I’m going to a wedding this afternoon and I’ll be taking my digital camera with me.  As I was putting the battery on charge earlier, I was reminded how much I use the camera with my class and how effective it has been.  So I thought I’d share that here.

Photographs are a great visual aid, but, if you are anything like me with a traditional film camera, the photos can stay undeveloped in the camera for ages - in fact come to think of it, I think I have had an unfinished roll of film in a camera for the past 2 years!

Digital cameras on the other hand allow you to see the image immediately.  It is this immediacy that makes them such a fantastic tool to use with children.  Many children I have taught recently have been fascinated by them.  If you haven’t tried using one with your child, I urge you to give it a try.  Here are some tips:

* Choose a camera with a big screen if you can afford it - I use a camera with a 2.5 inch screen which seems adequate.  This allows you and your child to see the image easily

* Use it often.  Do not be precious about it - it’s a learning tool for your child, if you can afford to let your child play with it, do so.

* Don’t worry about the quality of your photos - the process is more important than how the image comes out.

* After a session of taking photos with your child - review the images with them straight away.  Play back the images on a big screen, at home I suggest using either your computer or your tv (many cameras come with cables that allow this).  At school, I suggest using an interactive whiteboard if you have access to one.

Some of the things that have come out of using a digital camera with my pupils include:

* engagement and focus (especially while reviewing photos)

* motivation (work first then you can use the camera)

* spontaneous speech (eg naming things or people in the photos)

* use of modelled language (eg John is climbing)

* talking about emotions

* personal history - talking about things we have done in the photos

* another reason, if one were needed, for children to use the computer

There are many other things the children get from using the digital camera, and you can probably think of some quite easily.  However, if you are new to this, then I hope this has whet your appetite.

Sometimes I just take photos with the children so that we can review and talk about them.  Other times the children will suggest things to take photos of, eg themselves performing different actions.  However, as a teacher, most of the time I have a focus for the sessions and I know what I want to get from the review session before I take the photos.

Don’t be scared to just play with it though.  You may find lots of learning happening very easily and naturally.

Anyway, I have a wedding to go to!

I am becoming increasingly aware that teachers and teaching assistants are showing interest in this site, so this post is aimed more at them… although if you are fortunate enough to have an interactive whiteboard at home…

A few years ago I was shown how an interactive whiteboard could benefit classroom teaching.  At the time, I was blown away, instantly understanding how children in my mainstream class would benefit from me using one with them.  I remember thinking - “I don’t care what I teach - just give me one of those and I can teach anything!”  I was not even thinking particularly about children with autism at the time.  Unfortunately there was no budget for every classroom to have one then, in fact we only got one for the whole school and that was in the computer suite.

Fortunately, things have moved on a bit and they are now beginning to be fitted into classrooms here in England.  I requested one for my classroom a couple of years ago, and it was fitted a couple of months into the school year.  At the time I was struggling to keep the children’s attention during some of our literacy and numeracy lessons, as some of the children were very distractable.  However, from the very first time I used the interactive whiteboard, I found that I had absolutely no problem keeping the attention of all but one child in the class.

It is often pointed out that many children with autism are visual learners - this seems to illustrate that point well.  If the children really are visual learners, then let’s give them something to look at!  Having got their attention, it was then just a matter of selecting the correct material to put onto the interactive whiteboard to target their learning.  If you are looking for it, there is a wealth of fantastic software available - or try making your own resources.

If anything, I would say that children with autism may benefit even more from using interactive whiteboards than their mainstream peers.

If you have used an interactive whiteboard to teach children with autism, I’d love to hear about your experiences.  If you are a parent, do you know if your child uses an interactive whiteboard at school?  Has it made a difference to their learning?

If you have a child with autism, you probably already know first hand about the fascination with computers.  It is wonderful to watch children who often show little motivation in many other things engage completely with a computer.

Of course, not all children with autism like computers.  However, a good majority of the children I have worked with love them!  Which is great, as this makes a great starting point from which to teach them.  Engagement is key, once you have their attention teaching is so much easier.

Just today I was watching a pupil teach herself to spell words using a powerpoint show I created on the computer.  She repeated each letter as it came up, and laughed in delight.  And she chose to do this over and over again!  This was in stark contrast to some table-top work I had tried doing with her last week, when keeping her attention had been anything but easy - and she definitely did not choose to do it over and over again!

Some people worry that children “playing” with the computer is unproductive.  I say define what you mean by productive.  Firstly, there is nothing wrong with playing.  Secondly, where others may see only a child playing, I see engagement, excitement, joint attention, turn-taking (amazing how well children who generally do not play together can take turns on the computer with a bit of adult support), developing motor skills, creativity, following multiple step instructions (eg to find a particular file), learning from trial and error …

And anyway, I teach children to use specific programs on the computer, so that when they “play” they often seek these programs out to use, and reinforce what they have learnt.

As you may have guessed, I love computers.  If you do not love them, I challenge you to have a rethink - perhaps you are denying your child of a wonderful learning resource.

As ever, I would love your comments.

p.s.  For a limited time I am giving away some of my powerpoint shows as bonus gifts with purchases of my e-book.

According to the Children’s Commissioner for England, existing educational provision for children with autism is shocking and appalling.

This seems to have prompted the Schools Minister to pledge more cash and training.

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/5352262.stm

I have a mixed reaction to this story, on the one hand I am saddened that as a country we do not provide appropriate education for children with autism, but on the other hand, I’m glad that autism is on the political agenda, and hope that it leads to significant improvement.

As a teacher, I am often struck by mainstream colleagues’ ignorance of autism, and equally by how interested they are when they are provided with information.  As a teacher of children with autism in a mainstream school, I have found mainstream colleagues to be more than willing to adapt their classrooms to include children with autism.  What they need is training and support.  My colleagues and I have delivered whole school training sessions on autism at my current school to our mainstream colleagues, but this is one school, in one part of London.  There needs to be a sea-change in how we train our teachers during their initial training, and throughout their careers.

The National Autistic Society in England has a campaign at the moment called “Make Schools Make Sense”.

http://www.autism.org.uk/nas/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=825

If you live in the UK, please get involved.

PECS? TEACCH? ABA? Son-Rise? Daily Life Therapy?

What is the right intervention for your child? There is much talk about the importance of early interventions, but with so much on offer, what is best for you and your child?

I have picked five interventions at random, there are many more available. Each have strong advocates, and they are all reasonably well established approaches.

You could spend a long time researching them all, or you could choose one and hope for the best. Or you could do a pick and mix. I think there are elements to all approaches that are useful, though some may be more useful to one child than another. What they all have in common is that they are all active interventions, and my contention is that perhaps that above all is key.

Applied Behaviour Analysis interventions can be very intensive, the Lovaas approach can be up to 40 hours a week of one to one instruction by the time the child reaches the age of 3. The Son-Rise program includes the use of a distraction free play room, where the child is joined by an adult for multiple hours each day. What these programs give is a reason to interact with your child for many hours a day.

If having a program to follow means that such a high level of interaction results, then so be it. However, I wonder how much progress a child with autism would make simply by having enjoyable, intensive play with an adult partner whose only criteria for success was that both they and the child enjoyed themselves immensely? A lot of progress methinks.

Just a thought. I’d love to read your comments.

By all accounts, the sensory experiences of people with autism can be very different from what most of us experience. However, it can be difficult for us to appreciate the extent of this difference.

This excellent, and very short, animated film contains some useful commentary by a few individuals with autism, as they share about their personal sensory experiences. The film “lasts exactly 11 minutes” according to a voice at the beginning of the film. Check it out:

 http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001P1BKC/qid=1153680999/sr=8-1/ref=pd_bbs_1/104-3838293-2651134?%5Fencoding=UTF8&v=glance&n=130

or

if you are in the uk:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0001P1BKC/202-5234689-2435806?v=glance&n=283926

I’d be interested in your comments.

I have used elements of many different approaches over the years, but the one that I’ve found makes the biggest difference with young children with autism is simply that of playing.

For some of us, playing is natural and we make no apologies for it – for me it is the most effective way of developing relatedness with a child and it is FUN!

When children are enjoying spending time with you, they will come and initiate interactions with you – this is true for the great majority of children with autism as it is for normally developing children. Once they are coming to you, you can then start to scaffold their learning, and you will find teaching other things will be easier because now you have their attention and trust.

However, over the years I have worked with many colleagues who just don’t find playing natural – they feel much more comfortable “teaching” something. If this sounds like you, then my plea is this: play first, other stuff can wait.

My personal experience has shown me that this works. I urge you try it for yourself – play with your child just for the sake of playing and see what opens up. However, make sure that you are enjoying yourself, don’t harbor any nagging thoughts that you should be “teaching” something instead.

Relax, you will be “teaching” – you are teaching your child that you are worth spending time with, and that hanging out with you is more interesting than spending time on their own.

Children with autism by definition have difficulty with social interaction – isn’t it wonderful to teach them to interact with people (you initially), in such a joyous way?

I’ve been using the Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS) with children for a number of years now and have found it to be very useful for some, though by no means, all children.

Here’s one success story:

Peter, aged 6, could only say several words and was not using them in any useful sense. He was a very busy child, and knew exactly what he wanted to do. He was very independent and would get what he needed for himself – even if it meant climbing onto high shelves.

We noticed how motivated Peter was to use certain pieces of equipment, so rather than trying to move him onto other things, we allowed him to work through his interests, and made those items available to him – but he would have to communicate with someone to get them.

We started using PECS with Peter at this point. We made cards for all the things he would try and get for himself, this included things like: sticky tape, staplers, glue, paper and scissors. We made them all available, but put them out of reach. Within a couple of days, Peter had completely stopped trying to climb to reach those pieces of equipment and was happily using his PECS cards to make requests of all the adults in the room.

During the course of the next few months, Peter’s behavior completely changed. He became calmer, gave his attention to adult directed tasks more readily, and became much more interested in other people in the class. PECS was also supporting him in his development of verbal language – at first Peter found some words very difficult to say, but because he was using his PECS cards as well as trying to speak, we could easily understand what he wanted and could help to model the correct way to say the word at a time when he was motivated to repeat it. His language really took off as a result.

Of course, it is difficult to know exactly what to attribute the change in behavior to as many different approaches were tried in class. However, PECS claim that when children are able to communicate by making requests, this can have a very positive impact on their behavior. I have experienced a number of occasions where the impact has been very noticeable.

If you have not come across PECS, I suggest you give it a look at:

http://www.pecs.com/

or if you are in the UK: www.pecs.org.uk

I’d love to hear about your experiences, positive or otherwise, with PECS. Please post them as comments to this blog.  

If your child has a disability such as Down Syndrome, you are aware of this from birth, possibly even before. As difficult as this may be to face, you do at least have to face it early on and learn to accept that your child is disabled.

However, many parents of autistic children report that one of the most difficult things they found was accepting that there was anything wrong with their child. Often children develop normally, meeting most of the early milestones, perhaps gaining some speech, before suddenly seeming to lose it all. Their beautiful child suddenly seems lost to them; they do not respond when called, they seem totally fixated on their own preoccupations and terrible tantrums occur when they are disturbed from these.

Parents struggle to understand what is wrong, they may blame themselves and wonder if they have done something to make their child behave like this. They become more and more convinced that there is something wrong as their child’s peers continue to pass more and more milestones, while their own child seems to remain stuck.

Reactions of others can be a big issue, especially as the child continues to have tantrums beyond the ‘terrible twos’. Many parents struggle on, not knowing where to go for help. When they eventually go to their doctor, they may find that he or she may not be of much help. It is a tragedy that many parents end up having to become experts in autism themselves so they can advise professionals whom they could have expected to have been able to help them.

How did finding out your child has autism make you feel?