Learning to cope with change:
The single most common difficulty faced by many pupils with Autism and their families is the pupil coping with change. Many of the strategies used with pupils- especially visual schedules or timetables- are designed to help in this regard. We teach the pupil to rely on the schedule not on their memory of routine. We can help them understand by changing the schedule- we can’t get into their heads and help them deal with their memory of what happens next- but we can teach them to rely on the schedule so that we can show them what is happening and they can trust it's true. Several times a year we also suspend the usual school timetable to do different things- such as an Induction Week or an Arts Week- and these occasions are great opportunities to use each pupil’s schedule to explain the different sequences of activities to take place and thereby teach them to cope with change.
Learning to work with a variety of adults:
It is often heard that a pupil will only do something for this person or that. If allowed to persist, this could be a major disability in later life when staffing may not always be as reliable as in school. We therefore structure our whole school around this fundamental need- to learn to work with a variety of other people. Teachers move to different classes to deliver their specialist subject. This has the advantages of a specialist teacher but it is even more important that it teaches pupils flexibility in working with others.
