This event is for ACC Education and ELC employees only. Please register using your work email to guarantee your space.
9.00am – 11.30am
Roz Cooper and Wendy Milne have between them over 40 years of working with children and young people who experience difficulties in everyday life. Most of the children we have worked with – at VSA Linn Moor School - have had a diagnosis of autism but the difficulties that children experience in preschool and school settings, is typically driven by a difficulty in communicating and their different experience of sensory integration, which can exist in a child for many reasons. We are aware that the impact of the pandemic, the impact of trauma, and the impact of recognised and yet to be diagnosed conditions all play a part.
In our work with VSA’s ASNAP (Additional Support Needs Advisory Project) service, we aim to share knowledge, skills and strategies to inclusively support children with diverse abilities and needs to learn to cope in situations they find aversive, to help them to integrate into the learning environment.
Proactive approaches to support children to cope in potentially aversive situations
Supported by Ceara Whyte, Occupational Therapist at VSA Linn Moor School, we will discuss the different environments children will access during their day, and how these may present sensory challenges. In some instances, it may be possible to adapt aspects of the environment to support the child, and other proactive approaches and resources may lessen the impact of sensory issues, enabling children to regulate their nervous system and their emotions.
We will look at proactive strategies to support children who are struggling for a variety of reasons, when displaying behaviour of concern is their only means of communicating stress and/or confusion. Discussion will consider the communicative function of behaviour, and how to use structured activities and visual communication strategies to promote understanding, looking also at potential causes of concerning behavioural responses and the use of calming and distraction strategies.
