Possibilities for 2022

 Which  Achievement Challenge are you considering as an area of focus in 2022 and why? Include in your WHY both evidence and your own passion/expertise

• No 5: Improv the achievements of  students with additional needs of English/Key Competency using language, symbols and text
• Why: continuing on the collaboration journey, so much to explore, started collaborative journey when teaching in Stonefields, know how how significant it can be to learning for children and colleagues, 
• Carried on when begun at Sommerville, with Silivia and the Tash, both times in a double satellite. Now in single cell, so it looks different again.
• Strategic plan for school, just started on the journey. It looks so different to what experienced before because of geography: school is spaced out over 13 sites, also colleague began to look into our learners and how they can learn through collaborating with each other, learn from your peers is quite powerful.

What learnings from the 2017 - 2021 CoL teacher inquiries have informed or inspired your thinking?

• May have been 2017 as working with Anita at SF and she looked at using PE in literacy learning. This is significant to me as my learners now have physio activities and exercise that need and can be incorporated to learning activities
• Other Blogs: Adeles/Silivia's: as they are my colleagues and having a different take on the inquiry and the procedure. Both teacher's focused on played, but they collaborate when researching and sharing ideas and findings for inquiry: Built a good relationship with 4 or us, including Tash: still going strong today as Tash may be on maternity leave but she still manages to find research for me to read. Adele is always there to bounce ideas off of and collaborate in anything we may suggest.
• Tania Botha: NE  foundation skills
• Devs: influenced as she went on this journey by herself and she did say it was a bit lonely.

How would your work support Manaiakalani pedagogy and kaupapa?

• Manaiakalani is about accelerating and increasing levels of learning: our focus is just that, focusing on the learners needs. Our learners needs are related to breaking the barriers that stop them from learning, not just academic, but the key competencies and becoming a life long learner
• We have used the concept of learn, create share within learning: For example, satellites have begun to use children's passions: the children are learning more about their passion and each others, they create posters or objects related to their passion and then they share with their class mates, but also collaborate with other satellite to share their learning.
• Learn, Create share also relates to gaining knowledge around collaboration and sharing this information with colleagues, creating and adapting things together, in order ot make a plan that works best for our school.
• The concept is about the learners developing skills to live as independent as possible within a community.

Which elements of the extensive Manaiakalani research findings inform or challenge you as you think about this?

• Research does relate to increasing levels of learning , using different scaffolding and support systems. My specific research is connected around collaboration, one very significant eye opener was when Chris Brabeer shared with us a presentation on collaboration with myself and my school COL colleagues. 
• Other collaboration experience : when Tash and myself. joined discussions with Stonefields re using one language, school wide.
• Challenge: changing people's mindset, about the difference between cooperation and collaboration!!!!

How would you like to be supported in 2022 as you undertake this inquiry? 

How would you plan to support your colleagues in your school with THEIR inquiries and/or teaching in the area you are exploring?

• My SLTeam:  as it relates to strategic plan: already doing this with Devs.
• Visiting other schools: to see what collaboration looks like in different places, mainstream and specials schools: tried to do this but COVID, 
• Visit ECE centres: relating to play and organising of staff re collaboration
• Silivia and myself: planning on including collaboration for play and and collaboration activities in the timetable, young children together older and younger children, release days, so we can discuss findings and questions and next steps, other colleagues to continue to collaborating.
• As moving teams next year, into senior sector of the school, need to look to collaobrate wth colleagues as this is a new ares for me.

Improve the achievement of students with additional needs in the learning areas of English/key competency using language symbols and textsImprove the achievement of students with additional needs in the learning areas of

What are other Special needs school doing with regards to collaboration??

 I was lucky enough to be able to catch up with 2 colleagues who used to work at Sommerville.

They have both continued on their career paths and are now working at different Special needs school.

Here is a synopsis of our conversation with regards to what collaboration looks like in their schools:

Donna is now at CASS:

What does collaboration look like in your school:

• APs: they go into the classes they oversee in the first block and just be present, support, meetings are in the afternoon, this is to build and develop relationships with the children and the staff so when they are discussing anything related to classes and children they are aware of who they are actually talking about, and know who they are.

• It was mentioned a few times that the size of the school plays a big part in schedules and structure implemented.

• There are 4 topics each year/ every term the topics are swapped around, rotated

• The therapists are included in the planning.

• Everybody works on Tuesday, so whole staff meetings are the whole staff, and also have team meetings on Tuesday so everyone can attend: an agenda is shared and decisions are made as

• There are 4 teams and roughly organised into age ban

• Zumba is done together

• Classes do combine and practice for big events like wearable arts

• Space is an issue that is needed for classes to come together and they don’t have it. A new build is starting, so maybe then

• In term 3 and 4 the aim was for teachers to visit 2 classes, they choose 1 and the SLT choose one and they go with the teacher. But COVID
• Collaboration is used for PD, up skilling, this is done by using people's strengths, who is skilled in certain areas and then they use this for up skilling others, mini groups are created to share
• PD opportunities shared weekly, 
• During PD sessions, questions are raised and brainstorming happen

Across 3 special needs schools combine to do different events e.g a ball for the older learners.

Johnathan is now at Oaklynn:

What does collaboration look like in your school:

• Recently been through PD re collaboration with our therapists.

• There is now a therapist on the SL Team.

• When teacher’s were out of the room, the therapist spent the whole day in a classroom alongside TA. This gave them a big insight into life in a classroom.

• Other collaboration that occurs is that teachers do observations during CRT time

• Shared expertise as well, e.g TEACCH is embedded in school and there is a teacher whose strength is in this area so she helps others.

• In one part of the school  in a satellite: there are 3 classes: where there is a lot of sharing going on between the class, e.g children going to different class for different activities if it best suits their needs, use of TAs across the classes (this is done through necessity re behavioural needs and )

• Space has played a part in the ability to collaborate. Found that teachers need to be flexible.

• Relationships play a big part in how well the teachers collaborate as well: develop communication, need to like each other, synergy, personality, valuing others.

• Other things to consider when discussing collaboration: Empathy, respect, open to suggestions, risk taker, give it a go, open and honest communication, be involved, working with people, time, understanding, space, trust

• We saw collaboration between all Special needs schools in Auckland on the Staff Only Day: this provided opportunities for up skilling of all staff and using people's strengths.

• There is some resistance to change: some staff have been there for a long time.

It was really insightful to listen to how other special needs school collaborate, reaching out to colleagues at other schools is a good way to gather up to date information as what is going on in schools.

The staff only day has proven that collaboration is possible on a large scale in order to draw on people's strengths to up skill staff.

It also showed that there is a focus on including and collaborating with specialists. This is a journey that my school is looking at and review as we speak.

Follow up on carrying out next Steps

We are now 6 weeks into term 3 and we are in lockdown!!!!

But after gaining feedback from a variety of sources, during the school break and the beginning of term 3 I have addressed some of the next steps.

• To deal with things that are in my control straight away: talk to the other teacher and ask if we can increase the time with each

We now have an extra 10 mins at college, which is taken up with getting the children in and out of transport and organising the groups.

• Make sure that my team works more efficiently, make more time for transportion.

Now the TAs who don’t start til 9 meet us at college so there is no time issue at the beginning of the day, this means that we can leave earlier and actually be at college ready to start learning just before 9.

• Ensure participation and support with all learning when with the other classes

The speech and language therapist now spends time with a couple of learners, by supporting them with language learning, adults have groups and if need be an adult is easily freed up to to assist if necessary. We have made sure that organisation is better during the learning time. The adults involved in numicon have paperwork to guide them onto next steps of the groups they are working on.

• Discuss the issues with regards to worthwhile learning as we are using the teacher's expertise.

• Ensure that everyone develops an understanding of why we are doing the different outings.

This has hopefully been enlightened through this exercise and the feedback given by various sources. Going to learn with other classes and teachers, is to use each other;’s expertise but it is also about decreasing children’s anxiety as there is a lot of this especially when meeting new people and transitioning to new classes. It is about developing their social skills, being in different settings with different adults and children.

I do feel however more PD needs to be given around the importance of giving children opportunities to learn in different environments, with different teachers and children. This relates back to developing adults insight to children anxiety.

Feedback from all Partners involved in Collaboration across classes.

 At the end of term 2 I asked my team, children, colleagues who I collaborate with and parents their thoughts with regards to the value of collaborative experiences the class experiences:

Teachers feedback: 

• Very good as decreased anxiety for children with up and coming transitions

• Very good as uses teachers strengths when learning

• Very good as it helps build knowledge of how to develop social skills and ability to interact with others.

From children:

• Like it because they like going in the vans

• Like going to college

• Like writing emails to SLT

• Like meeting new friends

From the parents:

• Like it as it decreases anxiety issues for when children are moving classes next year.

From class team:

• Just one or two outings each week, as they spend too much time out of class.

• Not spend much time there so not much is learnt

• Concerns with the van

• Turn up late, not much point as children don’t do much in music

• Need to ensure that they children participate in activities so worthwhile for everybody

• Sometimes when we go to base and there's a lot of other kids and noise there, and our students seem to get quite overwhelmed and scared

Next Step:

• To deal with things that are in my control straight away: talk to the other teacher and ask if we can increase the time with each

• Make sure that my team works more efficiently, make more time for transporting

• Ensure participation and support with all learning when with the other classes

• Discuss the issues with regards to worthwhile learning as we are using the teacher's expertise.

• Ensure that everyone develops an understanding of why we are doing the different outings.

Collaboration through LEGO Therapy.

Last year I attended the LEGO therapy workshop day course. Since then I have had an increased interest in how this can benefit learners within my class for communication targeted goals. Since this year I am looking at how students can collaborate together, LEGO therapy seems a perfect fit. LEGO therapy also has an assessment and evaluation that can be used to learn more about students strengths and challenges which can be measured over time. 

LEGO Based Therapy is a social development programme for autistic individuals. It develops communication and social skills through teaching sharing, turn taking, listening, team work, shared attention and problem solving (LeGoff et al. 2012). Developing these skills within the individuals strengths and interests. I have multiple autistic children in my class who would benefit from LEGO Based Therapy and who already all have a passion for LEGO. 

 Daniel B LeGoff developed LEGO Therapy in the early 2000s and saw this as a great activity to support social skills through the use of a shared interest in LEGO and to use this as a way to have positive interactions with peers and develop social skills in an environment that was enjoyable. “A key aspect of LEGO Therapy is enhancement of motivation for social interaction and social self efficacy through the experience of a potential intrinsically rewarding group activity” (LeGoff et al. 2012). 

The LEGO Based Therapy programme progresses the child through stages from 1:1 to groups or 2 and then into groups of 3 removing the facilitator so children have to problem solve and resolve conflict together. Each child has a role which works to develop their social and communicative competence. It was emphasised throughout the workshop that the group must be an appropriate match. The facilitator is required to analyse characteristics of the individuals, time of day the activity takes place and other environmental factors before making a group and starting the programme. 

When researching LEGO therapy the first article I read was by the creator Daniel B LeGoff. His study in 2004 went over 12 and 24 weeks and the therapy found increased social competence across a range of sources. The research style was a “repeated-measures, waiting list control design” to “assess efficacy of social skill interventions” through Lego Therapy (LeGoff et al. 2012). The study found significant improvements and positive outcomes for the children involved in the LEGO Therapy compared to the control group. An area of interest within this study was that “no gender differences were found on outcome, and age of clients was not correlated with outcome” (LeGoff et al. 2012). 

The second article was by Simon Baron Cohen, a co author from the LEGO Therapy Book that the workshop I attended was based on. The type of research used was a comparison study to evaluate the effectiveness of LEGO therapy and Social Use of Language Programme to develop and generalise social skills. T

The research found improvements across both interventions, their methods over weekly sessions, which lead to the conclusion that both are better than no intervention. Overall LEGO Therapy showed larger improvements in initiating social interaction and with increased generalisation skills as individuals learn to communicate and follow social rules to complete the LEGO build. Through this research article, Simon Baron Cohen's ideas around autistic individuals showing specific interest in systems gives suggestions to the motivation that LEGO can be adapted to improve emotional regulation skills. Emotional regulation skills are a large factor with this goal students within my class setting often have heightened anxiety and states of arousal during social communication interactions. “Dewey et al. (1988) found that after rule governed games, construction materials (LEGO is an example of a construction material) were the next most effective means of facilitating complex social interactions in pairs of children with autism in contrast to dramatic play and functional play” (Baron-Cohen et al. 2008). This linked well with the workshop guidance on using the mini figures to act out specific social scenarios as a form of modelling. 

Through this research I predict that the use of LEGO therapy sessions will improve student turn taking, students will learn to listen and collaborate in small groups and have longer sustained joint attention moments with others, while developing skills in fixing breakdowns in communication. 

These areas were common challenges that were noted during my initial BASC assessment at the start of the year. I have since put students into their appropriate groups that support their social communication levels. So far the groups have been successful and well matched. Within these groups students have been assessed using the LEGO assessment. I am basing my findings from 3 different groups from 3 different communication levels. There were common findings between each group and individual. 

During LEGO therapy sessions all groups strengths were around better turn taking due to the environments and the roles that LEGO therapy creates. All groups with adult support were able to follow the rules. Common challenges were around initiating conversation, helping others and asking for help if stuck, students often jump ahead from engineers instructions. The group’s previous experience and skill level with LEGO play has an impact on ease of completing the task. The group's communication level impacted their skill level and strategies to compromise and negotiate. All groups responded positively to each other during interactions. 

As a class we found that students could have better success in kit building if their were pre sessions learning key language i.e brick and tile, under, on top, next to. This became a fun introductory sorting activity. 

With the assessment forms students and groups are able to have targets each session using an observation template to write down roles and skill level. The class LEGO rules are read out at the start of each session and key language mats are used to support communication and understanding with visual support. These supports and targets will enable us to work towards improved skills from BASC and work towards my LEGO therapy predictions. 

Reference List: 

Baron-Cohen. S, Granader. Y, Humphrey. A, Owens. G, (2008). LEGO Therapy and the Social Use of Language Programme: An Evaluation of Two Social Skills Interventions for Children with High Functioning Autism and Asperger Syndrome. J Autism Dev Disorder. Springer Science+Business Media LLC. 

LeGoff, B, D (2004)., Use of LEGO as a Therapeutic Medium for Improving Social Competence. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. Vol. 34, No.5, 

LeGoff, D., B., Krauss, W, G,. Allen, L, S (2012) LEGO - Based Play Therapy for Improving Social Competence in Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Play - based interventions for children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorders (Chapter 6 pp 115-136). New York, Routledge. 

Nathan, E. (2020 September) LEGO - Based Therapy [ Workshop] Grow Workshop, Auckland, New Zealand.

New Year: What am I going to???

 This year, I am in a new class, single cell classroom. I am with a new team of TAs and therapists. I am based at a new host school and I have new children.

There is a lot to learn, get used to and set up!

A lot of barriers before I could even think about collaboration inside and outside of the class and what it may look like this year.

The key thing that I knew is what good collaboration looked and felt like as this is what was happening when Tash and myself were in a double satellite.

SO I know what I wanted to aim for, I had to get into a different mindset and realise that it may look different this year. 

First step: to accept the barriers, give myself time, to work through them before moving forward with collaboration.

BUT I knew from last year that collaboration had a positive effect on the children and their key competencies: Relating to others, Managing self and Participating and Contributing.

Term 1:

Finding my feet.

My new host school was in my local area, so I started having these amazing ideas of how I could collaborate with the local community. 

BUT I did not know these children, so I needed to build a relationship with them and the class team first. If I wanted to do some form of cross class collaboration then I needed to do it colleagues who I had already collaborated with, teachers and classes that muy new class already knew:

• Tash:  even though she was starting up a new satellite, we were on the same wavelength re collaborating,

• Adele:  as she had collaborated with the previous teacher of my new class 

• A work colleague who was really positive on creating new friendships as she also was in a single cell satellite.

If I started trying to collaborate with staff I already knew then at least 1 barrier was being addressed.

Results:

Above is a copy of my timetable from the first term:

I think I expected too much with regards to collaboration with my colleagues.

1. Music and Numicon worked well with the Glendowie college as we were using the teacher’s strengths. The issue became transporting my class and also additional louting that each class had organised.

2. Swimming with Tamaki Primary, Adele, was hit and miss. Upon reflection this was a result of teachers trying out new grouping, swimming pool issues, behaviour issues and transport issues. When it worked, it worked really well.

3. Meeting up with Owiaro for fitness. Susan and myself are very aware of the fact that we can’t provide certain opportunities for our learners at our host schools. BUT they are available at BASE. A big sfe sensory garden, a swing, bikes and a big trampoline. The aim was to meet at Base every Tuesday MT time so that the children can have a “play” and just be with one another as they were meeting each other for the first time. 

Issues arose: transport and my release day was on a Tuesday. We wanted to keep it to a Tuesday when the physios were at Base so could come and see our children. Term 1 did not really work. However we reflected and looked forward to how it could look better for term 2.

Reflection:

. My expectations were too high.

. Transport was always an issue.

. When it worked it looked amazing.

. Everybody needed to be onboard.

. Building in more time than you thought was needed, especially for getting the children to different places.

Questions relating back to hunches:

• What is the purpose of collaborating with another class during learning time?

• How effective from a teacher’s point of view is collaborating with others during teaching time?

• Is it worth it when there may be a few barriers to overcome?

Interventions to support student collaboration

 Interventions:

 

Name of intervention	PEERS Program for the Education and Enrichment of Relational Skills.
Type of intervention	Social Communication
Description (what it involves, what happens)	14 week Evidence based social skills, caregiver supported intervention for adolescents or young adults or a 16 week evidence based social skills intervention for adolescents, school based.  PEERS approach targets social skills and looks at core social challenges for individuals on the spectrum with a focus on adolescents and adults. PEERS breaks down social skills into rules and steps of social behaviour. It uses specific lessons, demonstrations,  role play, as well as homework/assignments to practice in other settings to generalise the new skills. Adult leaders follow a guide/manual for week and day activities ands steps.
History	The first evidence based intervention for teaching and developing social skills. Developed by Dr Elizabeth Laugeson and colleagues at UCLA.  Dr Elizabeth Laugeson as cited in (University of California, 2015)  "It's as if we've forgotten that these children grow up to be adults with their own unique challenges that very often affect their ability to be gainfully employed or establish meaningful friendships and romantic relationships.” PEERS recognises the need to ongoing support into adulthood to ensure a positive quality of life for the autisic individual and their families.
Aims/theories	To teach autistic individuals social skills through didactic lessons, role play demonstrations, group socialisation activities and home learning for generalised skills.
Claims	To be the first and only evidence based practice for social communication skills.
Summary of the evidence and Ranking	Studies looking at social skills for adolescents with autism are limited and there is a limited number of evidence based interventions to compare PEERS.  Research around progress has shown there is an increase in social skill awareness from improvement in TASK results however often within autisc individuals there still is a lack of generalising into other social settings. This highlights the importance of maintaining these skills and continuing to work on these after the programme has finished.  PEERS has a strong theoretical perspective and provides screening, goals, lessons, step by step information, case studies as well as parallel programmes for parents to ensure that social skills opportunities happen within family context.  According to the NZ Guidelines Group (2016) approaches should emphasize pivotal skills such as spontaneity, initial, motivation and self management. This is ranked C, This aligns with the aims and steps of PEERS.
References and/or readings	Research Autism (nd). Interventions: Treatments and Therapies for Autism Spectrum Disorder. Retrieved from: http://www.researchautism.net/autism-interventions/types University of California - Los Angeles. (2015, July 31). Young adults with autism show improved social function following skills program: Gains from 'PEERS' training persist 16 weeks later. ScienceDaily. Retrieved August 25, 2020 from www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2015/07/150731103705.htm PEERS for Adolescents (2020), UCLA PEERS Clinic., Retrieved from ; https://www.semel.ucla.edu/peers/teens Laugeson, E. A. (2013). The PEERS curriculum for school based professionals : social skills training for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. Routledge. New Zealand Guidelines Group. (2016). New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder: Guideline. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Health

 

 

Name of intervention	Attention Autism
Type of intervention	Focus on Joint Attention
Description (what it involves, what happens)	Attention autism focusses on joint attention and communication skills through fun learning activities. The programme moves through a series of 4 stages of quality engaging activities. Start at stage 1 and move up when the child's attention is ready to be extended.  Focuses on spontaneous engagement.  Provides a framework where we can nurture social skills, communication and thinking skills.  Start with being visual and memorable.  Stage 1: Bucket time - visually engaging games and toys to gain shared attention of the bgrup. Adult leader comments on objects with simple and repetitive language.  Stage 2: Attention builder activities to keep joint attention focus for longer period of time through a ‘visually stimulating activity’.  Stage 3 : Turn taking and Re-engaging Attention - Teacher models a simple activity and invites some children to have a turn - teaches turn taking, self regulation if for waiting and learning through modelling.  Stage 4: Shifting-Re-engaging attention - Adult leader demonstrates a simple creative task and gives the child a tool kit to replicate or attempt. Take the task to a shared table and complete the task independently or as an extension to complete in a peer or as a small group with shared materials. Share finished products with the full class for fun and celebration.
History	Combined concepts around developmental psychology with good autism strategies is where the Attention Autism programme came from. By creator Gina Davies a speech and language therapist.
Aims/theories	Aims to develop natural and spontaneous communication and gaining attention through visually based and motivating activities.  Primary objective “sessions are fun and offer an irresistible invitation to learn”! (Centre for autism n.d) Aims: To engage attention To improve joint attention To develop shared enjoyment in group activities To increase attention in adult-led activities To encourage spontaneous interaction in a natural group setting To increase non-verbal and verbal communication through commenting To build a wealth and depth of vocabulary To have fun! (Centre for autism n.d) Joint attention is a known deficit in children/individuals with autism. There is a broad range of categories that come under attention and these features are reflected in the Attention Autism Program.  Orienting attention is when you move your physical body towards a person or tangible object. This is reflected in stage 1 when the attention is on the bucket and what is coming out of the bucket. It grabs attention and is motivating.  Sustaining attention is the ability to maintain  attention to a stimulus. This refers to stage 2 and 3 of Attention Autism where the activities are longer and turn taking can be involved.  Shifting attention: Requires the individual to change from one stimulus to another. This is evident in Attention Autism in stage 4 when the child observes and then collects materials and completes an activity changing their attention and focus.  Social versus non social stimuli are both aspects of Attention Autism as the activities invite the learners into the social world through repetitive language and visual appeal through objects and following the steps of an adult leader as you progress through the stages.  All of these elements make up Joint Attention. “Joint attention refers to shared attention between two individual and an object or another individual. Joint attention involves all three of the previously mentioned components of attention and is always social in nature.” (Patten, 2011)
Summary of the evidence and Ranking	Overall there is still a lot of evidence that needs to be bought together. Most practice evidence does not involve a control group and needs smaller group sizes for the evaluation to be considered for EB. In all of the online reviews of people using the programme it is hugely positive and shared attention and joint attention along with communication are all areas where there is evident progress.  The programme also aligns with rankings from the NZ Guidelines Group (2016) recognising that spontaneous communication, socialization and play goals should be a priority -ranked A, the childs or young person's particular interests should be incorporated wherever possible rank C and that interventions should take place in natural settings, using natural routines and natural consequence rank A.
References and/or readings	Research Autism (nd). Interventions: Treatments and Therapies for Autism Spectrum Disorder. Retrieved from: http://www.researchautism.net/autism-interventions/types Center for Autism (n.d) Attention Autism. Retrieved; https://best-practice.middletownautism.com/approaches-of-intervention/attention-autism/ Patten, E., Watson, L., (2011) Interventions Targeting Attention in Young Children with Autism. American Journal of Speech and Language Pathology, VOL 20 pg 60-69 Marsh, F., (2019) Attention Autism for CHildren and young people on the autisic spectrum: A critique of the current evidence base. Doctoral Programme in Educational Psychology. University of Southampton New Zealand Guidelines Group. (2016). New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder: Guideline. Wellington, New Zealand: Ministry of Health

 

 

 

Name of intervention	SCERTS
Type of intervention	SCERTS can be classified as a combined intervention as it blends elements of behavioral and developmental models
Description (what it involves, what happens)	SCERTS is child centred and builds on developmental rather than behavioural theories.  “The SCERTS® Model is a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach to enhancing the communication and socioemotional abilities of young children with autism spectrum disorder. SCERTS® refers to Social Communication, Emotional Regulation, and Transactional Support, which are priority goals in supporting the development of children with ASD and their families” (Prizant & Fields-Meyer, 2015)
Aims/theories	Develop spontaneous functional communication, adapt to an environment and partake in relationships with adults and peers.
Summary of the evidence and Ranking	SCERTS is evidence based and supports family-professional partnership in working towards improving quality of life for the individual and their families (Molteni. P et al. 2013). The targeted areas in the model are around joint attention, initiating communication, symbol use, imitation, emotional regulation and partner support (Rubin. E. 2017).
References and/or readings	Molteni. P, Guldberg. K and Logan.N (2013) Autism and multidisciplinary teamwork through the SCERTS Model. British Journal of Special Education. NASEN DOI: 10.1111/1467-8578.12030 Prizant, B. M., & Fields-Meyer, T. (2015). Uniquely human: A different way of seeing autism. Prizant, B. M., Wetherby, A.M., Rubin, E., Laurent, A.C., & Rydell, P. (2006). The SCERTS Model: A Comprehensive Educational Approach for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders. Baltimore, MD: Paul H. Brookes Publishing.

 

 

Name of intervention	LEGO therapy
Type of intervention	Social development
Description (what it involves, what happens)	LEGO therapy is a social development program for autistic children and other children with social communication difficulties. It uses children’s love of LEGO play, as well as their strengths and interests, to develop communication and social skills. LEGO therapy is used to teach children skills like turn-taking, sharing, listening, conversation, teamwork, shared attention and problem-solving.
History	LEGO®-Based Therapy was developed in the mid-1990s by US pediatric neuropsychologist Daniel LeGoff. He use to work 1:1 but after a spontaneous interaction between clients in his waiting room focused on a shared interest in a LEGO kit he decided to start doing his sessions in small groups and thus LEGO therapy was started.
Aims/theories	The main aim is to encourage children to collaborate with each other.
References and/or readings	Raising Children (2021) LEGO therapy. Retrieved from: https://raisingchildren.net.au/autism/therapies-guide/lego-therapy  Bricks for Autism (n.d) Retrieved from: https://bricks-for-autism.co.uk/about-lego-therapy/