Due to Charlie’s autism he was previously unable to transition from one activity to another. He would head bang on the floor for long periods in his frustration and cause disruption to those around him. Now with his ABA supporter, he has visual cards to help him make sense of when the next transition is coming up and he can now move independently and smoothly from one activity to another along with his peers.
It was wonderful to see Charlie counting in unison with other children on the mat whilst his ABA tutor prompted him to look at the teacher and he has mastered waiting in line with other children in order to access the big slide – something that he was previously unable to do. Another crucial role for his tutor is to always be able to facilitate social opportunities for Charlie as and when these occur in the pre-school environment, e.g. passing pieces of jigsaw to each other. Previously, Charlie was unable to tolerate playing alongside other children on the same activity.
Charlie has a limited vocabulary and so relies upon PECS (picture exchange communication system) whereby he locates a picture of what he wants to communicate and hands it to his tutor in order to access it. During snack break, Charlie worked one to one with his tutor using PECS in order to access the snacks that he desired.
What was very clear was how beneficial all pre-school staff felt about Charlie’s ABA tutor and the support that she was providing as this had evidently made a huge difference to his behaviour and in turn allowed him to access a curriculum which could meet his needs.
At The Playhouse Foundation, we are so grateful to the pre-school staff for their collaborative approach with our consultants and tutors and look forward to supporting more children as they transition their home programmes into pre-school.
