Dealing with the everyday realities facing teens with Asperger Syndrome, this book presents a toolkit of tried-and-trusted ideas to help them work through difficulties and find the solutions that work best for them. This book covers everything they need to know to thrive in their adolescent years, including how to hack your own internal alarm system to overcome anxiety and other difficult emotions. It also arms teenagers with everything they need to navigate sexuality and relationships, develop a healthy self-image, deal with bullies, be smart with money and stay savvy online… In short, no issue is left unexplored. Fun and informative, this is a must-read for teens with high-functioning autism, and for those who want to understand what adolescence is like on the spectrum.
It is increasingly challenging for teachers to educate without a deeper understanding of the experience of their students. This is particularly the case in marginalised groups of young people who are subject to loss, grief, trauma and shame. Through a snapshot of the diverse student populous, this book explores the impact of these experiences on a student's learning and success. Topics covered include poverty, obesity, incarceration, immigration, death, sexual exploitation, LGBT issues, psychodrama, the expressive arts, resilience, and military students. The authors share the children's perspective, and through case studies they offer solutions and viable objectives.
Observing and understanding schematic behaviour confidently is vital for anyone working with or looking after young children. This guide explains what schemas are, stripping back the technical language often used to describe them, and how to interpret and extend schematic behaviour to benefit the child. It looks specifically at 12 different schemas, such as connection, rotation and transportation, and includes case studies, interpretation of the observations and practical ideas for how to use this information to aid children's learning, development and play. Making schemas and schematic behaviour more understandable, this book will give early years practitioners and parents the confidence to identify schemas and plan future learning opportunities to support children based on this knowledge.
To help clients with autism think differently about their future, practitioners need to think differently about autism… Solution-focused practice is founded on a firm belief that the full potential of every human being can be realized. This concise, pragmatic guide explains how the practice can be effectively adapted to help clients on the autism spectrum find solutions to their problems, by addressing autism not as a disability but as a different way of thinking. The first section is a helpful introduction to how solution-focused practitioners can gain an understanding of autism by viewing it from a 'different culture' perspective; the second part offers handy rules and tips for applying knowledge respectfully and creating successful conversations with clients. People with autism often feel let down by social support services. This forward-thinking book is a vital resource for helping clients feel welcome and empowered in helping settings and beyond.
Meet Jan. Jan is sometimes lonely. In this illustrated guide, he describes what loneliness feels like and how it affects him at home and school. He explains what he can do to feel less lonely, and how his teachers, family and friends can help him too. Child loneliness is an area of growing concern. This book is an ideal way to start a conversation about loneliness with anyone aged 7-18 and to help children understand the importance of healthy solitude, as well as socialising. It also includes a useful list of recommended reading, organisations and websites for further information and support.
Children with SEND (special educational needs and disabilities), especially those in special schools, often experience grief at a much younger age than others, as some of their peers are more likely to have life-limiting medical conditions. Yet many adults do not know the best way to support a grieving child with SEND. This book provides all the resources that educational professionals need to ensure their community is fully prepared to acknowledge and support pupil bereavement and loss. Issues covered include bereavement and loss policies and procedures, an appropriate curriculum (including the issues of life, death and loss), how to inform the school community of the death, how to support pupils and staff with the loss, common signs of grieving and how grief affects children at different ages and developmental stages, plus activities and resources to support pupils with their grief. There is also an extensive appendix with template documents for schools to use such as draft letters, policies, procedures, curriculum and lesson ideas.
Teaching children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) to develop the 'inner voice' needed to solve problems, this book's innovative approach will help children reach logical and appropriate solutions to everyday problems. This book shows students and professionals how to formally teach key skills for reasoning and problem-solving that aren't usually explicitly taught, such as planning, pausing and reflecting and increasing emotional regulation. Focusing on the 'inner voice' – the dialogue that goes on inside our heads during every day routines – the authors explain how to help children with ASD solve problems independently. The book also shows how children can learn to cope with feelings of stress when confronted with difficult situations, whether getting stuck on homework, making mistakes, choosing options, following procedures that are perceived to be arbitrary, or everyday social situations. Examples of implementing this new approach in different situations are given to show the many ways of teaching these cognitive skills to children with autism.
With bullying affecting approximately one in five children, and an increase in bullying on social media, it remains a frighteningly common issue for children growing up today. Written in a young adult fiction style, Be Bully Free gives the recipient of bullying direct and practical advice to help empower them and take back control of their situation. The advice is grounded in real world, everyday bullying scenarios and additional information is provided to help children in a range of well-being areas such as nutrition, exercise, sleep, anxiety and more, making the book a highly valuable resource for any child 11+ who is experiencing or has experienced bullying. Sections for families and schools are also included.
As children grow up and spend more and more time away from home in schools and colleges, life often seems to get increasingly complicated. Autism makes the challenges they meet in these new environments even more difficult to navigate. Social Stories™ is a highly regarded strategy that parents and teachers can use to help young people with autism understand the new social situations they face during this time. Writing an effective Story takes a special set of skills, and in this fully illustrated book Dr Siobhan Timmins explains how to acquire and hone these techniques and put them into practice. Following on from her book on writing Social Stories™ for young children, this book on the next age group up includes 160 illustrations and clear examples based on the author's own experiences of raising a son with autism. She explains how to identify the underlying issues, and articulate the key ideas so that young learners can find connections between Stories to build a greater understanding of relationships, the adult world and their own identity. The book is an invaluable guide to creating bridges between young people and the parts of life they find most difficult.
Everything we know about the world we live in starts with information we take in through the senses. This book explains the way our sensory system works and shows how small inefficiencies in this complex system can have a huge impact on a child's behaviour. Through easily relatable examples and metaphors, the book describes the variety of sensory processing differences that can occur in children in a jargon-free way and offers practical advice to help manage these differences. It explains how children's varying sensory thresholds – the point where a behavioural response to a stimuli is generated – affects the way they view the world. Each section includes occupational therapy evaluations of children with a range of sensory thresholds, and shows how this influences their behaviour through professional observation reports, offering a summary and recommendation for each child. Presented with a clear focus, without long lists of syndromes and symptoms, this is the ideal starting point for parents and professionals working with children with sensory processing issues.