Mark Phillips Clive Allan Mark Boyle

 Cambian Dilston College is a specialist residential college for students aged with complex needs, mental health, autism, behavioural needs and learning disabilities.  Cambian is one of the largest employers in this field nationally, with a positive ‘outstanding’ reputation across the service  Mark and Clive both teach a broad spectrum of learners at Dilston

 As well as the formal Ofsted style OTL schedule (term 1), tutors at Dilston also undertake and themed project (term 2) – this year was action research investigating the use of video analysis for all learners across the college i.e. for evaluation or peer mentoring. Tutors then feedback about their small working projects and share good practice. Term 3 is a peer observation schedule, pairing tutors together according to their strengths or ‘even better if’ areas – with an emphasis on quality improvement.

 “Can the use of video during a catering session help students to suggest their own self assessment comments by describing their own performance?”  Queensland Government put out a report on the use of iPads in special education their findings were that the use of iPads had many benefits in helping students engage. The ability for students to take a photo or video then edit and combine into other programs to feedback to the group was invaluable to their L.D students  Westwood writes about the visuo-thematic approach, when a learner is given a picture as a visual stimulus to generate discussion.

 Example of differentiated Duke of Edinburgh induction booklet for ‘some’ students

 Our autism specific curriculum is designed to meet the needs of learners with complex communication and behaviour difficulties.  This is a highly structured and experiential learning programme which develops and reinforces learners’ adaptive behaviours, communication, social awareness and functional skills. The curriculum is based upon a ‘total communication’ philosophy with the utilisation of a wide range of indivdualised communication methods to develop learners understanding and help them to be understood.  Learners would usually access this curriculum exclusively and are taught in small groups by a team of tutors who have an excellent understanding of the very specific needs of learners on the autistic spectrum.

 The curriculum is designed to:  Provide differentiated opportunities for learners to make informed and structured choices within community activities.  Develop knowledge and skills for accessing public venues and facilities.  Provide routine activities which students can follow when preparing to access the community  Provide opportunities to develop Functional Skills  Assist in building relationships through a ‘total communication’ environment  Promote self awareness by recognising their role within activities e.g. watching themselves on video.  Support learner understanding and recall by using visual means such as PCS and widget symbol sets and also photographs  Encourage signing, through Makaton to visually support communication.  Typical activities within this curriculum are Community and Leisure skills, ICT, Birdfeeding, Music, Cycling, Swimming, Art and ILS. Depending on achievement within these areas students may progress into more vocational based curriculum areas.  Learners accessing the Communication and Behaviour curriculum are also likely to access the sensory curriculum if they require input and support in that area. This may include particular students being given a sensory diet that may make use of the sensory room and outdoor areas around college. Often additional sessions are led or are assisted by the therapy team (an OT and SaLT).

 Symbols and photos form the basis of the pictorial resources used within sessions. They facilitate the development and understanding of routines and concepts. They also play a valuable role in supporting speech or offering an alternative for those with speech difficulties.  In an ICT session we use pictorial resources in a structured, controlled environment that is relevant to the learner. For example see below:

 These resources can be fully differentiated to each individual learner depending on a number of factors: - their knowledge of pronouns, verbs and nouns (can use as many symbols as I want) - concentration levels and ability to focus on a task (can use less or more symbols) - physical disability such as poor eyesight (can enlarge symbols and photos)  In addition we use these symbols as a tool to support the expression of preferences. See below:

 In summary pictorial resources are used extensively across our curriculum as they provide an effective tool to enhance communication.  Through creating relevance to the learner, via photo and video, they are intrinsically more motivated to communicate.  Using symbols enables learners to develop from the basic level of captioning photos with one symbol to sentence building with pronouns, verbs and nouns.  We have found that using symbols can then support speech.  Using these symbols as part of an ICT session means that they are being taught discreetly but can then be used in wider functional contexts.  Symbols should not be taught directly but embedded throughout a curriculum and their home lives.  Any questions?