Package summary

Middletown Centre for Autism 
Five-Week Professional Training Programme

Programme Content

  1.  Autism, Learning Styles, and Visual Teaching Methods
  2. Autism and Communication
  3. Autism and Understanding Anxiety for those with additional learning difficulties
  4. Autism and Sensory Processing
  5. Autism and Reframing Behaviour

Course Description 

This five-week programme has been designed for teachers and other education professionals who are working with children and young people with autism in a Special School. 

Notes

Courses in package

Autism, Learning Styles, and Visual Teaching Methods

Event summary

Date

Start Time

End Time

Rochestown Community Special School,

Booking closes

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.

Notes

Location

Rochestown Community Special School

Get Directions
Joan McDonald

Joan McDonald

Joan is a second level science teacher working independently as Posautive.
Following many years teaching in mainstream classrooms, Joan worked on individual planning in centres for adults with learning disabilities and those with mental health struggles.
She, then, became one of the first SENOs in Ireland, observing and providing school supports for students with atypical needs across eighty rural schools.
While studying for an M.Ed. in Autism, Joan was taught by and met a variety of autistic adults, which ultimately led to her own autism assessment. Prior to meeting such a diverse range of autistic people, Joan would only have recognised autism in people with profound and complex support needs.
Joan is passionate about using students’ interests to support autistic learners of all levels of cognitive ability to access education and contented lives.
She currently works on a variety of projects with agencies such as Middletown Centre for Autism, Dublin City University, Nua Healthcare, Fingal Libraries. In recent years, creating and delivering the Posauteen and Posaudult courses to help autistic people understand and advocate for themselves has been a major focus of Joan’s time.

Autism and Communication

Event summary

Date

Start Time

End Time

Rochestown Community Special School,

Booking closes

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

Notes

Location

Rochestown Community Special School

Get Directions
Dee Hogan

Dee Hogan

Dee Hogan is an Autism Trainer/Advisor in Middletown Centre for Autism. Dee has extensive experience teaching and supporting autistic children and young people. Her experiences include Pre-school, Early Intervention Autism Classes, Primary Autism Classes, Mainstream Primary and Special Schools. She has written, lectured and assessed modules on the Special Needs Assistant and Level Four Autism qualifications, as professional development for parents and professionals. Dee has also worked as a part time Lecturer with University College Cork designing and delivering the Diploma in Autism Studies as well as providing training for teachers, third level students, parents and professionals. Dee’s training specialisms are Reframing Behaviour, Early Intervention, Classroom Strategies, and Transitions. Dee holds a MEd in Special Education Autism from the University of Birmingham.

Autism and Understanding Anxiety for those with additional learning difficulties

Event summary

Date

Start Time

End Time

Rochestown Community Special School,

Booking closes

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.

Notes

Location

Rochestown Community Special School

Get Directions
Joan McDonald

Joan McDonald

Joan is a second level science teacher working independently as Posautive.
Following many years teaching in mainstream classrooms, Joan worked on individual planning in centres for adults with learning disabilities and those with mental health struggles.
She, then, became one of the first SENOs in Ireland, observing and providing school supports for students with atypical needs across eighty rural schools.
While studying for an M.Ed. in Autism, Joan was taught by and met a variety of autistic adults, which ultimately led to her own autism assessment. Prior to meeting such a diverse range of autistic people, Joan would only have recognised autism in people with profound and complex support needs.
Joan is passionate about using students’ interests to support autistic learners of all levels of cognitive ability to access education and contented lives.
She currently works on a variety of projects with agencies such as Middletown Centre for Autism, Dublin City University, Nua Healthcare, Fingal Libraries. In recent years, creating and delivering the Posauteen and Posaudult courses to help autistic people understand and advocate for themselves has been a major focus of Joan’s time.

Autism and Sensory Processing

Event summary

Date

Start Time

End Time

Rochestown Community Special School,

Booking closes

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.

Notes

Location

Rochestown Community Special School

Get Directions
Dee Hogan

Dee Hogan

Dee Hogan is an Autism Trainer/Advisor in Middletown Centre for Autism. Dee has extensive experience teaching and supporting autistic children and young people. Her experiences include Pre-school, Early Intervention Autism Classes, Primary Autism Classes, Mainstream Primary and Special Schools. She has written, lectured and assessed modules on the Special Needs Assistant and Level Four Autism qualifications, as professional development for parents and professionals. Dee has also worked as a part time Lecturer with University College Cork designing and delivering the Diploma in Autism Studies as well as providing training for teachers, third level students, parents and professionals. Dee’s training specialisms are Reframing Behaviour, Early Intervention, Classroom Strategies, and Transitions. Dee holds a MEd in Special Education Autism from the University of Birmingham.

Autism and Reframing Behaviour

Event summary

Date

Start Time

End Time

Rochestown Community Special School,

Booking closes

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. 

Notes

Location

Rochestown Community Special School

Get Directions
Joan McDonald

Joan McDonald

Joan is a second level science teacher working independently as Posautive.
Following many years teaching in mainstream classrooms, Joan worked on individual planning in centres for adults with learning disabilities and those with mental health struggles.
She, then, became one of the first SENOs in Ireland, observing and providing school supports for students with atypical needs across eighty rural schools.
While studying for an M.Ed. in Autism, Joan was taught by and met a variety of autistic adults, which ultimately led to her own autism assessment. Prior to meeting such a diverse range of autistic people, Joan would only have recognised autism in people with profound and complex support needs.
Joan is passionate about using students’ interests to support autistic learners of all levels of cognitive ability to access education and contented lives.
She currently works on a variety of projects with agencies such as Middletown Centre for Autism, Dublin City University, Nua Healthcare, Fingal Libraries. In recent years, creating and delivering the Posauteen and Posaudult courses to help autistic people understand and advocate for themselves has been a major focus of Joan’s time.