Autism/Communication and Interaction

Supportive strategies:

• Recognition of sensory differences and their impact on access to learning/the wider school community
• Be mindful of tone of voice/communication style
• Consider the impact of clothing items such as uniform and adaptions which can be made
• Structured learning environment
• Use of visual timetable and visual supports on labels of rooms around school
• Proactive approaches across the whole school in teaching neurodiversity and developing an understanding of difference in the school community
• Consistent adaptions and adjustments to school behaviour policy which show an understanding of the cause and function of behaviour 
• Adaptations to the curriculum which focus on child/young person’s interests and areas of difference
• Training and upskilling staff with knowledge and awareness of the key areas of difference. This is important for all staff including site managers, dinner staff, office staff.
• Recognition of signs of masking. Create an ethos and environment where the child/young person doesn’t need to mask
• Close collaboration with parents: value and listen to what parents are saying.
• Provide access to a safe/quiet space both inside and outside the classroom
• Schedule movement/learning/sensory breaks
• Provide a check in with a trusted adult to explore and improve experiences of school

Supportive strategies:

• Use the child/young person’s name when speaking to them or directing instructions or questions. Do not assume they know you are talking to them or make clear when you are not talking to them
• Provide some direct time for children and young people to share their interest with others (adults and peers) in a low demand environment
• Build some time for children/young people to develop social communication skills through shared interests, e.g. clubs and enrichment activities, break and lunch time activities, scaffolded group work projects 
• Consider explicit roles and responsibilities in paired and group work. There may be a need to provide modelled sentences and prompt cards to the child/young person, so they know what to say
• Recognise a child/young person’s threshold for social interaction; some children/young people may require a break
• Encourage and foster a culture of celebrating different ways of communicating and interacting
• Not all children/young people will understand social conventions and may need further explanation (e.g. ‘say what you mean’, be explicit when using humour, using abstract language, explain double meanings, idioms etc.)
• Social stories can provide a helpful way to support children and young people’s cultural interpretation and social understanding.
• Use visuals and symbols to support social understanding e.g., pictures to sequence a story
• Give information in bite sized chunks – ideally one instruction at a time
• Model and demonstrate social communication
• Support an understanding that some social rules may be broken by others and are not clearly defined as right and wrong
• Recognise some children and young people can listen without giving eye contact. Do not demand or force eye contact but consider ways to check understanding e.g., tasks, questioning, side by side interaction
• Recognise behaviour as a method of communication and that this can manifest in a number of ways such as distress, defiance, avoidance, opting out, unable to talk in the moment, unable to move in the moment
• Provide young people with non-speaking ways to express that they need help
• Take time to listen and model good listening behaviours
• Recognise and accept directness of language as a difference rather than a deficit

Supportive strategies:

• Chunk instructions, making clear at each stage what is expected
• Provide opportunities to discuss the child/young person’s concept of friendships, how different friendships can look, how children and young people can have a number a friends and friendship boundaries
• Be explicit when teaching children and young people about safe behaviours including stranger danger, sex and relationships, drugs and alcohol, internet safety
• Give children and young people the tools to organise and plan effectively, e.g., visual timetables, planners, checklists, choice board, first and then board • Inform child/young person of changes in advance and the reasons for those changes
• Support with transition e.g., first and next board, visits, pictures of environments, check in with trusted adult. This could include between activities, environments, home and school, year groups and age phase transitions
• Provide clear guidance on when activities will start and end 
• Careful consideration of the use of timers, recognising some young people will find the use of timers increase anxiety
• Helping the child/young person identify and carry out the stages of a task through check lists and visual resources.
• Learning spaces should be clearly organised and labelled
• Consider the use of an individual workstation or workspace
• Provide visual supports for activities involving an element of choice e.g. unstructured time activities
• Use child/young person’s name when speaking to them / directing tasks to them
• Use special interests to engage in learning

Supportive strategies:

• Twitching, fidgeting and agitation can be signs a child/young person is beginning to experience sensory overload – reduce sensory input e.g. stop talking, give them a calm quiet space in the classroom, remain at a distance, don’t touch them, reduce artificial light
• Identify sensory issues through talking to staff/child/young person/parents and carers.
• Reduce sensory demands based on identified sensory needs
• Provide a break space / calm safe space / low sensory stimulus in or out of the classroom
• Provide a regulating set of activities the child/young person can access for example, fidget/sensory resources, fabrics, special interest activity
• Provide movement / sensory breaks e.g. a classroom job
• De-personalise a lack of eye contact. Do not assume a child/young person is not listening.
• Consider having an individual workstation that the child/young person may use when needed
• Recognise and act on a child/young person’s expression of sensory likes/dislikes, accepting them as a part of their needs
• Accept and support self-regulatory behaviours such as stimming/fidgeting
• Consider sensory needs when creating seating plans
• Purposefully and organised structured learning spaces
• Adapt start and finish times throughout the day to allow movement around the building at quieter times

• Autism Education Trust
• Autism Directory Padlet Newcastle EPS
• Learning About Neurodiversity at School (LEANS)
• National Autistic Society