18th February 2014

Dear center director of St Kate kindergarten,

I am writing in partnership with Jacks family as he prepares to move into
your service this year. As we both know, inclusion in educational settings is of
greatest importance (DEEWR, 2009), and it is up to us, the educators to ensure
that the children under our care all feel safe and secure (DEEWR, 2009). This is
of vital importance in this circumstance, as Jack has recently been diagnosed
with autism. Within this letter we have included options that we have been
proven to be beneficial in Jacks learning in the past, in the hope that these
options may support you, so that we can both encourage Jacks learning and
development and help give him the necessary skills to reach his amazing
potential.

ASD (Autism spectrum disorder) is currently defined as a lifelong

neurodevelopmental disorder and is characterised by abnormal behaviours in
communication and social interactions (Yates & Le Couteur, 2013, pp. 5), and
Autism is one of the five disorders on the ASD (Taylor & Richards, as cited in
Oakley, Howitt, Garwood & Durack, 2013). A strong characteristic of autism is
their obsession, and somewhat elite knowledge of a certain subject (Gallo, 2010)
and their preference for activities that are repetitive, restricted and
stereotyped (Yates & Le Couteur, 2013, pp. 5). Jack could be said to have bits of
all of these symptoms. The symptoms that a child diagnosed with autism may
face however, do often decrease with age, as the behaviours that lead to
diagnosis can often be learnt through explicit and implicit teaching. (Jung &
Sainto, 2013; Gallo, 2010).

Jack has been explicitly learning the social skills many children develop
naturally, such as the ability to read body language and emotions, and is
beginning to understand that his actions have consequences for other children,
and he can either make other people happy, or sad depending on what he does.
There are many ways in which we have found can teach him these skills,
including through social stories (Barry & Burlew, 2004), video modelling and
analysis (Nikopoulos & Keenan, 2006) and having a structured routine in his day.

We have used Jacks enjoyment of reading stories through the use of social
stories to explicitly teaching Jack social skills. Social stories are brief,
individualized, short stories that describe a social situation and provide specific
written cues using visual supports (pictures, diagrams, symbols) and texts
which were originally designed to help children on the Autism spectrum (Sutton,
2011 pp 35). We have used them to show him what behaviours are acceptable,
and which are not, and have proven to be incredibly effective, when they are
repetitively used, and applied in their real life classroom settings (Barry & Burlew
2004). They help him to practice how to react in certain circumstances, so that
he is equipped with the necessary skills to approach and excel in real life
classroom settings.

Another way that we have found to be beneficial in explicitly teaching Jack

social skills is through video modelling and analysis. We have found that videos
of Jack provide modelling that other adult modelling just did not achieve (Buggey
& Hoomes, 2011). We found that if we filmed him getting along with others, and
then showed it to him, he became very excited to see himself of a screen, and

could more readily reinforce his learnt skills in the next similar social situation.
This method also helped his language, and he could hear what himself and the
other children were saying. Even if there was some cutting and the pictures of
the video didnt exactly match up, he still got the same benefit. We have only
just started this however, as studies show that these strategies work mainly with
older children, but can work from as young as 4 years (Buggey & Hoomes, 2011).

Jack also likes knowing what he is doing for the day, as studies have
shown that children that have been diagnosed with autism prefer predictability
and routines (Yates & Le Couteur, 2013). This being said however, it is important
that children learn some dimension of flexibility. A strategy that has worked for
us, is to have displayed a what are we doing today board, which provides Jack
with the basic structure of the day by using pictures placed in chronological
order. We have also established basic routines around the things we do every
day, for example we sit on the mat and sing a song before lunch. We have found
that this has helped him to prepare himself mentally for the activity we are doing
next, even if that activity is not in the chronological order of how the day usually
happens.
If you have any queries or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact
either myself or the family, as our collective aim is to work as a team to help to
achieve the best outcomes for Jack. Thank you for your time,

Kate Lawrence
Director

Sunshine Childcare
Pakenham, Victoria
(03) 5555-5555

References
Barry, L. & Burlew, S. (2004) Using social stories to teach choice and play skills to
children with autism. Focus on Autism and other developmental disabilities,
19(45), DOI: 10.1177/10883576040190010601
Buggey , T. & Hoomes, G. (2011) Using video self-modelling with pre-schoolers with
autism spectrum disorder: seeing can be believing. Young Exceptional
Children, 14(2), DOI: 10.1177/1096250610395872
DEEWR (2009). Belong, Being, Becoming. The Early Years Learning Framework for
Australia. DEEWR: Barton, ACT
Gallo, D. (2010) Diagnosing autism spectrum disorders: a lifespan perspective.
Chichester, West Sussex, UK: Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. DOI:
10.1002/9780470682340

Jung, S. & Sainato, D. (2013) Teaching play skills to young children with autism.
Journal of Intellectual & Developmental Disability, 38(1), 74-90.
Nikopoulos, C. & Keenan, M. (2006) Video Modelling and Behaviour Analysis: A guide
for teaching social skills to children with Autism. London: Jessica Kingsley
Publishers Ltd.

Oakley, G. Howitt, C. Garwood, R. & Durack, A. (2013) Becoming multimodal

authors: pre-service teachers interventions to support young children with
autism. Australiasian Journal of Early Childhood, 38(3), 86-96. Retrieved from
http://search.informit.com.au.ezproxy2.acu.edu.au/fullText;dn=200089;res=AE
IPT
Sutton, B. (2011). Social stories. Educating Young Children: Learning and teaching in
the Early Childhood Years, 17(1), 35-36.
Yates, K. & Le Couteur, A. (2013) Diagnosing Autism. Paediatrics and Child Health,
23(1), 5-1