An insight into how My Primary Tutor supports children with autism.

It’s World Autism Awareness Week this week, and at My Primary Tutor, we support pupils with a range of needs including children with autism. We know that the past year has been incredibly hard for families with autistic children. Services have closed and appointments have been missed. The world has completely rearranged itself and it’s been very hard to try to find a ‘new normal'.

We wanted to share just a few ways that we support children with varying needs, such as those with autism, that helps them to shine and achieve their very best!

1. We keep things structured.

There’s a saying that if you know one autistic child you know one autistic child, making the excellent point that the signs and effects of autism can be vastly different from child to child. Having said that, we have found that most autistic children (and indeed most children!) like to have a routine and stick to it, so we try to ensure structure within our sessions for these children so that they feel secure and know what to expect.

2. We make good use of the visual.

Many autistic children tend towards being visual learners, so we ensure that our sessions, where possible, have visual aids to back up what is being said. This means that children are able to process what is being taught in their own way and using the learning style that best suits them.

3. We give them extra time.

We know that autistic children often need more time to process language. We make sure children have plenty of ‘thinking time’, knowing that rephrasing or repeating will not help – but patience will!

4. We keep stress to a minimum.

We know that autistic children have their own individual triggers, which we make sure we get to know, but in general, we try to give warnings before transitions happen, visual aids and clear instructions. We are also big believers in the power of positive re-enforcement!

5. We keep any instructions simple.

We understand that children with autism find it hard to follow long strings of instructions, so we make sure that we break down anything complicated into short, easy-to-follow steps. We also make sure we use short sentences with language that is clear and concise!

6. Finally, we cater to individuals, not stereotypes.

At My Primary Tutor we know that every autistic child is an individual and fantastic in their own special way and so, as with all the children in our care, we take the time to get to know them and to understand their likes and dislikes, their passions and sometimes their obsessions! We delight in personalising our lessons to ensure they will excite and enthral any child, whatever teir needs.

If your child has autism or another kind of need, and you want to know if tutoring could be the right choice for them, why not send us an email or find us on Facebook. We have a vast wealth of experience and are happy to help in whatever capacity we can!