Autism and the Special School Programme (Professional) Longstone Special School, Co Antrim

Autism, Learning Styles, and Visual Teaching Methods.
Visual supports have many benefits.

They:

• Complement the learning style of many autistic children, young people and adults.
• Are versatile, adaptable, portable and suitable for various settings.
• Can support mutual connections at home, at school and in the community.
• Can enhance communication and interactions between autistic children and others and can support access to the curriculum.

Professionals and Parents will become more familiar with the creation of visuals to increase the learner’s understanding and participation in school and at home.

Expected Outcomes:

Participants will:

• Understand the importance of visual teaching methods.
• Gain ideas to create and use individualised supportive visuals.
• Learn how to use visuals throughout the day at home and school.

Autism and Communication.
This training opportunity explores the differences between non-autistic and autistic communication styles. It equips participants with the knowledge needed to recognise and respect communication differences, as well as adjust their own communication approach to effectively assist autistic children and young people in both home and school settings.

Participants will:

• Explore current relevant theories pertaining to communication differences
• Consider their own communication tendencies and how these can either help or hinder autistic individuals in their communication
• Explore various supportive practices to enhance both the understanding and expression of communication in a supportive manner.

This session explores the differences in non-autistic vs autistic communication styles. It provides delegates with an understanding of how to appreciate communication differences and adapt their communication style to better support autistic children and young people at home and school.

Delegates will:

• Explore current relevant theories related to communication differences
• Develop an understanding of their own communication preferences and how these might hinder or support the autistic communicator
• Explore a range of supportive practices in receptive, understanding, and expressive communication

Autism and Understanding Anxiety for those with additional learning difficulties.
For many autistic students, school can be a major source of stress. Everyone shows their anxiety in individual ways, so the most reliable observations that a student is anxious are going to be made by the people who know the student best. This shows the importance of working closely not only within the family structure, but also with the school staff.

This session is an introduction to supports that can be used to alleviate the experience of anxiety in autistic students. This will include an introduction to cognitively based supports and how to develop student centred supports to deal with anxiety.
Participants will:

• Recognise signs of escalating anxiety and potential emotional responses
• Develop a range of simple supportive approaches to prevent the escalation of anxiety.
• Understand the fundamentals of cognitively based management approaches.

Autism, the Special School Student and Sensory Processing
Many autistic children and young people have differences in how they process the sensory stimuli in the world around them. This course is designed to look specifically at the sensory processing needs of autistic children and young people with other complex learning needs, such as communication difficulties, physical or sensory difficulties, attention difficulties and medical needs.

Participants will:

• Understand the concept of sensory processing and how this relates to participation in daily activities.
• Appreciate how sensory processing differences can affect the child or young person at home, in school and in other settings.
• Understand the importance of exploring each child or young person’s unique sensory profile in order to create environments to support their regulation
• Gain knowledge about supportive approaches, which can address the sensory processing needs of the children and young people with additional and complex learning needs at home, in school and in other settings.

Autism and Reframing Behaviour
This training will introduce participants to the ongoing paradigm shift in understanding behaviour from a physiological perspective, drawing on research from neuroscience, psychology, and interpersonal neurobiology.
It will encourage participants to pause and reflect on their current beliefs and reactions to the behavioural differences presenting within their autistic students.

Participants will be supported to consider behavioural differences that are authentic to the autistic student and their invaluable role in maintaining joy in their lives.
Furthermore, participants will be supported to understand the underlying factors contributing to distressed behaviours, and how supporting professionals can help.

Specific topics will include:

• Understanding the ongoing paradigm shift in how we think about behaviour.
• Factors that contribute to distressed behaviour for an autistic student.
• Recognising the significance of neuroception and a sense of "felt safety" in promoting emotional regulation.

Participants will:

• Gain an understanding of the ongoing paradigm shift in how we think about "behaviour" presenting in our autistic children.
• To support participants to recognise their inner biases, judgements and beliefs that may be impacting upon how they support an autistic children in distress.