Vanessa's Blog: September Survival Guide!
September Survival Guide!
Have you recently found out that you are supporting a child with autism in a mainstream classroom this year? Well this is the guide for you! Here are our top ten tips for a successful September:
- Find out what your young person is interested in. If possible, it would be great to find a book or toy, so they can have something familiar in the classroom for the start of term. That may not be possible, but you could do a little research, so you have a comfortable conversation topic to break the ice on that first day.
- Arm yourself with Post It notes and a dry-wipe white board. We know children with autism benefit from visual information and these are all the tools you need to give them a whole range of information to make the day seem more predictable and manageable. Have a look at our help sheet here for ideas: https://www.freeoutreach.org.uk/docs/Help_sheets_2020/Independence_and_Learning/Top_Ten_Uses_of_a_Whiteboard_and_Pen-_April_2020.pdf
- Find out what your options will be for movement breaks. Is the teacher going to be happy for you to leave the room and for a walk around the playground? Or do they prefer movement breaks within the class? Is the hall free and is it ok to use any of the PE equipment like balls or climbing frames? If an IPad or laptop is available, resources like https://www.gonoodle.com/ may suit your young person.
- Be prepared to be very open and honest about your feelings; or a very good actor! Our young people benefit hugely from lots of adult modelling around feelings and how to cope with disappointments like making a mistake, or missing out on a turn. You may find it easier to invent situations to do this rather than real-life issues, but either way it is one of the best emotional teaching tools you have.
- Get yourself a timer, which counts down in a visual way. It could be a sand timer, a digital timer, or something on an electronic device. You people with autism thrive with clear, predictable boundaries and time is one of the ways we can create that, whether it is timing a fun activity to support them leaving it promptly, or showing them how long is left of something they are less keen on!
- Work with the teacher to find a good way of sharing lesson planning. You won’t need all of the details, but it is incredibly helpful if you know roughly what to expect, rather than finding out about the lesson at the same time as the child you support. This will enable you to gather any resources you are likely to need in advance (scissors, glue, counting cubes etc.) and think ahead about the best way to break the lesson down into manageable chunks. In particular it is useful to know what the objective of the lesson is, so that you can focus on that and bypass any unnecessary ‘admin’ such as copying out questions.
- Have fiddles at the ready! Sitting still is incredibly hard for young people with autism and they are actually less likely to be listening if they are still, as that will take up lots of their energy and focus! Ideas could include purpose made fiddle toys, BluTack, or a note book to doodle in.
- Make sure that you have a conversation about ‘non-negotiables’ with the teacher and any other adults who work in the class. You will need to establish consistent boundaries around the aspects of the day you are willing to be flexible about (e.g. sitting on the carpet, going into assembly, speaking to a talk partner) and which you are not (such as hurting people, or damaging property). Your school’s behaviour policy may help to give you some ideas.
- Early on in the term, establish the best way of communicating with parents. Is this going to be a book to write in, emails or meeting at the gate? Some parents will want lots of detail about everything that happen and other’s will just want an overview. How much communication will you expect back? Establish an agreement that is practical and useful for both parents and school. It’s much better for these relationships if you can work this out early on, rather than waiting for one side or the other to be unhappy with the situation.
- Prioritise relationship building and fun! This will make everything easier for the rest of the year. Children need to feel listen to and they need to trust us. Ultimately they are the reason we come to work in the mornings and a bit of fun will be great for you as well as them!