This Is Guernsey

By Nicci Martel

GUERNSEY teachers and teaching assistants have become the first in the British Isles to study for the advanced certificate in autism. There are 25 on the course, run by the National Autistic Society and Canterbury Christchurch University.

It aims to provide a deeper understanding of autistic spectrum disorders in order to improve the classroom care of affected pupils.

‘The main area of difficulty these children face is being misunderstood.

‘People think they are being naughty, difficult or rude,’ said Diane Allison, head of the autistic spectrum disorder service at Les Beaucamps School.

‘But it’s all to do with their communication difficulties. Some have a number of impairments with social interaction, communication and flexibility.

‘It has also been found that those with ASD can have huge sensory difficulties, and find it hard perceiving sound and light and so on.’

Sixty-five children in local education have been diagnosed with ASD. Many attend Le Rondin and Oakvale but others go to mainstream schools.

Although teacher-training includes basic information on ASD, the subject is not studied in any depth.

Mrs Allison found the course advertised on the internet and it was agreed the scheme would be piloted locally.

It is split into three intense classroom days over a year and there is ongoing coursework.

The tutors are Sue Soan, principal lecturer from Canterbury Christchurch University, and Chris Barson, from the National Autistic Society.

‘We do run other university courses around the UK, but we did not have anything for specific professional groups - until now,’ said Mr Barson, who added that Wolverhampton had requested to run the course next.

‘We developed the course to offer an alternative to university-based courses. It’s flexible and we can come to wherever the class is.

‘Judging from the feedback that I’ve heard, they have found it useful and have been able to apply what they’ve learnt to school situations. They can come up with a range of different ways to help these young people.’

Madeline Smith has taught science at Les Beaucamps for five years. Until coming to the island, she had never worked with children who have ASD. This was the second course on the subject she had attended.

‘When I first started at the school I was a bit concerned with how I would cope with trying to integrate the children, but the training has made me much more autism-aware and the better I understand it, the better I can understand the kids.

‘I’ve become much clearer and it forces you to think about what problems there might be in a lesson and this makes me a better teacher.’

Students on the course will find out in May whether they have achieved the certificate.