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Autism policy
Autism affects a child’s skills in communication and
relationships with others. It also affects the way a child can link
different ideas and develop play skills. These difficulties are
part of a triad of impairments that is looked at carefully by
doctors, with parents and other professionals, when they are
thinking about a diagnosis of autism. People often talk about it as
an Autistic Spectrum Disorder or ASD, because each child’s separate
needs are to be found across a wide spectrum or area.
The Medway policy is in eight separate sections:
- Background starts with a short description of
autism and the main areas of development that it affects. It then
explains who might identify that a child has difficulties and who
might help parents think about any difficulties their child has.
There is also information about who makes a diagnosis of autism,
how many people have autism generally and the number of pupils in
Medway with an autism diagnosis.
- Meeting the individual needs of pupils with
autism starts by giving information about the government
plans and law for pupils with special needs or disabilities. It
then describes services and provision for pre-school, primary and
secondary pupils in Medway. The final part of this section has
information about admission criteria and placement procedures,
describing how schools and the council match the needs of the child
to the appropriate school or unit.
- Approaches to the education of pupils with ASD
describes how pupils will have access to the curriculum through a
variety of teaching approaches. Medway Council actively encourages
inclusion and this is promoted for pupils with ASD through support
services for schools.
- Multi-agency working describes how other
agencies work with pupils with autism, including voluntary agencies
and information services.
- Equality of opportunity states the importance
of ensuring that every child has the same opportunities as their
peers.
- Promoting excellence in practice refers first
to the guidance that has been written jointly by the Department for
Education and Skills and the Department of Health. This section
also describes some of the training and information sharing that is
used in Medway.
- The reference section gives details of
research and other information referred to in the policy.
- The final section is an appendix that has been
set out as a service directory, giving contact information and
brief descriptions of local services for children with autism and
their families.
You can download the autism policy (pdf 516KB). To use
this file you will need Adobe Acrobat Reader. If you do not have
this on your computer please use our advice page.
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