Autism Home Learning

The original purpose of this blog was to offer some 'autism friendly' ideas and strategies for parents, carers and families during a lengthy period of home-learning due to Covid19 in 2020. As we are now emerge, in 2021, from our 3rd lockdown and children are back at school, I will no longer add content to this blog. Earlier content will remain available, but please bear in mind that some links may no longer work and access to some resources may have changed and/or may no longer be free (I will endeavour to check all of these but it will take me some time). Not every post will be relevant to you, so pick and mix whichever are helpful.  Remember, learning takes many forms and not all learning takes place in school. Most important are relationships and making learning enjoyable. Join your son or daughter in their interests, through learning, leisure and play, and enjoy their uniqueness.  Very best wishes, Marie Howley

Home Learning has both advantages and challenges - for children and young people and for you! This post focuses on ways to promote wellbeing as part of home learning and as an important part of family life. What is wellbeing? We all strive for a sense of wellbeing, to be healthy, happy and to have a sense of purpose. There are many factors that contribute to our sense of wellbeing including: physical wellbeing - health, physical activity intellectual wellbeing - knowledge & skills to feel successful social wellbeing - our sense of belonging or being connected, communication with others, relationships emotional or psychological wellbeing - how we feel and our ability to cope with everyday life. Each of these is relevant to everyone. However, wellbeing is subjective, what makes one person feel good or well does not make another person feel the same way. Moreover, our sense of wellbeing is influenced by external factors, life events, the things that happen to us and inte...

There are many resources available which you might be able to use/adapt for your child during home learning. Here is a selection, I will keep adding others as I find them! NEWLY ADDED : BBC Bitesize Parents' toolkit SEND  Parents' toolkit: SEND BBC Bitesize are delivering daily lessons for primary and secondary age groups: BBC Bitesize lessons see the daily schedule of lessons here:   Daily lesson schedule Widgit symbols 21 day free trial:  Symbol to support writing Resources with visual supports Lots of resources here:  National Autistic Society - resources This resource includes a few stories about Corona-virus, with pictures. Scroll down and you will find some fun activities, supported with pictures - a lovely resource: Stories and activities with pictures   Autism West Midlands - visual resources Autism Centre for Research - Covid 19 resources list SEND Essentials resources Loads of resources & great ideas :) DfE - online educati...

An important addition to your home-learning structure is adding choices or free time. If your child is able to choose an activity and spend some time occupying themselves with that chosen activity, this may give you time to get on with a chore or, dare I say, put your feet up with a coffee! Choose time can be incorporated on your child's schedule . You may need to use different visual information from that used on your child's schedule to ensure they do not confuse scheduled activities with choose. For example, a child who has a written schedule might have symbols or pictures on a choice board, this gives clarity between activities you have to complete and activities you can choose. 'Choose' can be depicted in different ways, depending upon your child's visual understanding. This example shows how you might use images cut out of toy packaging to clearly show what choices are available for a young child: In this example, 'choose' is a hand-drawn...