World Autism Day highlights excellent work in education sector

Education Minister, Caitríona Ruane, has highlighted the work carried out in schools to support children with autism.

The Minister was speaking on World Autism Awareness Day and said: “I think it is appropriate, given that this is World Autism Day, to look at the excellent Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) support being provided by dedicated professionals every day in our schools.

“All teachers and schools want to provide good quality educational experience for the 3,700 ASD children identified through the Education and Library Boards. The work of the autism support service has been instrumental in building the capacity to develop whole-school autism awareness and teaching approaches to effectively engage children in education.

“We are also making good progress at the Middletown Centre for Autism which has delivered invaluable training for around 700 professionals from throughout Ireland. When this all-Ireland centre is fully operational it will provide services directly to children and their families.”

Education and Training Inspectors have found evidence of excellent work carried out by the autism support service in the North of Ireland.

The service provides advice and guidance to 4,000-6,000 school staff and supports almost 300 schools each year through autism advisory teams in each Education and Library Board.

The inspectors found that staff in the advisory teams, consisting of over 40 ASD specialists including senior educational psychologists, speech and language therapists and autism intervention officers, are 'highly qualified and skilled', 'have an in-depth knowledge of autism' and that their work is highly valued by teachers and parents.

The Middletown Centre has been engaged in an intensive specialist training programme for educationalists bringing together international practitioners to share and promote best practice.

Since the Centre began to provide training services in December 2007, 700 professionals from throughout Ireland have benefitted from training programmes developed by the Centre. This included the first delivery in Ireland of an assessment training package for children and young people aged 14 years and upward transitioning to vocational opportunities.

Research

• The Centre’s Research and Information Division is actively involved in the dissemination of international best practice through its quarterly research bulletin.
• It has also commenced its own research programme based on priorities identified by its stakeholders and has completed research work, which will shortly be published on diet and autism.
• A research programme focusing on diet, sensory issues, challenging behaviour and mental health and autism has been identified through the Centre’s public consultation process and will be the focus of the Centre’s ongoing research work.

Notes to Editors:

1. The support service was established with earmarked funding from the Department of Education following the 2002 Task Group Report on Autism and since then has developed into a comprehensive service.
2. An additional £ 8.7million has been provided for ASD services over the past seven years by the Department of Education, including almost £4million (£600K in 2009/10) for the Inter-Board Autistic Spectrum Disorder Advisory Service to promote commonality and consistency, develop training for education and library board staff and schools, play a key role in the design implementation, monitoring and evaluation of intervention programmes, advise DE on key issues and link with outreach and training services in Middletown.
3. The Middletown Centre for Autism is a north/south educational initiative jointly funded by the Department of Education and the Department of Education and Science.
4. Media enquiries to the Department of Education Press Office Tel: 028 9127 9207. Out of office hours please contact the Duty Press Officer via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.