I am worried my child may have some social communication and interaction differences/challenges

There are a range of professionals you can contact if you are worried. Who you contact will be dependent on your child’s age:

• Explain your worries to your Health Visitor, Nursery or Childminder. There may be simple changes you can make to support your child’s communication and interaction
• Go to your local Family Hub and ask to talk to someone about your concerns. They will work with you to decide what next steps to take.
• Talk to your child’s pre-school, school or college about your worries. If they are pre-school then support can be requested from the Speech and Language Therapy team (see Therapy pathways). If your child is attending a school/college talk to a member of Staff who knows your child well or ask to speak to the SENCO. They may or may not share your concerns but will listen and together you can develop a plan for next steps.
• You may want to consider asking a professional whether to start an Early Help Assessment. This will enable you to ask advice and be offered support from a with a range of professionals where appropriate.
• It is important you share any concerns with a professional who can then direct you to further support. This may involve liaison with the Autism Spectrum Education Team (ASET) and Education Psychology Service. Where necessary, they will observe/meet with your child, meet with you and other professionals who know your child well.

In North Lincolnshire we have a Multi Agency Pathway for autism and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.

The Autism Spectrum Education Team (AST), Behaviour Support Team (BST), Education Psychology (EPS) and the North Lincolnshire Neurodevelopmental Service (NDS) work together to ensure that we have a strengths based, needs led process to support children and young people. We have:

• A single Neurodiversity Team offering a single point of access to assessments for autism and adhd
• A graduated approach to completing referrals which gathers a wide range of information
• Greater awareness is given to the support from ASET, BST and EPS as well as information from nurseries, schools and colleges. This is done at the earliest possible stage so that needs-led interventions are put in place based on presenting need regardless of diagnosis.

View the ASD-ADHD-Pathway [PDF, 2Mb]

Once you receive the diagnosis you will be asked by CAMHS if you would like to have your information shared with the Autism Spectrum Education Team (ASET) This will allow the team to discuss your child with school and also to send you information about our courses for parents of newly diagnosed children. Our courses are delivered in person and run twice a year for 7-8 weeks. See Support provided to children, young people and families section below.

If you have concerns about your child in school, then you should speak to their teacher and SENDCO, they may already be aware and working with your child. One of our Team will be linked with your child’s school to offer advice and support for children and young people both with a diagnosis and those who have social communication and interaction challenges.

Look at our Local Offer pages for other support agencies, for example SENDIASS, Short Breaks, Carers Support Service, and North Lincs Parents Forum.

There are also lots of national organisations which have informative websites for example the National Autistic Society.

Deciding when and how to talk to your child about their diagnosis is an entirely personal decision dependent upon their own level of awareness and understanding.

There are a number of websites and resources available that can help you know what to say and where to begin:

• NHS/RDaSH -Talking-together-about-an-autism-diagnosis
• Bristol Autism Support – How to tell your child about their autism diagnosis
• West Midlands Autism – Talking to your child about autism.

The following books may help when discussing autism with your child:

• Autism, Identity and Me: A Practical Workbook and Professional Guide to Empower Autistic Children and Young People Aged 10+ by Rebecca Duffus
• Autism: How to raise a happy autistic child by Jessie Hewitson (2018)
• The Ice-Cream Sundae Guide to Autism: An Interactive Kids’ Book for Understanding Autism: Debby Elley & Tori Houghton
• The Abilities in me: autism by Gemma Keir (2019)
• Can I tell you about Autism? A guide for friends, family members and professionals by Jude Welton (2014) (for readers 7 years plus)
• Different Like Me: My Book of Autism Heroes: by Jennifer Elder (2005)
• Autism and Me – Autism Book for Kids Ages 8-12: An Empowering Guide with 35 Exercises, Quizzes, and Activities!: by Katie Cook (2021)
• The Secret Life of Rose: Inside an autistic head by Rose Smitten (2021)

There is a range of support available including:

• Information about the Autism Spectrum and the impact it can have on the individual
• Support for your child/young person
• Liaison with professionals and agencies to offer advice, support and enable families with a solution focused approach
• SCIP and SPAA course details. One day course with the opportunity to attend specifically focused satellite sessions. Families can attend the sessions that they feel would be most beneficial.

There is a range of support for schools, settings and other agencies including:

• A  Toolkit: The Autism Spectrum Education team Support Strategies document helps schools and settings identify needs and put in place simple strategies to help your child. This can be used with children and young people with or without a diagnosis
• Support packages and individual help to develop the communication, social interaction, imaginative and emotional skills of your child at all stages of school and college
• Information about the Autism Spectrum and related difficulties alongside access to a library of resources which can be used to support a young person in explaining their diagnosis.  Support in explaining a young person’s diagnosis.
• Training for staff in all aspects of the Autism Spectrum, Social, Communication and Interaction challenges and associated training such as Social Stories and Sensory needs
• Advice to staff on your child’s individual barriers to learning
• Supporting schools in educating their own settings about the Autism Spectrum
• Educating classmates about the Autism Spectrum
• Help for your child with school/setting transitions
• We work closely with other professionals to provide ‘joined up’ approach to support
• We can offer bespoke training for agencies and professionals.

These are the people in our team:

• Nicola Stephenson, Lead Teacher
• Clare Noble, Teacher in charge of Primary
• Vicki Turner, Specialist Teacher (Base)
• Julie Dawson, Outreach Practitioner
• Tamara Pullan, Outreach Practitioner
• Wendy Brown, Outreach Practitioner
• Tricia Protheroe Outreach Practitioner
• Donna Ford Outreach Practitioner
• Rebecca Lyons Specialist Teacher