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 communication skills, because Read more…
My article ‘Creating autism-inclusive classrooms’ has been published in the Sept – Oct 19 edition of SEN Magazine.
It is very important to thoroughly prepare autistic children for a change to a new class or school. One way of doing this is to make a photo transition book that they can look at or read at home and at school. Going to a new class or new school Read more…
Here are some practical tips on communicating and interacting with your autistic child, from my experience of being a teacher for children with complex needs. Always show or model to the child what you want him/her to do, when you ask them to do something (do not just tell Read more…
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 PerspectiveWritten by Harshita Patel, parent and author of ‘Autism in the City’ It’s Good to Talk! The moment a child with special needs comes Read more…
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 by all abilities. For me as Read more…
If a child can match colours, then they can learn to play a melody on the keyboard! I love teaching music, and teaching how to play the keyboard is really fun. I cannot think of a single child who I have taught, that didn’t enjoy touching and listening to the Read more…
As a teacher, I have used a range of sensory equipment in the classroom to support individual sensory needs. An Occupational Therapist (OT) is the professional who can support you to assess the sensory needs of a child in order to direct you to appropriate equipment to meet their sensory 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…
Each child with a diagnosis of autism will have varying abilities with language and communication. If you know more than one child with autism, you will know that their communication and language abilities and features will be very different. It is important to understand the difference between expressive and receptive Read more…