Policy for the Education of Pupils with Autism

Lakeside School Autism Policy Rev 2012

Policy for the Education of Pupils with Autism

Background and Purpose

Whilst there is still debate as to the reasons for the increase in the prevalence of autism, and still debate about the actual scale of the rise in the autistic population it is undoubtedly true that Lakeside has seen a rise in the number of pupils with autism admitted to the school in recent years. Alongside the increase in numbers there has also been an increase in the degree of severity of the children’s autism.

This led to a need for a structured programme of staff training and a review of the way we manage and support these children who have placed an additional challenge to class resources because of the difficulties many of them face in coming to terms with the activities of school life.

Terminology

There is a debate about the correct use of terminology to describe defined groups of people and the school is very keen to use terms that are not seen to be derogatory or perjorative. The concept of putting the child before the disability leads us to refer to ‘pupils with a disability’ rather than disabled pupils. Therefore the term ‘pupils with autism’ is appropriate. However Olga Bogdashina (2003 ) makes the point for using the term ‘autistic children’. She writes “ I deliberately use the term ‘autistic people’ rather than ‘people with autism’ because autism is not something that is just attached to them and cannot be easily removed. I am aware of the ‘people first, then disability’ approach. However, without autism they would be different people, as being autistic means being different. If people with autismprefer to name themselves autistic why should we be shy to call them that?Just to show them our respect? There are other ways to do it. Autism is notsomething to be ashamed of.”

This document will therefore also use the term ‘autistic children’ as it is a less cumbersome form. In speech both terms will be used acceptably in school.

Pupil Population at Lakeside

The autistic pupils at Lakeside school all have Severe Learning Difficulties as well as their autism. In the same way that the severity of the learning difficulties varies from child to child so does the severity of the autism. There is no correlation between the severity of the autism and the severity of the learning disability.

Aims

While the aims for the whole school are relevant our pupils with autism the following aims are specific to the education of this cohort of pupils.

• To harness the benefits of our inclusive environment to allow our pupils with ASD to engage meaningfully in society

• Within our inclusive environment to provide the structure and supportnecessary to enable our pupils with ASDto develop the skills and strategies essential to engage meaningfully in society

Provision

The provision for pupils with autism has developed from a position, in 2005, where the school received additional funding for four places for pupils with ASD.

The numbers of pupils with autism has grown year on year andthe need to make provision for them has become an integral part of the way we work and is no longer tied into the way the school is funded. The school does not receive funding specifically for pupils with autism, and there is no limit on the number of places for pupils with ASD.

Resources

Two rooms have been designatedas quiet workspaces for pupils with autism. The Library has also been identified as a potential third area for quiet withdrawal work, but this is not a dedicated space.

These rooms are available for pupils to withdraw with a member of staff and work quietly when they need a low arousal environment.

The autism team hold a budget from which they purchase specific resources which can be used with children throughout the school. These resources are held centrally and are freely available to class teachers.

Class budgets will be used to purchase resources designed to be for an individual child.

Autism Team

Part Time Autism Manager .2

Full Time HLTA

Headteacher

The Autism Manager, a member of the SMT, and the Headteacher meet to discuss the strategic way forward for the autism provision.

The Manager and HLTAplan the operational work. The HLTA delivers most of this work, supporting pupils in class and taking them for 1-1 and small group withdrawal work. They work together to provide staff training and in 2010 began a programme of community training. They also work together to provide a music therapy group which targets work on social interaction.

The Autism team have identified a link autism TA in each class with whom they meet regularly and who are targeted for extra training,

Some pupils may require a one to one support assistant to implement specific strategies on a long or short term basis. These assistants are provided from the school’s budget and will be additional to the current school staffing.

The Autism HLTA is expected to work independently on a daily basis.

She will:

• agree the workload with the Autism Manager – deciding which children to prioritise for individual work, and which will be helped through advice to the class team.

• work on a one to one basis with a selected number of pupils

• will support these children in class and take them for individual sessions in aquiet work room

• liaise with the class teacher and help to plan the IEP for the child with autism, providing the expert view on what is needed to help support the child’s autism

• work with class teachers and individual support staff to devise programmes for the class staff to deliver.

• complete and maintain Autism Plans on all autistic children detailing the provision they receive and the teaching strategies and resources agreed.

• work with the Autism Manager to devise and deliver training to staff members

• keep abreast of current thinking through undertaking training and reading.

• maintain current resources and make joint decisions with the Autism Manager on the purchase of new resources.

• assist the Autism Manager to manage the autism budget.

Anxiety plans

Sensory plans

Sensory diets

Teaching Strategies

Lakeside follows the advice of the Local Authority in taking an eclectic approach to the teaching strategies employed. It is important that strategies used are tailored to the particular needs of the child.

The over arching method employed is the Treatment and Education of Autistic and related Communication handicapped Children ( TEACCH ) approach. This is a system which encompasses all proven methods of teaching within a structure that offers support to the autistic child. It is not prescriptive, works well in an educational setting and has been seen to have excellent results. TEACCH advocates the use of clear, visual supportive strategies to help the child come to terms with the anxieties caused by their autism and through this structured approach to learn to cope in society.

Teachers need to understand the particular needs of each individual to know how best to approach their education. Amongst the strategies that can be employed are:

Visual timetables

Picture Exchange Communication System ( PECS) and a variety of other picture / symbol communication aids will be used to enable communication.

Social Stories – to help children make sense of and cope with new situations

Music Therapy groups – to promote social skills

Withdrawal work to teach individual skills in a non threatening environment with support to transfer the skills back to class.

References

BOGDASHINA, o (2003)

Sensory Perceptual issues in autism and Asperger syndrome: different sensory experiecnes – different perceptual worlds

London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers

LAWSON W (2003)

Build your own life: A Self Help Guide for Individuals with Asperger Syndrome

London: Jessica Kingsley Publishers

WING L, GOULD J (1979)

Severe impairments of social interaction and associated abnormalities in children: epidemiology and classification

Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 9, pp 11-29

Appendix 1

Overview of Autism

There is no easy way to give a summative overview of autism. It is a wide ranging and complex condition. What the following tries to do is give a brief indication of the issues that face teachers and autistic children in the classroom

There is no one definitive description of autism. However the theory of the Triad of Impairments first suggested by Lorna Wing (Wing & Gould, 1979) to describe the three main identifying features of autism. Is still considered to be true today. She considered these impairments to be in :

• Social Interaction,
• Social Communication
• Social Imagination.

The theory of the triad is a useful one for an understanding of the autistic child, but it is not the whole picture and a fourth strand of impairment has been identified in the area of Sensory Perception, (Bogdashina, 2003).

Autistic people will have – to a greater or lesser degree problems with social interaction. They will have impaired or delayed social development, especially interpersonal development.

Impairments in Social Communication means that a child may have no language or may have language that is not used for two way interpersonal communication. Idioms are often not understood as the child has a very literal understanding of words.

Social imagination refers to the rigidity of thought often seen as the key characteristic of autism. Children can display rigidity of behavior and thought, ritualistic behavior, reliance on routines and absence of pretend play.

Many autistic people also have problems with sensory perception. This is hard to identify as it can vary from day to day between a person being hyper sensitive to a sensation one day to hypo sensitive the next. Sensory perceptual difficulties can occur in all senses. Many autistic children have problems with their tactile senses and staff need to be aware that even a light touch can cause them extreme discomfort, whereas a heavier touch can be comforting. Light and sound in classrooms need to be monitored for their effect on the child. Visual perception problems mean that when a child walks into a room they may not see the whole in the same way their non –autistic person would but be overwhelmed by seeing all the detail of everything in the room – not being able to focus on what others around them see as the important points. They may not – on entering a room - recognize that the person in the room has more importance than a speck of dirt on the carpet. This is not ignoring the person, it is an inability to process all the information and apply what society would see as important.

The ‘Theory of Mind’ promoted by Baron Cohen and others is also an important way of understanding the needs of our autistic pupils. This research has show that autistic people lack an ability to see things from another’s point of view. They will assume that what they know – another person will know.

A last issue for the autistic pupil, arising from the conditions outlined above, is with developing Joint Attention. Teachers cannot assume that because they are focused on a task the autistic child is focused on the same task. A teacher may point to an item in the room, the child with autism will not have the natural ability to follow her gaze and may assume the teacher’s finger or any other object in the room is what is being referred to. The need to be always literal and specific is essential.

It is important to note that recently the term ‘impairments’ has been called into question (Lawson 2003) as autistic people, and academics, have sought to define autism as a difference not a disability. However it is accepted that autistic people will have differences in their abilities in each of the above areas and this essay will use the term ‘impairments’ for ease of reference, without intending disrespect.