child, you will know that their communication and language abilities will be very different. It is important to understand the difference between expressive and receptive Read more…
In this episode, I discuss and pose questions about enhancing opportunities for communication and interaction of those with autism and complex needs. This is through adapting the environment, our teaching approach and resources, both at school and home.
In this episode, myself and experienced early years, special needs teacher Haia Ironside, discuss important themes to consider in autism early intervention.
I share success stories of experiences where visual resources have had a big impact on autistic children’s understanding and this has helped with their communication, independence and learning.
How successful parent and teacher relationships impact children with autism and how to ensure the relationship is effective, from a parent and teacher perspective. Parent Perspective Written by Harshita Patel, parent and author of ‘Autism in the City’ It’s Good to Talk! The moment a child with special needs comes into Read more…
Using Widget symbols to support teaching I recently wrote an article for Widgit, all about ‘Using symbols to support ASD Teaching‘. Widgit is a symbol set containing more than 17,000 symbols. Widgit symbols are clear, simple, colourful and display a single concept in a concise way, aimed to be understood Read more…
Emotional Regulation is a Key Area of Development. Being able to regulate emotions means being able to effectively identify and respond to an emotional experience. For children with autism, understanding their emotion and knowing how to appropriately respond to help themselves regulate, can be very challenging. This, therefore, needs to be Read more…
The concept of ‘like’ and ‘don’t like’ Like any abstract theme, the concept of ‘like’ and ‘don’t like’ can sometimes be challenging for children with autism to understand. Therefore, it is important to ensure a child really understands what it means to ‘like’ something. A successful strategy is to model Read more…
From left to right: Myself – Steph Reed, Jarymke Malijaars (Ku Leuven), Pat Quigley (The Garden Head of School) and Beth Junor (Specialist ASD Speech and Language Therapist). I was very grateful to attend the ComFor training held at The Garden School in January. The ComFor assessment is a tool used Read more…
Imagine a typical classroom, what can you see and hear? It may be very noisy, have lots of furniture and equipment crammed into small spaces, perhaps a bit of clutter and bright and colourful displays on every available wall space! This can often be very overwhelming and distracting for a Read more…