Pinderfields Hospital

To support our learners in achieving their full potential we offer a range of interventions at EYAC. Each child will receive interventions that will support the outcomes identified on their MSP or on their EHCP, taken from reports submitted by the professionals involved with the child.

Interventions include, but are not limited to:

Attention Autism:

A program devised by Gina Davies that is predominantly aimed at children with identified Speech. Language and Communication Needs (SLCN) and those children who have a formal diagnosis of Autistic Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

Children start at stage one and work progressively through the stages in order to develop their attention and ability to participate in joint attention activities. The intervention is delivered by two adults in a room free from distractions, which enables the child to focus on the adult delivering the session, the other adult acts as a support for the child.

Sensology:

A program that has been devised for children who have visual impairments (VI), hearing impairments (HI) and Multi-Sensory Impairments (MSI). Flo Longhorn

This intervention is specifically devised so that all the senses are employed in order to stimulate the neural pathways, using light, sound, touch, taste and smell. Again, this delivered in a room that is free from distractions, usually one of our two sensory rooms. This is delivered on a one to one basis, to ensure that the experience is intense and the child can become immersed in the experience.

Intensive interaction:

Intensive interaction is a strategy that is applied with pre-verbal children in order to build early shared interactions. This occurs when the adult replicates the sound that a child has made in exactly the same tone, speed and length of time as the original sound from the child. The adult must leave a short amount of time between each vocalisation in order to provide the child with processing time and wait for a response. This is not limited to vocalisations and can be applied to movements that the child makes if they are not yet vocalising.

Makaton for Communication:

Signing supports people with communication difficulties in many ways:-

• Signs give extra visual information about the spoken words.
• This extra information supports the learning of new words and models how and when to use them.
• Signs provide a way to communicate messages for people who have speech complications.
• Signing as we speak, slows our speech down, we also use less words, which helps with understanding.
• Signs help to gain attention and maintain it.

R.O.C.K:

We use ROCK strategies at the Early Years Assessment Centre as part of our daily routine, it is a brilliant way to encourage communication and you can do it at home too!

Here is some information on ROCK....

Coaching Communication Together - Let's R.O.C.K©

R.O.C.K© is a really great strategy because it brings communication coaching together into real life and play. R.O.C.K© turns games, songs and routines into communication therapy opportunities and the repetition and cueing helps a child begin to join in and communicate during in the activity.

What is R.O.C.K©?

R.O.C.K© stands for: Repeat, Offer Opportunities, Cue in and Keep Going/Keep it Fun

We are our child's Communication Coach and R.O.C.K© gives us a way of planning and giving some structure to develop those important communication skills. We call it a ROCK routine because we do the game or activity over and over so it becomes a routine.

Choose an Activity for R.O.C.K©.

It might be a game where you say 'Ready Steady ...' before you knock down a tower and you want your child to join in 'Go'.

It might be a rhyme like 'Round and round the Garden' where you want your child to recognise when the game starts and anticipate what is going to happen and laugh and be enthusiastic....maybe hold out their hand to you.

Ask the staff at the PRU for help with deciding on your ROCK routine.

Repeat: Repeat what you SAY and DO each time you begin and end the activity.

Opportunities: Think about your child’s skills and ask yourself, “What could my child do during this activity to make it a communication opportunity. Can they take a turn or reach out to indicate they want something?” Maybe your child can use eye gaze? Maybe your child can vocalize? Can your child use gestures (pointing, actions)? You want to choose something at the right level, that is not below or above your child’s current communication skills.

Cue: What did you expect your child to do for this activity? If your child has difficulty participating the way you anticipated, then cues are what you will do to help them participate. Cues can be things like waiting a longer time for your child to attempt to take a turn in the activity or using a facial expression that indicates it is their turn.

Keep it going and Keep it fun: Choose something your child enjoys, make fun sounds, have a fun ending to the activity. Then…start it again!

When using R.O.C.K©, try to coach the child's communication in the activity every day. Everyday predictable activities are a great way to help children with social communication difficulties to understand language and encourage them to participate, interact and communicate.

ROCK ON!

More information is available here... http://www.hanen.org/Helpful-Info/Articles/R-O-C-K--in-People-Games--For-Children-with-ASD-or.aspx