Event summary

Date

Start Time

End Time

St Joseph's College (The Bish), Galway, Galway

Closed

Autism and Life Skills, including Relationships and Sexuality Education 

The term Life Skills refers to a varied set of skills used to navigate practical, educational and social challenges daily. There is no definitive list of these skills but broad categorisation includes:   
 

  • Practical Living  

  • Personal Care 

  • Social Skills 

  • Personal Safety 

  • Job Skills 

  • Self-advocacy 

  • Relationships and Sexuality, including friendships  

  • Executive Skills 

 

Whilst the skills are varied and often overlap, effectively and successfully using them enable the autistic child or young person deal autonomously with many challenges and opportunities of everyday life.  This impacts positively on the child or young person’s sense of dignity, worthiness, self-esteem and well-being.   

 

For some autistic young people, these skills can be slower to develop meaning the autistic young person would benefit from specific focus, including explicit teaching, of the life skills that are important and meaningful to them.  Effective teaching of these skills involves close collaboration between school and home.   

 

This session will examine the impact of adolescence on the young autistic person at the stage of their life where these skills are needed.  The session will explore the broad definition of Life Skills within the contexts of work, leisure, personal care and relationships.  Participants will be shown how to incorporate visual and behavioural strategies to support the autistic teenager develop and use Life Skills. It will also focus on the delivery of relationships and sexuality education for autistic students.  

 

Expected Outcomes 
Participants will: 

  • Have a greater understanding of how autism can affect the development of Life Skills in work, leisure, personal care and relationship domains during the adolescence years.   

  • Explore ways of assessing and teaching Life Skills in the school and family environments. 

  • Have an increased awareness of daily opportunities to focus on and develop the autistic students’ life skills within the school and home environments. 

  • Explore some strategies involving behavioural and visual strategies, that may support the autistic adolescent develop these skills.  

  • Provide strategies for the delivery of sex and relationships education to autistic students. 

 

 

Location

St Joseph's College (The Bish)
Nun's Island,
Galway
Galway
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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.

Event summary

Date

Start Time

End Time

St Joseph's College (The Bish) , Galway , Galway

Closed