Care and support

Working with Parents

It is recognised that parents have vital information about their own children, which they need to share. In order to develop consistent communication, Base staff endeavour to develop good home/school links. Parents may also find it beneficial to be provided with symbol timetables to help their children understand what will happen each day. These sorts of timetables may also be used to facilitate the pupils’ understanding of activities outside school or in the school holidays.

Effective home/school liaison is an integral part of the provision for children with autistic spectrum disorder. It may involve:

• parents participating in their child’s individual programme - with direct involvement through written home programmes.
• parents and staff working together to develop programmes to enable consistency between approaches at home and school.
• regular informal two way communications - through home/school books, phone calls, surgeries, videos, - enabling parents to keep school aware of any changes at home and vice-versa.
• support groups and workshops for parents to meet with other parents of children with autism. This can lead to the parents being able to give much valuable advice to each other.
• annual review meetings to discuss the report, and to review and set new targets for the coming year.
• schools developing resources for parents to borrow such as books, videos and leaflets.
• home visits.