Strategies to Support Children with Additional Needs

I'm often asked by colleagues, parents and other educators about advice on strategies that can be used to support children who have been diagnosed with Autism in an early learning environment. And there are many, many ways in which these children can be supported. So I decided that I would dedicate a blog post purely on strategies that can be used to support children who have additional needs. 

If we give children who have additional needs the support that they require now, we as parents and educators are setting them up to succeed in the future.

All the strategies that are in this post, I have used on numerous occasions in several early learning environments and across a broad range of ages - from birth through to five years and beyond. Keep in mind that these strategies can also be used to assist other children in an early learning environment.

First and foremost, see the whole child and not just the disability. The Autism or Sensory Processing Disorder or other additional need is one part of the child but it is not all of them. Children want to be valued and understood for who they are rather than being defined by the additional needs and challenges that they may face. Focus on the child’s strengths and capabilities and what they can do rather than focusing on what they can’t do. If a child senses that you don’t think that they can do it, their natural response will be “why should I try?” Follow the child’s lead – understand their interests by watching them. Observe how they communicate – do they use particular sounds or gestures to communicate to others. Get to know the child by spending time playing with them.

Please don't underestimate a child’s ability, you may be surprised at what they are capable of achieving. And remember that a non-verbal child can still hear you! Have conversations, albeit they may be very one sided, with the child. Include them in conversations, talk to them about what you are doing even if it is a mundane task like cleaning. We as parents often do this with young babies and children, you may even pause so that they have the opportunity to babble back at you. By including a child who is non-verbal in a conversation, you are saying to them "I value you. I value your input."

Work with the child at their current skill level and at their pace. Early intervention services will often create a Wall of Development for each child who attends their service. The idea behind a Wall of Development is that for a child to reach the top of the wall and reach beyond, they need to build the foundation skills first. L used to struggle with his hand strength but to build hand strength he first needed to be able to cross his mid line as this is a building block to developing hand strength. If we build upon the skills the child currently has, this will build them up for success in other areas.

Be patient when speaking with children who have an additional need be it Autism, ADHD or any other disability. Give them time to respond to you when you ask them a question or request them to do something. They need the extra time to process what you have asked. They may respond with “what?” or “huh?” or some other phrase. They’re not doing this to be rude or disrespectful, they’re trying to process what you have said. By saying “what” or “huh,” their brain is still processing your request. You may need to repeat yourself so please stay calm.

If a child is constantly on the go, provide them with the opportunity to have a sensory break. It could be running races in the play area, pushing a friend on the swings, pushing or riding a bike, turning the heavy toys or resources over and over (old tyres are great for this,) climbing on the play equipment outside or it could be as simple as a big squishy hug. Create a sensory tool kit that the child can access – things to squeeze, sensory bottles, something to bite if needed, objects that will distract the child so that they can ground themselves. Look at the sensory stimuli that is in the center or classroom environment – think bright lights, noise, general busyness of a room. Is it possible to limit this stimulus? If it isn’t, can a quiet corner by created that the child can escape into? Do you need to invest in block out ear protectors for the child to use?

Be understanding that a child exhibiting challenging behaviour is not doing so on purpose. The behaviour is serving a purpose – to communicate with you their needs and wants. Take some time to try and figure out what these needs and wants are. Are they in sensory overload? Are they tired, hungry, frustrated, injured?

Provide experiences for children through things that personally motivate them – use their special interest to engage them in play. L has always been interested in superheroes – they are a big motivator for him, and his teachers, therapists and carers over the last three years have used superheroes to their advantage! Create learning environments using a child's intense interests that encourage children to play and explore.

When you call out to a child with Autism or Sensory Processing Disorder across the room, what they hear is “mumble mumble L mumble mumble.” Go and speak with the child, getting down to their level. Let the child know what you want them to do or what is going to happen next. Break down the instructions into smaller steps. Start off with two step related instructions and work your way up to complex instructions.

There are many visuals that you can utilise within a service. Visuals are a form of communication for children with Autism and other additional needs, they are also very helpful for other children within the service whose communication skills are still developing. Communication boards, visual routines, social stories and visual timetables to name a few. 

Children whose language is still developing often benefit from the use of key word signing. Key word signing or Makaton is a simplified version of Sign Language and as the name suggests, the actual signs just represent words. When signing the word, you also need to speak the word so that the child begins to make the connection between the two. Key word signing isn't intended to replace the need for speech, it is used to assist the development of speech. L picked up key word signing from a very young age and it was truly wonderful to see his frustration at being unable to communicate ease a little. At first L picked up the signs for please, more, finished, eat and drink. He would never say the word but the signing action was very clear. I have used key word signing for children with special needs, children for whom English is their second language and for babies and have had great success with all groups. Key word signing is a very effective communication form and it really does alleviate a child's frustration at being unable to communicate.

Eye contact is uncomfortable, please don’t force it. The best analogy that I can think of is listening to the radio - you don’t need to look at the radio in the car to hear it. It is the same with when talking to someone. You don't necessarily have to look someone in the eyes to hear them – yes it is polite to look at the person who is talking to you but if they struggle with eye contact, please don’t force it. Forcing an individual with Autism to make eye contact will cause them to shut down.

Encourage and create opportunities and experiences that enhance and build upon the child’s skill level and their social and emotional skills. Model to them how to engage with other children. Use the language that they will need to use, “can I please play with you?”

Talk about emotions with children and label the emotions that you see in children. This provides them with the language they may need to describe how they are feeling. Use the Zone’s of Regulation – “I can see that you are very angry, what can we do to make you happy again?” The aim of the zones of Regulation is for a child to be in the green zone. You can use the Zone’s of Regulation for a child to point to how they are feeling.

Talk with the other children in your care about differences in a positive way. Children are very accepting but they may struggle to understand why an Autistic child does or says particular things. There are many children’s books available that explain Autism in an easy to understand manner.

If you are unsure on how to support a child who has additional needs, ask questions. Speak to your colleagues. Reach out to health professionals and support organisations so that you are informed and can plan for the child while they are in your care. The majority of therapy providers are more than willing to attend a service that the child goes to so that they can assist to put plans in place for the child. The more professionals helping the child, the better they will succeed in the future.

An even better way to find out more, is to speak with the child's family. They know their child the best!

Stop Motion Animation #Stikbots

**** Please note that we do not receive commissions of any description for this review. 
It is simply a product that we have found useful. ****

I have always loved watching stop motion animations, some of my all time favourite stop motion movies and shows are the Wallace and Grommet series, the Shaun the Sheep series, Kubo and the Two Strings, The Boxtrolls, The Pirates and Chicken Run. My brother really likes watching Pingu too. But while watching them, I have always been very curious about how they make them.

I really like watching the extras on DVD's because I can learn new and interesting facts about the movie that I just watched and on some of the stop motion movies, they have how the animations were made. Just from watching these, it looks really difficult and very time consuming.

Here's some information about Stop Motion Animation, just in case you're not sure what it means.

Stop Motion Animation is a technique that film makers can use to bring static objects to life - the film makers can basically make a character look like it is alive, even though it might be made of plastic or plasticine. Film makers do this by taking a series of still photos of the characters in the film. In each photo frame, the character has to move a tiny little bit so that when the photos are played in sequence from start to finish, it looks like the character is moving. My brother said that the sequence of photos are a bit like a flip book. Just in stop motion animation, the sequence of photos are played at a super fast speed.

When film makers are making a stop motion animation, they will usually use clay figures, puppets,plasticine, miniature figures with movable joints and sometimes even paper or fabric. The reason that these are commonly used is because all of these art mediums can be easily handled and re-positioned in small increments.

When I did some research on Stop Motion Animation, I found out that Stop Motion Animation was developed in the late 1800's. That's a very long time ago. The very first movie that used Stop Motion techniques was a movie called The Humpty Dumpty Circus. It was made in 1897 by J Stuart Blackton and Albert E Smith and was about a toy circus of acrobats and animals that comes to life. The two film makers used their daughters toys and dolls as the props. I also found out that this movie has been lost - there's only one screen shot that can be found - and that the reason the movie is lost is because the movie is really, really old and film makers back then probably didn't know how to save their creations. It's not like they had a phone or computer or USB to save it on.

A few weeks ago, my Mummy surprised my little brother and me with two Stikbot people figures and a Stikbot Dinosaur. My best friend, G, had come over for a play, and we were all a bit bored because it was too wet to go outside to play.

Stikbots are really cool because they are pose-able robot looking figures that have suction cups on their hands and feet. I think the dinosaur Stikbot is meant to be a T-Rex because it has two little arms and two big feet like a T-Rex. It has suction cups on it's big feet.

The suction cups mean that the Stikbots can literally stick to any surface, it's really cool. And because the Stikbots head, arms and legs are all joined to their body with tight stretchy elastic, it means you can change how the Stikbots stand and move around.

The other really cool thing about Stikbots is that they can be used to make Stop Motion Animation and there is an app that can be downloaded onto phones or tablets.

Mummy showed G, L and me how to move the Stikbots really slowly and then showed us how to use the app.

The app is called Stikbot Studio and Mummy downloaded it from the Google Play Store. It's a free app, so that is good too. Daddy had a look on his phone because it is an Apple phone and you can get the app in the Apple store too and it is free as well. Once Mummy had shown us how to use the app, G, L and me made some stop motion animations. The one just under this is the first one we made. We set up an animation studio in our garage and wouldn't let Mummy and Daddy in until we had finished!

Did you like that one? It was lots of fun to make.

I'm going to try to explain how to use the app.

1. When you open the app on your phone, Mummy has the app on her phone and her tablet but the lighting is better on her phone, the screen you should first see looks like this. Can you see the four icons along the bottom? There is Create Movie, Capture Photo, Gallery and Help. When we first opened the app, we had a little play to see what was on it.

2. The Help icon is really cool and useful because there are lots of video tutorials on how to use the Stikbots and how to make animations. We watched the first three tutorials before we made our first Stop Motion Animation.

One of the tutorials explains that to make a Stop Motion Animation that is one second long, you need to take at least 10 different photo frames. Can you imagine how many photo frames they need to take to make a movie that is an hour long? Now I know why Stop Motion Movies look so time consuming and complicated to make.

3. When you go into either the Create Movie or Capture Photo icons they both look basically the same. The only difference is that in the Capture Photo icon you can only take one photo at a time. 

In the Create Movie icon, that's where you capture lots of photos in a sequence. Each time you press the red camera button, the app captures a photo frame. What's really cool is that once the photo is captured, a faint photo that you just took stays on the screen so that you know where you moved the Stikbot to.

Once you start capturing frames for your Stop Motion Movie an arrow comes up in the top right hand corner of the screen. Once you have finished your movie, you press the arrow in the top right hand corner and it saves the movie.

4. When you go into the next screen, this is where you can edit your movie creation. You can add a soundtrack to your movie or you can add your own sounds. You can also play your movie to see what it looks like.

If you go into the icon on the top right that looks like a flower, you can change how many frames per second - fps - that your movie will play at. So you can make it go super slow mo or really, really fast. But remember to have a good Stop Motion Animation you need to have at least 10 frames per second.

After my friend G went home, I made some Stop Motion Animations with our Lego minifigs! These were fun to make but much harder to move the minifigs because they are much smaller than the Stikbots.

Now this is where it gets really exciting. Last week we had to go to Kmart and while we were looking in the toys because my little brother likes to look at the toys, I found some more Stikbots. I was really excited to find a Green Screen Stikbot Studio kit. Mummy brought it for me and L to use because we have been making lots of Stop Motion Animations.

The Green Screen Stikbot Studio has both a green screen and a blue screen (it's just a big cardboard box with a green side and a blue side, two smaller cardboard boxes with green sides and blue sides on them, two Stikbots and what looks like an art easel that can hold your phone while you're creating Stop Motion Animations. The easel is really clever because it will keep your phone in the same position while you create your Stop Motion Animation.

Did you know that a green screen, or sometimes a blue screen, is used when filming movies and not just stop motion movies, so that a different background can be added to the final movie. The actors and actresses would film their movie screens on a green screen set and then the movie editors would add the background in later. It's sometimes known as Chroma Key Compositing. Green and Blue are the two colours most different from our skin so it makes it easier for the movie editors to change the screen background without cutting off the actors and actresses body parts!!

There are a lot of movies that I have watched that have used green screen sets when they have been making the movie - Mary Poppins Returns used a blue screen in some of their sets, all of The Avengers movies, Alice in Wonderland, Captain America, Iron Man, Transformers, Thor Ragnarok, The Power Rangers Movie and heaps more.

When we went to use the green screen with our Stikbots, we couldn't work out how to use it because the green screen on the app wasn't working. We worked out that we had to turn the green screen feature of the app on. We found this out by pressing the different icons on the screen because there aren't any instructions in the kit! I think that whoever makes this kit, needs to put instructions in the Green Screen Kit on how to turn the feature on in the app.

When you first go into either the Create Movie or Capture Photo icons there is a flower icon on the bottom left. When you press that icon, four more icons open up. To activate the green screen feature you need to press the small green rectangle.

When the next screen opens up, it will probably look like the image underneath this. See how the tabs are grey? You need to slide the on tab across so that the screen looks like the next image.

When the tabs are coloured you can change the background from Green screen to Blue screen. You can also change the Colour roll Backdrop.

In Colour roll Backdrop you can choose from the Stikbot Library or you can choose a picture that is on your phone. We tried to use a backdrop from Mummy's phone, but it didn't turn out properly. I would recommend using a backdrop from the Stikbot Library as there are quite a few to choose from and the backdrops are really good.

This is what the picture will look like when the green screen is on. Can you see the Stikbot at the back of this picture? See how it looks like it has a ghost head? That's because it's head is green so it blends into the green screen. You have to make sure that if you are using the green screen, you don't use characters that are green. And if you use the blue screen, the characters can't be blue.

I made a few green screen Stop Motion animations and Mummy helped me to make some props to use. We made fire flames, some cardboard logs for a fire and some tents.

Now I wanted to show you some of my green screen Stop Motion Animations that I have made. I prefer to use the Stikbots because they are easier to move around and Mummy helped me with the Lego Minifigs.

I would really recommend the Stikbot sets to anyone who is interested in learning how to make Stop Motion Animations. They are really easy to use and lots of fun. It looks like there are other sets that you can buy like a set that has a Dino theme with lots of different accessories for the Stikbots and Stikbot Action Packs that have helmets, plastic hair and musical instruments for the Stikbots in it. I really would like to get a few more sets but we couldn't find them. Playing with the Stikbots, the green screen and the app has helped me to learn a lot about making Stop Motion Animations.

Now my Mummy wants to add something. Thank you for reading my review on Stop Motion Animation and the Stikbots.

From O 😍💕😻😸

Stop Motion Animation is a topic that O has always been interested in so it was wonderful to find a product that she could use to create her own animations. We found them in the toy section of Kmart but I would imagine that you should be able to find them in other department stores and toy shops.

While all of the Stop Motion Animation is done during screen time, we figured that at least O and L having been doing something constructive! O and L have also been doing a little unschooling when making their animations as they've had to work out how best to move the characters so that the movement looks semi natural on screen, which colours work best on the green screen and many other aspects of Stop Motion Animation. Oh and if your children do ask to use your device to create some Stop Motion Animation, be prepared that your devices battery may go very flat. The app is brilliant but it does chew up battery power!

22/8/19 Edited 

We've since found two more Stop Motion Apps that O also loves to use.

Stop Motion Studio is a free App available in Google Play which O finds much easier to use. We also found an App called Green Screen Video (also available for free on Google Play) and as the name suggests it can be used to create live green screen videos.

E-book Review - Special Ed Mom Survival Guide

*** Please note that I did receive a free copy of this e-book to review however I do not receive commissions of any other kind for the review of this e-book. This is simply a book that I have found useful. ***

Very recently a good friend of mine, Bonnie Landau, was telling me about a book that she wrote titled "Special Ed Mom Survival Guide: How to prevail in the special education process and find life long strategies for you and your child." When she was describing the book it sounded like not only a great read but also a fantastic resource and as such I offered to do a review on it.

Bonnie is a Mum of children who have special education needs. She has spent the last eleven years being an advocate for her children in the special needs education system and through her experience she has assisted her children to thrive in the school environment. Bonnie wrote this book to pass on her knowledge and experience to other families.

Keeping in mind that this book has been written with the US education system in mind, the majority of the book can be utilised by parents all over the world. Sure the references to the US education and legal system are not relevant to my part of the world but the sections titled "Ignore the Naysayers," " Take care of yourself," "Manage your stress," "Find the blessings in your journey," "Take care of your child," "Knowledge is your strength" as well as numerous others are more than relevant to families living outside of the US.

As Bonnie states in her introduction ...

"This book is everything I learned while proving that we were right!"

The book is broken up into five sections and the majority of the book is aimed at providing parents with information to be able to create the right frame of mind in themselves to be able to manage the special education process.

If you have had any experience in the special education process, you will know that it can be emotionally and mentally draining on all involved - the child and the family. And as the saying goes, we need to look after ourselves before we can look after others.

We as parents need to look after ourselves so that we can be the advocates that our children need us to be. Quite often children do not find their own voice of advocacy until much older and as such they need their parents to be their advocate at school in the meantime.

With phrases such as "Believe in yourself - you do have the ability to help your child" and "You are the consistent thread from that early preschool experience on up through high school and beyond" the book has motivational content for all parents and caregivers of children with special needs.

One of the things that I realised after reading both O and L's diagnostic assessment reports is that their individual reports were simply a reflection of their baselines at that point in time. The reports did not indicate O and L's full capabilities and this sentiment is reflected in Bonnie's book. Bonnie provides advice on how parents and caregivers can foster their children's strengths, how to teach their child to be a self advocate while at school, how to teach children to be resilient and how to help our children to understand their disability. Most importantly she reminds parents not to focus on what our children can't do but focus instead on what they are capable of.

The final chapters of the book give strategies that parents and caregivers can implement when speaking with teachers and schools in regards to the IEP process. These include strategies to use when attending IEP meetings, how to work effectively with teachers, information on how to document everything during and after the IEP process and how to go about educating your children's teachers about your child's disability. Bonnie also includes information on questions that should be asked of potential special education advocates so that you as a parent can ascertain whether or not the potential advocate is the best fit for your children.

The book is an uplifting, feel good read and the content is incredibly useful. it is a wonderful resource to have and one that I have added to our ever growing collection. I will definitely be referring to this in the future for not only my own benefit but also when speaking with O and L's school.

You can purchase a copy of the book, either hard copy or as an e-book, through the following links. For Australian residents, click on this link. For US residents click on this link!

W-Sitting - What is it?

**** Please note - If you are concerned that your child sits in a w-sitting position on a long term basis, please seek advice from a trusted medical professional. ****

Prior to gaining L's ASD diagnosis, he would regularly sit with his legs in the shape of the letter "w." I'd often seen other children seated in this position as well but didn't really think anything of it, nor was I concerned about it.

L occasionally still sits in this position, especially when he has had a rough day, and I've since learnt that it really isn't the best position for children, or adults for that matter, to be seated in.

O also sits in this position on an occasional basis but not nearly as regularly as L does.

L's sitting position is a regular topic of discussion between ourselves and his Occupational Therapist. Over the past several years we, and his Occupational Therapists, have been doing a lot of work with L on sitting in other positions and on strengthening his core muscles.

So for those that aren't in the know, what is w-sitting?

W-sitting describes when a child is seated on their bottom, with their knees bent and legs splayed out to their sides in what looks like the letter "w." It looks awfully uncomfortable but L prefers this seated position to the more conventional crossed legged position. I've attempted to seat myself in w-sitting to demonstrate what it looks like and have had a lot of difficulty sitting down and getting back up - although this could be due to my age and lack of flexibility!

Children will often prefer a w-sitting position to sit in as opposed to other more challenging and tiring positions. The reason for this is that when seated in a w-sitting position a child does not need to engage their abdominal muscles. When seated in the more conventional cross legged position, a child must engage their abdominal muscles to stay upright.

When L sits in the w-sitting position we can see that his body appears to sag onto the floor. Now that we know what to look for, we can see that he doesn't engage his abdominal muscles at all. And he can sit in this position for longer periods of time with ease than other positions. When seated in the more conventional cross legged position, L tires easily as he has to engage muscles to stay upright. When seated in a cross legged position he needs to move around on a regular basis to offset the uncomfortable feeling that he gets from his tiring muscles.

Sitting in a w-sitting position provides a very stable base for the child's trunk and hips and therefore allows a child to move easily to play on the floor. However the movement is generally in a forward and backward motion as opposed to moving and turning from side to side. 

The tricky thing about the w-sitting position is that many typically developing children will, at some stage, sit in this position. What most parents, myself included prior to L's ASD diagnosis, do not realise is that excessive use of this position during a child's growing years may lead to future orthopedic problems.

One of the issues with the w-sitting position is that it does not allow or permit a child to perform trunk rotation, or twisting and turning, and lateral weight shifts, side to side motion, to reach toys on either side of the body.

The development of trunk rotation and weight shifts over to one side and to the other is vital in children as both assist in maintaining one's balance while running and walking as well as when climbing and playing on play equipment. It is also necessary for being able to cross our mid-line when writing, drawing, turning pages on books, dressing oneself and other similar skills.

Sitting in a w-position on a long term basis may cause orthopedic issues in a child's hips, knees and feet as well as tightness in the leg and hip muscles. I'd never made this connection until speaking with L's OT but it does make a lot of sense as the w-sitting position itself doesn't look like a natural position to sit in as the joints are bent in unnatural ways. Although in saying that L makes it look very natural!

If a child sits in a w-sitting position once in a blue moon, there is really nothing to be concerned about. However when it occurs on an ongoing basis, the child really should be re-directed to sit in a different position so that any potential issues with their joints and muscles are avoided.

So what alternatives are there I hear you ask and what are the benefits of other sitting positions?

Side sitting - This is when the child sits with bent knees and both legs are out to one side, one leg will be tucked under the child's bottom. If seated in this position, the child should really be encouraged to swap legs from side to side occasionally so that the muscles don't become tight on one side of their body. This position allows a child to maintain flexibility in their hips but it also forces a child to engage their trunk muscles!

Cross Legged sitting - This is the more conventional sitting position used by most children. They are seated on their bottom with their legs crossed in front of them. It is often referred to as "sitting with butterfly legs" or "criss cross apple sauce" legs! This is an ideal sitting position as it assists in stretching the muscles in the hips that can become tight with persistent w-sitting. It also assists in strengthening a child's abdominal muscles.

Circle Sitting - This is very similar to cross legged sitting however in this position the legs are not crossed but instead they form a ring in front of the body. Sitting in this position increases a child's base of support and therefore provides them with greater stability. This is a more stable position than cross legged sitting and is great for children when first learning to sit. Babies will often sit in this position to begin with as it is quite a natural way to sit.

Long Legged Sitting - This describes when a child sits with their legs straight out in front of them and slightly spread apart. Seated in this position can help in stretching a child's ham strings. It takes a lot of energy for a child to sit in this position if they are not used to it and if the child struggles to sit up tall or they need to lean back on their hands for support, it can be an indication that their hamstrings are tight.

Sitting against a wall - This position looks exactly like it is called. The child sits against a wall, or furniture, with their legs straight out in front of them. This position provides a child with the extra stability that they may need but also assists in stretching their ham strings.

We also encourage L to sit on a wobble cushion as he can move about if he needs to but he also needs to engage his abdominal muscles as he wiggles about on the cushion. He actually prefers to sit on the cushion as he sees it as a game! The wobble cushion is a win-win option - L has fun but he's engaging and strengthening his core muscles at the same time. Make therapy fun and children will want to participate!

As mentioned earlier, L's Occupational Therapists have been a god send in suggesting other options for L to sit in as well as other activities for L to engage in. We do still allow L to w-sit as he is incredibly comfortable in that position but it isn't on a long term basis. L is now at the point that when he does sit in a w-sitting position, he will often self correct.

And as mentioned earlier, if w-sitting occurs once in a blue moon there really isn't anything to worry about. It is a behaviour often seen in typically developing children. But as with other ASD traits, when it is an ongoing behaviour or action, that is when we need to be on the look out for options to redirect the child to use.

Dear Teacher!

Yes, of course, you can ignore all the visual aides and sensory tools that we send to school for use with my children. Said no parent of an ASD child, ever!

I am growing rather tired of having the same conversations over and over again.

And it all has to do with the fact that apparently my children do not fit the mould of people's perceptions of what autism looks like. Pray do tell, what does autism look like?

So here is an open letter to all teachers in the future that may teach my little superheroes, or any other children for that matter, who require the use of visual aides or sensory breaks in class!

Dear Teacher,

My child has been placed into your class for this school year and as such I am putting my trust in you, that you will do the right thing by my children. Both of my children are eager little learners but there is a slight difference between my children and the other children that have been placed in your class.

You see, my children have autism, sensory processing difficulties and they learn differently to other children in your class.

First up, can you please place what you know about autism into the back of your mind - keep it somewhere easy to access but not directly at the fore front of your mind when you meet my child for the first time. You see there is a saying that goes "so you've met one child with autism, you've met one child with autism."

Every individual who is on the autism spectrum presents differently. Please don't assume that you know everything about autism based on your previous encounters with children who are on the spectrum. You know about how those children present with autism. You know very little about how my children present with autism. By the end of the school year you will know about how my children present with autism.

Just because my child doesn't fit into the idea, the perceptions, that you have about autism, doesn't mean that he will be able to cope in your classroom without assistance. Yes both of my children are verbal, but that does not mean that they understand your instructions. You may need to walk my child through what you want him to do. You may need to provide step by step instructions.

Every child has a different learning style, my children are no different. Both of my children are visual learners. Both of my children benefit from the use of visual schedules, social stories and visual choice boards in class.

My children's Occupational Therapist and Speech Therapist have put a lot of time and effort into creating numerous visual aides for us to utilise at home as well as for you to use in the classroom. 

The great thing about this is that you do not have to prepare any visuals, we will provide them all for you. All that we ask is that you actively use them in class with my child. Please do not put them in a basket and think that my child will access them by himself - he does not yet know how to independently use them. You will need to prompt him to use them.

These visuals make my children's lives a lot easier for them to understand and manage. When you start utilising them in your classroom, I can guarantee that you find teaching my child a much easier task.

We will also provide a sensory tool kit for my children to use in their respective classes. Both of my children enter into sensory overload on a regular basis. You may or may not notice when this occurs but believe me, we see the fall out at home after school. Every day.

When we say that they have had a rough afternoon, evening or night, please believe us. We do not make these things up for the hell of it. Just because you have not witnessed a meltdown at school, doesn't mean that they don't occur. You are more than welcome to visit our house anytime after three thirty in the afternoon after school on any school day to witness a meltdown. Please be warned, meltdowns are emotionally, mentally and physically draining for everyone.

My son needs regular sensory breaks to keep himself on track. Please let him have these sensory breaks. There is even a sensory break choice board for you to use.

Please let my children keep their sensory tool kits in an easily accessible place in class where they know where it is kept. A sensory tool kit is no use whatsoever when it is hidden from their sight. And heads up, if it is hidden from them, neither of my children will ask to use the sensory tools. It simply does not occur to them to ask.

Again you will see the benefits for allowing them to use their sensory tool kits in class.

I will apologise in advance if you feel that I am over stepping my mark as a parent, but I am my children's advocate. Neither of my children have yet found their voice to be their own advocate, so in the meantime, I am it.

I look forward to this year and hope that you enjoy having my child in your class.

Kind Regards,

This concerned Mumma Bear!