This programme is designed for parents and carers who have a child aged 2-5 with autism or social communication needs.

Our Early Years Autism/Social Communication sessions will be running in the spring- look out for dates in the coming months. 

The programme runs for five sessions and covers:

• What is Autism?
• Supporting communication
• Developing play and learning
• Considering behaviour and sensory differences
• Four sessions are run online, with the final one being face to face.

The sessions offer families to find out more about Autism and social communication, and also give the opportunity for you to share advice and strategies. They are delivered by the MKCC SEND Team, with input from Health colleagues

This Autism and Social Communication Needs in the Primary Age has been developed with a range of professionals to support parents and carers of children and young people aged 5 - 11, who have Autism, or who present with Social Communication Needs.

It is delivered through a number of pre-recorded video sessions, along with 4 follow-up, live Question and Answer sessions, using Microsoft Teams. There will be a range of professionals available to talk to at the follow up sessions.

The video sessions will explore different topics and strategies to help you support your child(ren) with their needs while the Q&A follow up sessions allow for further exploration of the content of the video sessions and a chance to discuss individual needs and difficulties. 

New dates for parent programmes to be released soon. Please see our SEND video resources for advice and support. 

Below you will find video resources for our parent programmes as well as links to video resources from other key services. These are for you to watch in your own time, at your own pace, as many times as is helpful and supportive for you. You can also share these with family and care providers to help them in understanding and supporting you and your family.

Please note that where captions are not already available, please go to settings and select captions. 

The SEND Service Team would like to thank you for watching the SEND videos and we hope you found these resources supportive. We would be grateful if you could complete this short survey to provide us with feedback, this will allow us to improve our service in the future. Please access the link here. 

ASC and SCD

Amazing Things Happen - a film which aims to raise awareness among young non-autistic audiences, especially aimed at teachers and parents

The National Autistic Society teamed up with Don’t Panic London to create ‘Can you make it to the end?’

‘Can you make it to the end?’ is a film that puts the viewer into the shoes of a small boy living with autism and lets them experience the world through his eyes during a visit to the shopping centre. 

The Primary Age

Last year, we held a series of talks and Q&A sessions about Autism Spectrum Condition (ASC) and Social Communication Differences (SCD) called 'The Primary Age':

• Introduction - Chris White, Specialist Teacher for the Inclusion Specialist Teaching Team, presents this short video about how ASC and SCN can present in children and young people and how every ASC/SCN 'profile' will be similar, but individual - Introduction to ASC and SCD (33:00) 
  
   
• Understanding sensory processing needs and strategies - Michelle Milne, Alison Standish and Clare Bainbridge of the Children's Occupational Therapy team present this series of videos about sensory processing needs, the videos are best viewed in sequence

1. Introduction to Paediatric Occupational Therapy (Presented by Michelle Milne, 01:24)

2. What is Occupational Therapy  (Presented by Michelle Milne, 05:43)

3. Our Senses (Presented by Alison Standish, 23:55)

4. What is Sensory Processing (Presented by Michelle Milne, 04:19)

5. The Impact of Sensory Processing Difficulties (Presented by Michelle Milne, 06:56)

6. Recognising Sensory Signals in Children (Presented by Alison Standish, 18:02)

7. Activities of Daily Living (Presented by Clare Bainbridge, 45:09)

8. Emotional Regulation (Presented by Alison Standish, 28:06)

9. Sensory Diets (Presented by Michelle Milne, 06:35)

10. Motivating Children (Presented by Alison Standish, 12:50)

11. Case Study (Presented by Michelle Milne, 07:47)

12. Using planning wheels to support your child with sensory differences (Presented by Alison Standish, 24:53)

13. Planning Wheel animation with subtitles and BSL

14. Planning Wheel animation without subtitles and BSL

Strategies to support sleeping and toileting - Vicky West, Specialist Nurse for the Community Paediatric services, presents these two videos about your child's sleeping and toileting difficulties.

1. Autistic Spectrum Condition and Sleep Difficulties in Children and Young People (23:02)

2. Autistic Spectrum Condition and Toileting Difficulties in Children (27:06)

Supporting Communication - presented by Gurpreet Panesar and Helen Hallewell who work for the NHS Speech and Language Services, working within the communications department and mainstream schools respectively. They are both also a part of the multidisciplinary team for ASD assessments - Supporting Communication (26:37)

 

Using visuals to support understanding - Sally Ahmad, Specialist Teacher for the Inclusion Specialist Teaching Team, presents these two videos about how to support understanding through the use of visuals.

1. Comic Strip Conversations (12:25)

2. Social Scripts (15:10)

Understanding and Managing Anxiety - Amy Segui, Specialist Teacher with the Inclusion Specialist Teaching Team, presents this video about how you can support your child to manage their anxiety - Supporting Your Child To Manage Their Anxiety (21:50)

 

Supporting Siblings and Encouraging Socialising - Chris White, Specialist Teacher with the Inclusion Specialist Teaching Team, presents this video about how to support the siblings of children diagnosed with ASC or with SCN, as well as how to encourage socialising, while recognising the individual personalities of our children Supporting Siblings and Encouraging Socialising (25:00)

 

Behaviours of Concern - Chris White, Specialist Teacher with the Inclusion Specialist Teaching Team, presents these videos looking at behaviours of concern, why you may see them and strategies to support.

1. Why You May See Behaviours of Concern (17:50)

2. Strategies To Support Behaviours of Concern (34:45)

Services and Support

1. SENDIAS (4:10) Rachel Clark and Sidrah Goheer present this video explaining the support available from their service.
2. Carers MK (5:35) Carers MK supports unpaid carers in Milton Keynes - this video introduces our service and the support that we can provide

Autism in teenagers is a parent and carer programme with Specialist Teachers. The programme consists of seven sessions, including two in person get together with the opportunity to ask Specialist Teachers questions and meet other parents and carers.  

Autism in teenagers parent programme poster 

My child has anxious thoughts and feelings which are leading to school avoidance. What can parents and carers do to support a return to school?’

This workshop aims to support parents and carers of school-age children and young people whose experience of anxious thoughts and feelings is leading to school avoidance. These difficulties are often referred to as Emotionally Based School Avoidance (EBSA).

Objectives of the course:

This workshop will focus on supporting parents and carers of children and young people of school-age living in Milton Keynes:

• learn more about what can contribute to a child or young person experiencing high levels of worry and anxiety about attending school and how this can lead to school avoidance
• learn about strategies which can support a return to school
• learn about current Milton Keynes Council guidance and local services for further support
• explore the importance of self-care when supporting a child or young person experiencing EBSA

More information can be found on the Educational Psychology Service page, alongside additional advice and guidance on the EBSA page. 

New dates for parent programmes to be released soon. Please see our SEND video resources for advice and support. 

The Speech and Language Therapy Team offers two highly successful programmes for parents to help their children’s communication development.

• It Takes Two to Talk, for parents of children with speech and language difficulties
• More Than Words, for parents of children with social interaction and communication difficulties

NHS England have a list of useful autism resources and training available on their website for families.

Some children experience sensory processing difficulties which impact on participation and function in everyday activities. Many children with Neurodevelopmental difficulties including ASC and ADHD experience these difficulties. If you think your child has sensory processing difficulties, please talk to any healthcare professional already working with your child. They can help you to unpick your child’s behaviours and whether they are sensory or have another cause.

The Milton Keynes Occupational Therapy Service has developed a Universal online sensory processing awareness training and signposting to resources created by other services and agencies. This aims to support parents, carers and teachers to better understand and respond to children’s sensory needs. Our approach is centred on creating a better fit between the child, the activity and the environment. Our aim is to work with Milton Keynes Council education services to support all schools in Milton Keynes at a Universal level to be ‘sensory friendly’. A referral is not required.

More information, support and parent/carer programmes can be found directly on the Milton Keynes Occupational Therapy website.

Other support available:

• training for professionals
• PEERS training materials - explaining friendships to adolescents
• Milton Keynes Play Association deliver a wide variety of development opportunities which are open to all people especially those working with children and young people.

To find out more about our parent and carer programmes, email SENDSupport@milton-keynes.gov.uk

Autism Bedfordshire/Autism Milton Keynes have a variety of parent and carer workshops available. Please find further information available on their website.

Please see

This series of five animated films provides advice and guidance on managing the emotional needs of autistic children and young people. These films will give you a framework for navigating family life. It is recommend that you view them in sequence from film one to five.

1. Understanding behaviour: the iceberg model

2. Emotional needs: autonomy

3. Emotional needs: relatedness

4. Emotional needs: competence

5. Family conflict

More information https://www.ambitiousaboutautism.org.uk/information-about-autism/health-and-wellbeing/physical-mental-wellbeing/quality-of-life-at-home