My name is Francesca Biscotti and I am an activity co-ordinator at The Lloyd Park Children’s Charity. I love working with children who have special needs, ensuring they are understood and we are meeting their needs. Supporting families on their journey and seeing children flourish is really rewarding. I am currently studying for a degree in Early Years Foundation while specialising in Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).
The term ASD is used to highlight a delay in three areas of development: social communication, communication and language and physical development.
Recently, many professionals have been focusing their attention not only on the so called ‘triad of impairments’, but also on the sensory processing abilities. Research shows that the majority of children with ASD also have sensory processing disorders (SPD), especially with hearing, touch and vision. When diagnosing a child with Autism, professionals are also focusing on restricted and repetitive patterns and behaviour, interests or activities.
To diagnose a child, you can ask your GP to refer your child to the Social and Communication Clinic (SACC) at Wood Street Health Centre or you can ask your Speech and Language Therapist.
Waiting for a diagnosis might take between 10 and 12 months. While your child is waiting to be diagnosed, you might benefit from attending groups at Wood Street Health Centre or in the local community.
Somewhere to Belong is a group run by our charity in partnership with Whitefield School. It’s an early intervention offer tailored around the child and their family needs. Within Somewhere to Belong we provide support from different specialists such as speech and language therapists, assessments by a Whitefield School practitioner, support from SENDIASS (Special Educational Needs and Disabilities Information Advice and Support Service) alongside the support of the practitioners within the sessions.
Autism is a lifelong condition. The spectrum is vast and each child displays different behaviours and/or delays. It is worth remembering that people on the spectrum interpret the world in a different way, but this doesn’t mean that they cannot learn how to cooperate with our way of perceiving it.
Children with autism are really clever; Einstein said:
“Everybody is a genius. But, if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing that it is stupid”.
Somewhere to Belong is an invitation only group. For more information, please contact speak to a member of our staff 020 7527 1737 or info@tlpcc.org.uk
댓글