The project aims to investigate the approaches and strategies used with children who have both visual impairment (VI) and autism with a view to producing a resource pack. This will provide guidance for practitioners supporting children and young people who have both VI and an autism spectrum disorder.
Survey of approaches and strategies
We have now completed our survey of approaches and strategies used with children who have visual impairment and autism. We visited sixteen schools and observed over 20 children. We met key practitioners and discussed how they were meeting the needs of the children we observed.
We visited children in a variety of settings, including:
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specialist schools for children who have visual impairment (which are mostly non-maintained and residential)
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a specialist school for children who have autism
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local authority day special schools
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local authority mainstream schools
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a local college of further education.
The involvement of the settings and practitioners was crucial to our work. Without them, the project would not have been possible. We have not named any of the settings involved to ensure confidentiality. To do so may have resulted in a child being identified.
We would like to thank participating settings and staff for their vital contribution to the work of the project.
What kind of information did we obtain?
We identified numerous approaches and strategies during our observations of children, and discussions with practitioners.
In some cases, it was possible to obtain a feel for the way these approaches and strategies were helping to promote the educational development of a particular child.
We also identified some approaches and strategies which had been tried but discarded. This aspect of the work is also important, as it tells us what isn't working as well as what is.
How will we use the information we have obtained?
We are currently collating and analysing the data. As there is a great deal of data, this is a major undertaking. We are trying to approach the task with open minds and avoid being influenced by pre-conceived ideas.
The key objective of the project is to support practitioners working with children who have both visual impairment and autism by providing them with guidance concerning the selection of approaches and strategies. We therefore need to examine the data to determine which of the approaches and strategies should be described in our resource pack.
Approaches and strategies used at home
Our focus is on the approaches and strategies employed in schools to promote the development of children who have both visual impairment and autism. However, we recognise that parents and other family members play an essential part in promoting the development of these children. We do not wish to overlook this contribution, and hope it will be possible for this area to be the focus of a further project at some point in the future.
Please note that we are not able to provide advice about meeting the needs of individual children, as we do not have the resources to do so.