TEACCH & PECS model
Unique Curriculum
Our unique treatment and teaching curriculum is aimed at developing skills that are not typically and formally taught at schools. We follow the TEACCH & PECS model that is a continuously revised and improved evidence-based practice. This model encourages the use of more natural and balanced social transitioning in which learning opportunities are initiated by the child. Our goal is to equip children with all the essential foundation skills necessary for ongoing development and progress.
- Increase communication skills
- Increase self-help skills (such as toilet training or eating)
- Increase social skills and play skills
- Decrease behaviour that is affecting their quality of life
- Increase specific learning and language skills
- Transition successfully to nursery or school
OUR TEAM
Here to help your
child
YEARS OF EXPERIENCE
Autism Spectrum
Here at Autism Ability Centre, we understand that, just as no child with autism is the same, no family circumstances are the same either – whether that be practical constraints, financial circumstances or simply where you are with your child’s journey.
With more than 12 years’ experience of working with children with autism and their families, and in supporting children, we are in a unique position to be able to ensure that we can meet your family’s needs.
One of the benefits of our approach is that we take each child as an individual and work on their strengths to help them maximise their potential. In the same way Autism Ability Centre is highly skilled at taking each family as individual, and we work with your family’s strengths in tailoring an intervention program that will take on board all factors to provide effective outcomes.
Our service
Which route is best for my
child & family?
All of these needs can be accommodated through the two routes of intervention – and for families that choose a short term program but then want to swap to a long term program is also doable.
All the families that come to us are at different stages of their journey.
- You may have already been running a full programme and are looking to change provider
- You may be new to the world of autism but have done extensive research and are 100% sure and ready to start a long term programme straight away
- You might have heard about us and our approaches that it is a good way to go but would like to try it out first.
- You might just want to address one or two core skills over a short term period.
- We place the child & their families at the centre of everything we do
- We work along with families to ensure they are happy with the services and they get what they are expecting from us as far as possible
We offer
Routes to effective autism
intervention
More than 6 months
Early On Program – “Getting Ready to Learn”
Long term intervention
up to 3 months
Autism Parent Training Program (APTP)
Short term intervention
Early On Program – “Getting Ready to Learn”
Age – 18 Months to 4 Years Old
We will achieve all of the following (as applicable according to age)
What help will my child get?
- Increasing communication skills
- Increase sitting tolerance
- Increase in following commands
- Increasing independence and self-help skills (such as toilet training and eating)
- Increasing social and play skills
- Support with behaviour difficulties
- Developing language skills
- Increasing cognitive skills (imitation, matching, pointing, identification and more)
- Sports training (cycling, skating, physical exercises )
How will this look in practice?
- Long term programmes can be based at home or centre, or a mix of the two, depending on the child’s age and needs.
- The child will receive 30 hours & more of 1:1 teaching from a team of trained professionals.
- Increase in following commands
- Increasing independence and self-help skills (such as toilet training and eating)
- There will be a 2 days initial workshop, where your child will be assessed. Priority targets will be chosen (building to typically between 10-15 targets at the child’s pace)
- You, as a parent will be trained in the skills needed to help your child with the targets chosen.
- Written feedback will be provided each week.
- We will also provide ongoing training.
Autism Parent Training Program
We will achieve one of the following:
- Increasing communication skills
- Increasing self-help skills (such as toilet training or eating) Increasing social skills and play skills
- Decreasing fear or anxiety towards a specific situation or event (such as going to the swimming pool or climbing up or riding a scooter board or babies crying)
- Increasing specific learning skills (parent targeted skill – 2)
How will this look in practice?
- Autism Parent Training program is an in-house training program where mother /father & child comes and stays and takes the training, depending on the child’s age and needs.
- The child will receive 1:1 teaching from a team of trained professionals from morning 10:00 am to evening 4:00 pm (Monday to Friday)
- There will be a 2 days initial workshop, where your child will be assessed.
- Priority targets will be chosen (building to typically between 5 to 10 targets at the child’s pace)
- You, as a parent will be trained in the skills needed to help your child with the targets chosen.
- We will also provide ongoing training.
- Written feedback will be provided each week.
parents and professionals
Training Courses
We have a range of courses for parents and professionals that are run at the centre.
Our staff
Our staff are our biggest asset here at Autism Ability Centre. Whichever route of intervention you choose, you will be led and supported every step of the way by one of our team of qualified and experienced staff members.
Centre Outcome
Something we are very proud of, is in our quest to help you demonstrate that at Autism Ability Centre your child gets effective treatment, while still in its early days, our initial results have been positive for Communication and for overall outcomes.
tailored
AAC Modules
These services address specific aspects of behaviour associated with the autistic spectrum. They are structured programmes offering support and intervention tailored to the individual needs of the child.
How to teach your child to talk/communicate
Good communication is essential for the child’s quality of life and often reduces other behaviour difficulties. Your child may be taught to speak or may at first need additional support such as PECS (picture exchange communication system) or gestures. Our team will assess which communication system is best for you and your child and show you how to capture your child’s motivation.
How to teach your child to make friends, play and other social skills
One of the key areas of concern for parents is will my child be able to make and maintain friendships. We can offer a structured programme to help your child how to develop crucial play skills. One of our team member will assess your child to find starting points. We then take a systematic approach which could involve teaching – playing with toy, parallel play, sharing, conversation skills, group play or emotional regulation skills depending on the needs of your child.
We will give you the targets and skills to help your child at home & on play dates.
How to reduce your child’s behaviour difficulties
We view behaviours not so much being part of the child but part of a context. The first thing our team will do is analyse why the behaviour is occurring 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 it is self-soothing), if it is in the best interests of the child to reduce the behaviour, we will help you find an alternative (sensory equivalent) behaviour to replace it with.
We are only able to work on challenging behaviours if everyone in the child’s life is onboard. We are happy to work with extended families, grandparents, schools, etc to ensure consistency.
How to reduce your child’s anxiety
One of the major difficulties for children with autism is dealing with anxiety that often comes from feeling unsure of what’s going to happen next and a fear of not being in control. We will assess your child and give you ways that you can help him/her manage their emotions.
How to toilet train your child
Many children with autism have difficulty becoming toilet trained and many reach school age before they are successful in this area. There are many methods for toilet training and our staff will be able to assess your child and the family situation and provide you with training in the best method for you and your child.
Autism Sports
Connect Program
AAC focuses on engaging children into sport and physical activity. This not only helps to keep our children fit and well, it can also increases their self-esteem, develop social skills and improve mental health and general wellbeing.
We believe that autism creates specific challenges when it comes to sports, but it also opens up some exciting possibilities.
We have seen that by participating into sports individuals with autism generally benefits of: increased confidence, improved health, learn new skills, and generates an opportunity to make friends and socialize.
Our Autism Sports Connect Program for children and youth with autism produced moderate to large benefits in a variety of important areas. These include improving motor skills, skill-related fitness, social functioning and muscular strength and endurance. Our ASC program also benefits our children in:
Social skills
Youth who participated in physical activity programs designed specifically for our individuals with autism showed significant gains in their social and communication skills. The activities included various types of group play, running/jogging programs and cycling. These activities are designed in such a way that the program can provide a fun, safe setting for interacting with other children. In other words, they can offer excellent opportunities for practicing social skills.
Fitness
Daily fitness also helps in improving the muscular strength and endurance by participating in programs such as yoga, swimming, skating & cycling. This is particularly important as we know from previous studies that people with autism tend to have poorer muscular strength and endurance than is typical for their age. Strength and endurance are important for not only physical health, but also for taking advantage of social opportunities that involve physical activity including recreational sports and non-structured games.
Motor skills
Many kinds of physical activities – and the social opportunities are offered in our sports program –what we call “fundamental motor skills.” These basic skills include running, throwing, catching, kicking and so on. These skills help in building the eye-hand coordination as well as bilateral coordinations too.
Most importantly, perhaps, we need to understand how to promote lifetime physical activity for people who have autism.
Meanwhile, we hope that our encouraging findings will inspire fitness practitioners, physical-education teachers and parents to engage children, teens and adults with autism in a wide range of activities. The benefits appear to be tremendous.
Under the ASC program, we have
- Team sports: swimming & track/field running (marathon)
- Non team sports: Cycling & Skating
- Just-for-fun and exercise: shooting baskets, tossing the ball back and forth, football & many more fun games. The just for fun and exercise activities are basically to help build parent-child connection.