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October Events with TomTag

2013-10-13 17.04.01October events

Meet the Orkid Ideas team and see all our TomTag products first-hand.

It’s going to be another busy month!

Here are some of the events we’ll be attending. If you know of any other suitable events near you, please let us know.

 

CAMBRIDGE

Thu 2nd Oct

Autism Network Event & Parent Roadshow

The Chitra Sethia Autism Centre, Cambridge

See Parent Roadshow Flyer.doc for more information

STOCKPORT

Thu 9th Oct

Parents in Partnership Stockport Information Day

Edgeley Park, Stockport

CLICK HERE to register for your free ticket and HERE for more info from PIPS

CHESTER

Fri 10th Oct

Dyspraxia/Developmental Coordination Difficulties awareness day

Chester Racecourse

A5 Portrait

BIRMINGHAM

Tue 14th Oct

Autism Central 2014 – an event to showcase support and services that are available to those on the Autistic spectrum, their families and professionals who support them. FREE to attend and also features a number of seminars throughout the day.

Aston Villa Football Club, Birmingham

MORE INFO HERE events124a

This event is running alongside an NAS Conference – understanding and supporting challenging behaviour in people with autism

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Choosing the right school for your child with autism

How do you choose the right school for your child? Not only do you want to find the school that will give them the best possible education but somewhere that they will be happy, make friends and discover new interests.

This is a difficult and challenging process for most parents but if your child has autism, making the right decision becomes even more important.

Do your research

Get as much advice as you can

Talk to family, friends, other parents and professionals who have knowledge of provision in your authority
e.g. Educational Psychologist, Parent Partnership or Parent Support group

Look at the school website and brochure

This should give you a general view of school policies & structure.
Under the new SEN Code all schools must now have details on their websites about their policy for children with SEN too.

Arrange a private visit to the school

Open days are useful but to get a real feel of a school arrange a private visit during school hours and preferably over a break or lunch time.
This gives you the chance to observe how pupils behave and interact with staff and their peers. You can also get a feel for the more practical issues – how busy are the corridors, how noisy is the school canteen, etc.

Important questions to ask when visiting schools

As well as general questions on issues such as uniform, opening hours and holiday dates, you will undoubtedly want to ask questions on autism specific issues.

Here are some ideas for important questions you might want to know the answers to.

    Staff knowledge and training

What experience and knowledge do the staff have of autism? Have they had any specific training?

Are all staff aware of the associated difficulties of being autistic e.g. sensory issues, dietary needs?

Do teachers use autism-friendly communication strategies e.g. visual cues, key words, clear and unambiguous classroom language?

 

Individualised plans

Would the school be able to offer a tailored curriculum to take into account your child’s needs?

What resources does the school have to accommodate your child’s special interests?

Is one-to-one support available – how much and how often?

Is homework differentiated where appropriate and clarified for a child with autism?

Are there opportunities to learn life skills such as cooking and self care skills?

Pastoral care

How is bullying dealt with and what steps have the school taken to understand the particular vulnerability of children with autism?

What is the system for home-school communication? In my experience, good communication between staff and parents is the key to a successful school placement!

Is there a designated quiet area or room available that children can go to when necessary?

Are there any break time or lunch clubs where your child could go for support or that would match their interests?

Does the school have any system of peer support in place e.g. circle of friends or buddy schemes?

Useful links

The Autism Education Trust have just published a really useful guide that will help you in your search to find a new school, whether it be primary, secondary, mainstream or special school. There’s even plenty of room to make notes so why not print off a few copies to take with you on your school visits.

A parents and carers’ guide to finding a school for your child with autism

 

 

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Fine motor skills

Fumbling in my purse for loose change today, I’m reminded how important fine motor skills are for daily life.

What are ‘fine motor skills’?

Fine motor skills are the small muscle movements in the body. They enable activities such as writing, grasping small objects and fastening clothes. Children who have a weakness in fine motor skills struggle to develop strong muscles in their fingers, hands and wrists. They may also have poor eye-hand coordination.

Why are fine motor skills important?

Problems with fine motor skills can have a detrimental effect on education and impact on life in general. For example, the ability to hold a fork and eat, write legibly and complete personal self care tasks such as washing and dressing all depend on the coordination of small actions.

My own son still struggles with pen & paper tasks, his ability to tie shoe laces remains a work in progress, not to mention the hours of frustration spent battling with fiddly zips!

What can I do if my child needs help?

There are lots of inexpensive resources and ideas to help strengthen fine motor skills.

Drawing, colouring and craft activities can all help build these skills in a fun, informal way.

We’re lucky to have Star Tree Studio nearby who host a range of craft and creative classes (as well as art & craft birthday parties) where kids can ‘play-create-learn’ without messing up the house! Check out your local free papers and family magazines to find something similar in your area.

The imagination tree has a great blog post ’40 fine motor skills activities’

OT Mom Learning Activities has some useful suggestions for fine motor activities for older kids

Make it fun

Kids learn best when they don’t realise they’re learning! For example, we always recommend that children are involved with putting together their own TomTag ready to use. As well as helping them to understand their own routine it is a very tactile and fun activity that can help strengthen fine motor skills. Peeling off and sticking stickers onto buttons requires hand-eye coordination and pincher grip – both important for writing. Hand and finger muscles come into play too when clicking buttons into tags and removing them.

Zip it up!

Getting hold of a zipper to fasten up a jacket, bag or pencil case can be incredibly difficult for children with fine motor difficulties. We’ve now got funky zip pulls to help with those fiddly zips!

We’re giving them away free right now to anyone who recommends TomTag to a friend who then places an order.

We’d also recommend Zipz by MERU – colourful, ergonomically designed zip pulls which are also great for glove wearers: skiers, bikers, winter & outdoor activities lovers.