AUTISM INCLUSION TEACHER

Since i've been in the Autism Inclusion Role at HEPS i've been looking at how education and the NDIS align, how they currently work together and some areas that could possibly be enhanced. Through consultation with parents, it's become apparent that whilst therapies (ie. OT, psych, speech etc) are prioritised and either happen at school, or families take their young person to these, one area that seems, understandably, difficult to fit in are the social programs. At HEPS we have been looking at ways to support this and hoping, in the not-too-distant future, to join with some outstanding Allied Health practitioners to provide some social groups after school. The idea is that the young people who opt into these NDIS programs can go straight from class at the end of the day to the group session which will operate on site. We believe that this is a fantastic opportunity for our young people and their families. 

These sessions are NOT run by the school or education department; however, we are sourcing some of the best neuro affirming practitioners to facilitate these sessions and they will be run on school grounds. (so you would need allocated NDIS funds to partake in them)

We are trialling this in Term 3, and whilst the specific details still need to be worked out (ie. Day it will run etc) we have two absolutely stunning practitioners that will run them. Kim is a paediatric neuro-psychologist and Dylan is a paediatric OT- please see the link below to hear Kim talking about her background and the proposed program.

We are amid discussions and will have the finalised information out to you all by week 8. This then gives time for our Hackham East young people to get the first spots before it’s advertised at other schools.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1lIc60KvdREwIhn2g8Y-GKUaA6lvz8vDo/view?usp=drive_link 

Cass Humphrey

HEPS Autism Inclusion Teacher

Cassie.Humphrey574@schools.sa.edu.au