Autism and the Special School Programme (Professional) St. Oliver's Special School, Tuam, Co. Galway

Supporting Autistic Learners

This training session is designed to build understanding of how autistic children and young people with high care and education needs may perceive, process, and engage with the world around them.
It acknowledges the strengths many autistic children and young preple may have in visual processing and explores how the use of visuals can support learning, reduce anxiety, and promote inclusion across a range of environments.

Participants will gain insight into:

• The value of visual teaching approaches and how they can align with an individual child or young person’s natural learning preferences.
• How visual supports can enhance communication, learning and wellbeing across home, school, and community settings.
• The integration of visual supports with other approaches to create consistent and supportive environments.  
• A range of adaptable visual approaches that respects each child’ or young person's unique strengths, needs, and interests.

Autism and Communication: Autistic Children and Young People with High Care and Education Needs

This session explores the differences in neurotypical versus 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 with high care and education needs 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: Autistic Children and Young People with High Care and Education Needs

For many autistic children and young people with high care and education needs, school can be a major source of stress. Everyone shows their anxiety in an individual manner, so the most reliable observations that a child or young person is anxious are going to be made by the people who know the child or young person 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 children and young people with high care and education needs.
This will include an introduction to cognitively based supports and how to develop child or young person 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 and Sensory Processing: Autistic Children and Young People with High Care and Education Needs
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: Autistic Children and Young People with High Care and Education Needs

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 children and young people. Participants will be supported to consider behavioural differences that are authentic to the autistic child and young person 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.

Participants will:

Gain an understanding of the ongoing paradigm shift in how we think about ‘behaviour’ presenting in our autistic children and young people.

To support participants to recognise their inner biases, judgements and beliefs that may be impacting upon how they support an autistic child or young person in distress.

To understand the underlying and environmental factors contributing to distress and overwhelm within the autistic child or young person.

Understand their role in managing their own regulation as an essential process to the co-regulatory support they provide their autistic students.