After I completed the ‘Attention Autism’ training last year, adopting the approach in my class has made a HUGE impact on the children’s attention and interaction levels, the staff teams skills in working as a group, and most importantly, it has been a whole lot of fun for everyone! Attention Read more
Imagine a typical classroom, what can you see and hear? It may be quite 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 an Read more
Sensory Sensitivities: Children with autism can be either hypersensitive (over – sensitive) or hyposensitive (under – sensitive) to sensory input. Some examples of this are that you may see a child putting their fingers in their ears because they are hypersensitivie to sound. Â You could see a child seeking sensory Read more
Here is a fun science lesson I recently put together and taught during our term theme on colours. The pupils in my class all have a diagnosis of autism and severe learning difficulties and are working around P levels (UK assessment) P4 – P8. This would also be great for Read more
Many children with autism are visual learners. Showing a child a picture can be much more meaningful than telling a child what to do. Pictures can aid a child’s learning and support them to be independent. An example of using pictures or symbols to aid learning and independence: dressing and Read more
Choiceboard Creator: Review ChoiceBoard Creator is a great resource for creating your own customisable choice boards. This could be a choice board for giving a child a choice such as what they want to eat for lunch or to use as part of a comprehension activity such as answering “which Read more
Makaton sign Signing is not just used for and by children who have hearing difficulties or who are deaf. Signing is used in many schools teaching autistic children as a way of reinforcing speech along with symbol use. Sign can help children learn key language. For some non verbal children, Read more
The School Setting: A school setting for a child with autism should be highly structured and have familiar routines that the child can anticipate. Communication should be encouraged through speech as well as sign, symbols, photos and objects, depending on the ability of the child. A classroom set up specifically Read more
Toilet training an 8 year old pre-verbal autistic child I currently have an 8 year old child with autism in my class who has not done a wee or poo in the toilet before. He is an energetic, non verbal child who has an understanding of when we is doing Read more
Visual structure Structuring a lesson or activity by breaking it down into small parts with visual prompts can make the lesson/ activity manageable for autistic children because it enables the pupils to know what they will be doing now, next and when the activity is coming to an end. Here is Read more