Identification – what you may see in the child or young person
- Finds it hard to accept other people’s ideas, or to understand the perspectives of others.
- Has difficulty with transitions: they may become anxious when plans change and/or have difficulty switching from one task to another.
- Finds it hard to transfer learning to new contexts.
Planned provision in school
Based on need, some of this provision will be effective.
- Use social stories and comic strip conversations to teach social knowledge, with a focus on perspective taking. Begin by using these to capture situations or interactions that have gone well, before using them to unpick situations that a child or young person has found difficult.
- Read and discuss stories that involve multiple perspectives (younger pupils)
- Read books with multiple narrators (older pupils).
- Provide a developmentally appropriate personal visual schedule and support the child or young person to use this. Ensure that items are removed or crossed off the schedule when they are finished.
- Explicitly use a now and next board.
- Teach and practise managing change, starting with a small change that the child or young person is likely to be pleased about, and building up to less welcome changes. Visually support this process using a ‘change’ or ‘oops‘ icon on the child or young person’s timetable.
- Ensure that skills are practised in a range of contexts to support generalisation and talk explicitly about transferring what has been learnt to a new context. Consistent visuals and resources can support this process.
- Provide clear roles and expectations during group tasks.
- Provide regular opportunities for the child or young person to spend time with peers with a similar interest, where there are opportunities for talk and collaboration, but low demands (for example, ‘Brick Club’, drawing club, board games club). This podcast provides a useful overview.
- Provide support for transitions during the day. Timers can support some children and young people to recognise that a task is about to end. Introduce timers as a way of showing that a non-preferred task is about to end, before expecting a child or young person to use them to transition away from a favourite activity.
- Use of an early exit pass for older children and young people who need additional time to successfully transition between lessons.
- Provide enhanced transition from one year to another, and between settings.
Additional provision is set out in the communication and interaction section of this framework.