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You and YoursÌý- Transcript 91Èȱ¬ Radio 4 |
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TX: 18.10.04 - Autism Mainstream PRESENTER:ÌýWINIFRED ROBINSON AND JOHN WAITE |
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THE ATTACHED TRANSCRIPT WAS TYPED FROM A RECORDING AND NOT COPIED FROM AN ORIGINAL SCRIPT.Ìý BECAUSE OF THE RISK OF MISHEARING AND THE DIFFICULTY IN SOME CASES OF IDENTIFYING INDIVIDUAL SPEAKERS, THE 91Èȱ¬ CANNOT VOUCH FOR ITS COMPLETE ACCURACY. ROBINSON This week in our series on autism we're looking at education. The government has a policy of including children with special needs into mainstream schools. Currently 16,000 children diagnosed with autism attend state primary schools and it's estimated that at least as many again children with speech and communication problems may have the condition and are awaiting a diagnosis. Which means that there's an autistic spectrum child for every other primary school in the UK. So does this policy of including these children actually work? Today we talk to a mother who tried both a specialist autism school and a completely mainstream approach for her son - who's five - and she felt that neither of them worked. Now though she believes she has found a solution at Childs Hill School in Cricklewood in London. It has a special needs unit called Pathways within the mainstream school. Ìý ACTUALITY Are you ready Nicky? Okay, ready and ... roly, poly ever so slowly. Waiting. Everybody did such good listening and waiting. Shall we do it one more time Nicky? Okay. Ìý RUGGERI My name's Joanna Ruggeri, I'm head of Pathways which is a unit for children with language and communication difficulties. This is a drama session with a younger group of children. They really do enjoy acting out situations and have great fun and they learn a lot through it too. Ìý ACTUALITY Well done, fantastic. Let's now do our hot potato. Ìý RUGGERI We have 12 children in Pathways, many who are on the autistic spectrum and we are very much part of the school as well and we have at key stage 1, which is an infant and junior part of the school, and we also have a nursery, which caters for around 70 children. Ìý ATKINSON And basically the whole ethos of this school is to include everyone together as much as possible? Ìý RUGGERI It is. All the kind of children and adults have got an acceptance and understanding of children with special needs, so the children are welcomed into the main part of the school. We try very hard to include them for subjects that they're kind of good at or feel comfortable with to build up their self-esteem and they need to have success to begin with because that's really very important. Ìý ACTUALITY Spanning my fingers - and I'm going to throw it to Jack. Ìý ATKINSON Christine Hough, your son attends the Pathways part of the school, what is it about this school that made you so convinced that this was the right place for him? Ìý HOUGH We had a big look at all of the different schools, we've looked at schools of every possible type - we looked at independent schools - but this was the only school that I felt could really meet Nicky's needs as a child who was high functioning but also had severe speech and language difficulties and some challenging behaviour. And my views haven't changed - if we won the lottery tomorrow I would still want Nicky to attend. The school is viewing inclusion in absolutely the appropriate way for him, it's not just that he is a body sitting in a mainstream class and that's inclusion, the school is not looking towards normalising his ASD, they're accepting his idiosyncrasies and they're able to not just tolerate them but really enjoy them. So, for example, Nicky's very into the London Underground, he knows everything there is to know about the London Underground and rather than trying to stop this behaviour what the school is doing is it's in effect exploiting it to teach him, so he's learning about turn taking and sharing by the London Underground - they're going on trips out on the tube and the buses to learn about safety outdoors and to promote that independence about road safety - road safety as well. And as regards his interests I think they're using them in a very positive way and not trying to just stamp them out and say well that's a bit autistic, we're not going to - let's pretend that doesn't exist really and you mustn't play with the Underground trains etc. Ìý Let me show you the classroom because they've made an underground train within the classroom and Nicky's absolutely loving it. Ìý ATKINSON Well we're here in the classroom, it's absolutely cram packed with colour and designs and tables and an underground train. Ìý HOUGH And it's practically life size, made out of Duplo and plastic. Nicky's on it now actually, he's gone on t be a train passenger. Ìý ACTUALITY Nicky, come here - big kiss and hug for mummy. Ìý Are you going to say hello? Ìý Hello. Ìý Where are you going to? Golders Green to Camden. Oh wow. Edgware. Kings Cross, St Pancras. When we go to see your occupational therapist we go from Finchley Central, Covent Garden. Ìý Do you like the school Nicky? Ìý Yeah. Ìý And what are your favourite stations on the Underground? Ìý You're going to Morden via Bank. Ìý ATKINSON Does this work? Are the children making progress? Are they ending up in more mainstream classes than they began in? Ìý RUGGERI I think if you take into account in the last three years eight children have been included back full-time into mainstream schools from Pathways and quite a lot within Childs Hill School but some have gone into other mainstream schools. So I think that may be a very good example of how well Pathways is working for some children. As you can hear in the background the infant classes are actually having a singing assembly at the moment. Ìý SINGING Ìý HOUGH He's still not an angel but his behaviour has become much more calm, much less anxious, much less challenging. It's been a dramatic change and of course all of the lessons that he's learning in school and all of the way that school is impacting upon him has been having a wonderful effect on the home life as well. And he actually seems happy for the first time in his life. Ìý WAITE Childs Hill School in Cricklewood. Well after two weeks of our autism month here on You and Yours we have been inundated with e-mails and calls from you concerning all aspects of the condition so tomorrow you'll have the chance to have your say on air in Call You and Yours when we want to hear your personal stories of living with autism, including problems of diagnosis, choosing between treatments and methods of education and coping with autism in later life. The guest in the studio will be the president of the National Autistic Society - the actress Jane Asher. You can call now on 0800 044 044 or e-mail via the website at www.bbc.co.uk/radio4/youandyours but please do include a phone number so we can get back to you. Back to the You and Yours homepage The 91Èȱ¬ is not responsible for external websites |
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