The main changes to our Assistance Dog Programme include a new support role that will see a Client Liaison Officer working directly with our families prior to formal training with an Assistance Dog. This person will spend time getting to know our families and working closely with them to understand the other supports the family may be availing of. Working as part of a multi-disciplinary team will allow us and our families make informed decisions together that will ensure any partnerships we create are strong.

A further addition are pre-assessment workshops. These 3 day workshops will form part of the assessment process that our families will go through and will allow our training teams work through all aspects of owning and living with an Assistance Dog. Spending this time at our training centre will allow families understand the real aspects of living with an Assistance Dog and what it will and will not deliver to the family.

Once you have completed the 3 day pre-assessment training one of our Instructors will visit the family in the home environment. This visit will involve walking desired routes, assessing the home and garden environment. The purpose of this work is to ensure families have the required work load to maintain a dog’s safe working and to ensure the home environment is a safe place for a dog to live.

Once these pieces of work are completed our families will be matched with a suitable Assistance Dog and called to a one week training course at the centre in Cork. This week will see an Instructor work with our parents to develop the skills and knowledge they will need to be able to return to their families and begin their new life with their Assistance Dog.

Once graduated our families will continue to receive ongoing support. In the first year we will have scheduled post class visits, immediately after training, a 6 week, 6 month and 12 month follow up. On completion of this first year there will be ongoing regular after-care available to our families.

Further information at Irish Guide Dogs for the Blind. 

All bookings are taken online through the website: http://www.santashouseexpress.ie/booking-app/

Six years after parents were trained to better understand and interact with their preschool children, researchers found that the therapy had moderated the behaviour of those who had been severely autistic, unresponsive or unable to speak.

The success of the preschool autism communication trial (Pact) has surprised even the researchers who designed it. There are no drugs to treat the condition, which typically sets in around the age of two, and many families have tried intensive training of their children by therapists, with mixed results. Pact instead trained the parents to help their children.

Prof Jonathan Green at the University of Manchester, who led the study published in the Lancet medical journal, said they had not found the cure for autism, but he and his team believed it had great potential and hoped it would be widely adopted.

“The advantage of this approach over a direct therapist-child intervention is that it has potential to affect the everyday life of the child,” he said. “Our findings are encouraging, as they represent an improvement in the core symptoms of autism previously thought very resistant to change.

“This is not a cure, in the sense that the children who demonstrated improvements will still show remaining symptoms to a variable extent, but it does suggest that working with parents to interact with their children in this way can lead to improvements in symptoms over the long term.”

The trial involved 152 children aged two to four. The families visited a clinic twice a week for six months, where parents were videoed with their children and a box of toys. Autistic children might not interact with their parents at all, but when eventually a child did offer a toy or made a noise that could be interpreted as a request, the incident was rerun on video and the parent encouraged to respond. If the child offered a toy, the parent reciprocated. If the child said a word, the parent repeated it and added something. The practice was repeated at home every day.

The therapy continued with the parents for the next six months with less intensity. At the end of the first year, the researchers could see the children had improved, but the most dramatic development was seen at the follow-up six years later. At the start of the trial, 50% of those in the control group who did not get the therapy and 55% of those who did were assessed as severely autistic. The children in the intervention group, though, got better. The proportion assessed as severe in the control group was 63% by the end of six years, compared with 46% in the intervention group.

Other experts applauded the work. “I can see why these researchers are excited,” said Dorothy Bishop, professor of developmental neuropsychology at the University of Oxford. “These results at follow-up are pretty consistent in showing the benefit of this early intervention for autism across a range of measures. My impression is that this is an intervention that reduces the severity of autistic symptoms, rather than curing autism. Nevertheless, for parents of children with autism, even a modest reduction would be worthwhile.”

Dr Max Davie, of the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, said it offered “a hugely cheering message for families”, while Uta Frith, emeritus professor of cognitive development at University College London, called it “a remarkably positive story, because the intervention itself was neither intensive nor invasive”.

The absence of any hope, as well as the very sudden regression in children’s behaviour, led many parents to believe in the discredited theory of Andrew Wakefield that the MMR (measles, mumps and rubella) vaccine was the cause of autism.

“Parents commonly tell us that they fight for a diagnosis but when they finally get it the cupboard is bare, with little information or tailored support available to them,” said Dr James Cusack, director of science at the charity Autistica.“Too often, parents fall victim to the false claims of charlatans who prey on desperate families. These results look promising for the many thousands of parents who want to find early interventions for their children based on solid science.”

The researchers said children’s communication with their parents was improved at the end of the six years. The parents said there were also improvements in relations with other children, in social communication and in repetitive behaviours. But there was no change in child anxiety, challenging behaviours or depression in the autistic children and they would still need a lot of support while growing up.

About 1% of children and young people are affected by autistic spectrum disorder, which ranges from mild to severe. The lifetime costs to the UK, which include health, social care and education costs as well as productivity losses, are estimated at £1m to £1.5m per child and between $1.4m and $2.4m in the United States.

Original article.

The new installation includes a height-adjustable adult-sized changing bench, full room coverage ceiling tracking hoist system and sufficient space both sides of the toilet for transfers.

This facility is open to all members of the public and visitors to Dublin Airport and is located on the ground floor in the arrivals area beside the information desk.

Full access is available to the toilet and there is currently no requirement for a key or a card.

Inclusion Ireland established the Changing Places Working Group in 2004 which has helped to champion the introduction of fully accessible toilets to public places in Ireland.

These facilities have proved a life-changer for thousands of families and have saved such families from the indignity of having to use toilet facilities that are not suitable to the needs of their loved ones.

In addition to the new facility that has been opened in Dublin Airport, there are now fully accessible Changing Places facilities in Áras an Uachtaráin, Trinity College Dublin and the Lime Tree Theatre in Limerick.

In Ireland some 50,000 people have a diagnosis of Autism (Autism Counts Prevalence Study funded by IAA 2014). Furthermore, it has been proven that for each person diagnosed, five other people’s lives are affected by the diagnosis. In effect, the number of people with autism would fill the Aviva stadium 5 times over with the lives affected by Autism.

Internationally, it has been proven that the best approach to maximizing the potential for those on the spectrum is earliest possible detection/diagnosis, earliest possible intervention/therapy, and appropriate education. This is where, together, we can make a difference.

This website will be of huge value, providing basic awareness information as well as practical tips and strategies to help you create meaningful inclusive experiences for your entire class or group, but this is only the beginning. Irish Autism Action has delivered a training programme consisting of 3-4 sessions that will equip early childhood educators to understand and support the unique behaviour, language and communication, and sensory needs of children with Autism.  We are currently working on Phase 2 of this training programme, to be delivered in autumn 2016.

Thank you to everyone, all the wonderful children and adults who supported national pyjama day. Irish Autism action and the families we serve are both humbled and honoured by the level of support the awareness day received. Without your support, this project wouldn’t be possible.

Training:

IAA runs a number of training programmes, which vary over time. In partnership with Early Childhood Ireland, in the past two years, IAA has developed and delivered a wide array of training programmes.

These include:

 Autism Specific Teacher Training Across Ireland.

Early Childhood Ireland and Irish Autism Action completed phase 1 of the training programme aimed at supporting early childhood providers in providing an inclusive environment for children with autism in their settings. The programme consisted of 3 sessions addressing the unique language, communication, sensory and behavioural needs of young children with autism.  Phase 2 will commence in autumn 2016 with details available by clicking here http://accessautism.ie/training-schedule-february-2016/

The Step Ahead Programme.

Irish Autism Action have also run the very successful Step Ahead programme on four occasions in the past year. This is a 14 week inter disciplinary programme for children under the age of 5 with ASD.   Children received individualized instruction, with goals and intervention strategies devised by a team comprised of our Behaviour Analyst, Speech and Language Therapist, Occupational Therapist and Psychologist.   Parent coaching and information sessions were also part of the programme and addressed sensory needs, accessing benefits and entitlements, preparing for school and self-care for parents.

The Early Start Denver Model:

This is a highly respected evidence based early intervention programme, developed in USA at MIND Institute  and brought to Ireland by IAA to train 20 professionals in leading early intervention techniques. For more information see: https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/treatment/early-start-denver-model-esdm

He can now communicate a lot non verbally. He couldn’t at all before, he scored 0.01% commincation with HSE assessment. Now he is so much happier he can show me what he needs.

If he has a pain he can point to where he is hurt. He turns for his name now.  His behaviour has masively improved about 80% reduction in pinching and biting. His dressing skills have improved. He now sits at the table for his dinner and feeds himself.  He has learned a lot about self regulating and can pay more attention to tasks.

His receptive language has majorly improved he can now understand a lot more of what I say. He went from the first day of step ahead didn’t even look at the other kids to the last day where he sat with arm around another boy watching the iPad.

The parenting courses we received weekly have been invaluable. The knowledge I have about all different areas has helped me so much with doing things at home. Since finishing Step Ahead, using what we have learned through the programme, he can do the alphabet with magnets and he sits at the table for up to 15 minutes doing table top activities.

He is interacting so much more with his cousins.

He hated the touch of paint and playdough and sand before, he now sits and plays with all these things and enjoys it.

But most importantly, he is a happier child.