School Consultancy

About our School Consultancy Services

We provide services for schools and teachers of children with autism. In our work with schools, as with our work with families:

• We use positive, evidence-based practice
• All our services can be delivered for an individual or a group of children
• All our staff are insured and have enhanced DBS checks

We offer the following consultancy services to schools:

• Assessment and ongoing consultation
• Helping a child to communicate effectively
• Behaviour Support
• Increasing social skills
• Increasing daily living skills (e.g changing for PE, food issues)
• Creating Autism Specific Units
• Writing IEP targets
• Support in differentiating the curriculum

We also provide training courses for schools.

Please note that parental consent is required for all consultancy options.

• Cost: The cost of each consultation option depends on the detailed selection. However, we will work with you to agree on the cost beforehand.
• Location: Consultancy is usually delivered at the school location

Services for schools and teachers of autistic children

Assessment and ongoing consultation

Our case managers provide hands-on practical training for teachers and support staff working with children with a variety of needs. Our tailor-made services range from helping staff with individual children through to managing whole classes. These services are ideal for staff training to help children with:

• Managing behaviour
• Communication difficulties
• Social skill difficulties
• Accessing the curriculum
• Independence skills

Helping a child to communicate effectively

Good communication is essential for a child’s quality of life and often reduces other behaviours that may cause harm or distress.  A pupil can be taught to communicate effectively using whichever system is most appropriate for them and the school.

Our case managers are trained to facilitate confident and appropriate communication skills across all levels, from picture exchange-based communication systems and sign language through to helping a child have conversations or speak confidently through ’show and tell’.

We have worked in conjunction with Warwick University to research the effectiveness of our communication programmes.

Behaviour Support

We view behaviours not so much as being part of a child but as part of a context. Our case managers will analyse why the behaviour occurs more in one context than another.

Most behaviours are a form of communication, so once we have established what the child is trying to communicate, we will show you how to teach them an alternative way of getting their needs met. Other behaviours have a sensory function (i.e., the child enjoys it or finds it self-soothing). If it is in the child’s best interests to reduce the behaviour, we will help you find an alternative (sensory equivalent) behaviour to replace it with.                             

Increasing social skills

We can offer a structured programme to help pupils(s) increase their social skills. Following an assessment, a case manager will design a systematic approach, which could involve teaching toy play, parallel play, sharing, conversation skills, theory of mind, group play, or emotional regulation skills, depending on your child’s needs.

Increasing daily living skills (e.g changing for PE, food issues)

It can be challenging for both the pupil and teacher when a child struggles to get changed for PE or is having difficulties eating lunch appropriately. Our team has lots of experience with these issues and can help devise a programme to make it easier for the pupil to manage these skills more fluently and independently.

Creating Autism Specific Units

Offering support for over 15 years now, Child Autism UK has successfully delivered a range of consultation and training services specifically tailored for schools and teachers, including setting up ABA units and supporting start-up ABA schools. We can assist with a range of needs, from staff ratios and materials to ongoing consultation.

Writing IEP targets

We recognise that it can be difficult to select appropriate IEP targets for children with autism. Using various assessment tools, we can help identify a student’s strengths and weaknesses across various critical skills. These will usually cover areas of development such as social, communication, and independence targets.

We can then work with teaching staff to devise targets that are appropriate for overall development and within the child’s capabilities.

We offer this assessment either as a one-off service or as a combined baseline and follow-up assessment to measure progress.

Support in differentiating the curriculum 

We can work with teachers and assistants alongside the child to illustrate the best ways to differentiate the curriculum for a specific pupil(s) in real time. We have found that using many real examples is often the best way to teach this skill to staff.

Our main aim is always to promote independence for the child, and we encourage methods that reduce reliance on their assistant.