Autism Association of WA 2020 Annual Report

Therapy and Clinical Services

First Steps for Autism Early Intervention Program The First Steps for Autism Early Intervention program for children aged up to 7 years provides multidisciplinary comprehensive learning and development support to children with Autism through centre-based, home-based and community-based programs. We also work to empower each family to teach their child new skills in everyday situations. The focus is on areas such as communication, social interaction, early childhood skills and a range of other individual needs. Over the year, First Steps expanded into year 1 of school at the request of families. To support this initiative, we developed an individually tailored school curriculum to support each child and their teacher. We are very pleased to say that this has been extremely successful. First Steps for Autism Playgroups Thanks to funding support from Telethon, the First Steps Playgroups were introduced at 5 Child and Parent Centres throughout the Perth metropolitan area. This year over 160 families were supported through these groups and our other therapy services.

Social Skills Therapy Groups We have seen increasing demand for our school age holiday programs this year. These are fun recreational programs with an underlying focus on developing communication as well as social-emotional skills in a supportive environment. There were 9 different programs this year for children and families to choose from, with each tailored to the child’s age, skill level and interests. A total of 85 groups ran across an 8-week period and were accessed by over 600 children. This year we also extended our Koder club for teens, with 15 clubs being held across 5 locations. We also successfully developed a research pilot for the KONTAKT Kids Social Skills Curriculum for children aged 9 to 12 years old. This was undertaken in collaboration with the Stan Perron Foundation, Karolinska Institute Sweden and the Curtin Autism Research Group. In addition, we expanded the community groups available to adults with Autism such as the newly created the PEARLES Therapy Employment group and PEERS for adults. TASTEE Team The Autism Specific Team of Everything to do with Eating, or for short, TASTEE, continues to provide highly specialised mealtime supports for individuals with Autism who have complex mealtime needs. This year the specialist team have provided assessment and intervention plans to a wide age range of people with Autism - ensuring mealtime safety and promoting mealtime participation.

Oisin’s Story Oisin is a creative little boy who loves constructing things. He has a passion for music and has taught himself Twinkle, Twinkle on the piano. He loves spacecrafts and rocket ships, and you will often find messages to be decoded from objects and food left in his midst. Prior to his participation in the Early Intervention program, Oisin’s speech was very limited. He said a few words when he was little and then went mute for a long time. With support, Oisin now holds a conversation, acknowledges how he is feeling, and insists on ordering his own meals at restaurants! “From the moment we started, if we ever needed anything, they never turned us away. When you don’t have family here that is everything and the team have become our family. When we look back to how things were for our family before Oisin joined the Early Intervention program, the transition is huge! Day-to-day the change is slow but looking back, in the last 2 years, it’s night and day!” Oisin’s mum, Louise says:

Autism Association of Western Australia - Annual Report 2020

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