This fully photocopiable resource offers a flexible framework for the assessment and measurement of the communication skills of children with autistic spectrum disorders (ASDs). Packed with practical assessment and planning sheets, it enables teachers, educators and other professionals to observe and record how children use and understand language, and to follow their progress over time. The completed assessment record is an accessible summary of a child's individual communication style, identifying strengths and weaknesses and the ways in which he or she is best assisted and motivated to communicate. It focuses on how children express themselves in everyday situations - for example, how they make requests or gain attention, the words they use most frequently, and how their communication is affected by different people and places. Most importantly, it provides a diagnosis of where communication skills can be developed and improved. Using the communication curriculum, educators can set appropriate targets, linked to work in other areas, such as literacy and science. A separate thinking skills curriculum aims to develop the skills and confidence necessary for social interaction, from making simple choices to understanding humour and abstract ideas. Originally devised for use with children with ASDs, this toolkit is equally effective in identifying communication problems in other children, and is an invaluable resource for teachers and speech and language therapists.

This photocopiable resource offers a framework for the assessment and measurement of the communication skills of children with autistic spectrum disorders. With assessment and planning sheets, it enables teachers, educators and other professionals to observe and record how children use and understand language, following their progress over time.

The North Carolina State Legislature's mandate to Division TEACCH has three major components. First, to provide the most up-to-date and cost effective services possible for families with autistic or similar language impaired children; second, to conduct research aimed toward the better under standing of such devastating disorders; and third, to provide training for the professionals needed to pursue these goals. One element in achieving these aims is to hold annual conferences on topics of special importance to the under standing and treatment of autism and similar disorders. In addition to training professionals and parents on the most recent de velopments in each conference topic, we are publishing a series, Current Issues in Autism, based on these conferences. These books are not, however, simply the published proceedings of the conference papers. Instead, some chapters are expanded conference presentations, whereas others come from national and in ternational experts whose work is beyond the scope of the conference, but es sential in our attempt at comprehensive coverage of the conference theme. These volumes are intended to provide the most current knowledge and profes sional practice available to us at the time.

The title is an effective, manualized parent education programme' - Educational Book Review This ground-breaking training programme has been developed in response to a real need for evidence-based early interventions for very young autistic children. Authoritative and extensively tried and tested, it will help both parents and carers to understand the disorder and how it affects child development. Ultimately, the programme is designed to reduce the severity of emotional/behavioural difficulties by managing a child's particular problems and encouraging effective collaboration between professionals and parents. The programme is delivered through two accessible manuals - one for parents and one for clinicians - which provide all the information and materials you need. The Manual for Clinicians explains the purpose and content of each session and includes notes for discussion and teaching, a checklist of `things to do', and photocopiable task sheets for distribution and discussion. The Manual for Parents features tasks, exercises and discussion points for group sessions, and complements these training materials with engaging personal accounts, an introduction to the history of autism, information about approaches to treatment, and a list of useful websites and further reading. Structured as a series of individual and small group sessions, the programme is designed to run for 20 weeks and covers key areas such as understanding and managing difficult behaviour; changing/encouraging new behaviours; communication problems in verbal and non-verbal children; social problems; and how to work and play together. Together, these manuals will provide you with all the information, support and resources you need to run this programme successfully.

The title is an effective, manualized parent education programme' - Educational Book Review This ground-breaking training programme has been developed in response to a real need for evidence-based early interventions for very young autistic children. Authoritative and extensively tried and tested, it will help both parents and carers to understand the disorder and how it affects child development. Ultimately, the programme is designed to reduce the severity of emotional/behavioural difficulties by managing a child's particular problems and encouraging effective collaboration between professionals and parents. The programme is delivered through two accessible manuals - one for parents and one for clinicians - which provide all the information and materials you need. The Manual for Clinicians explains the purpose and content of each session and includes notes for discussion and teaching, a checklist of 'things to do', and photocopiable task sheets for distribution and discussion. The Manual for Parents features tasks, exercises and discussion points for group sessions, and complements these training materials with engaging personal accounts, an introduction to the history of autism, information about approaches to treatment, and a list of useful websites and further reading. Structured as a series of individual and small group sessions, the programme is designed to run for 20 weeks and covers key areas such as understanding and managing difficult behaviour; changing/encouraging new behaviours; communication problems in verbal and non-verbal children; social problems; and how to work and play together. Together, these manuals will provide you with all the information, support and resources you need to run this programme successfully.

Written to meet the needs of teaching assistants and learning support assistants, this book provides a practical toolkit for supporting students on the autistic spectrum in mainstream secondary schools. The book offers a clear, jargon free explanation of autism spectrum conditions and examines the difficulties arising from these conditions and how they can impact on students’ learning. Addressing issues which arise on a daily basis, it is full of practical advice and strategies for supporting students socially and academically across all areas of the curriculum. Features include: templates to scaffold students’ comprehension and learning in different subject areas forms to help with information collection and evaluation advice on supporting students through examinations examples and case studies to illustrate how the strategies described work in practice Packed with photocopiable resources that can be adapted to suit individual students’ needs, this book is essential reading for teaching assistants that want to help their students’ on the autistic spectrum to reach their full potential.

Young people with communication difficulties often struggle in social situations, as without adequate inference, narrative and sequencing skills, correctly interpreting and responding to other people can be a real challenge. This fully photocopiable resource has been designed to improve these skills in the way this population can often learn best – visually. This book is brimming with thought-provoking illustrations of different people in different places, all of which are accompanied by a series of questions designed to encourage prediction and inference skills. Participants are asked to consider everything from who the person in the picture is, what they might be doing, and where they might be going, to how they may be feeling and why. Questions can either be completed individually or brainstormed as a group, and there are three types of illustration to work with – single person, picture sequence, or large scenes containing several interactions. The final section teaches important sequencing skills by providing muddled picture narratives that need to be ordered. This book will be a valuable tool for speech and language therapists/pathologists, occupational therapists, special educators, parents and anybody else looking to help young people with communication difficulties to understand and connect with the world around them.