Autism Baselines
There are so many tick lists out there, they are all over the internet. Many of these sheets will tell you that a person is autistic or has autism. Our colleague Chris Barson (who has created many online courses for us) has a different approach to baseline information. However, it could still be treated as a standard baseline information sheet (SBS). The following text is featured on his wonderful website below:
https://positiveaboutautism.co.uk/index.html
‘The Positive Sensory Plan’
This example sticks to the single sheet philosophy, which is easier for busy practitioners to read and act on the information. The following text is taken from the Positive about Autism website and copies of the sheets are here (click the picture or link) with a guide how to use them.
https://positiveaboutautism.co.uk/uploads/9/7/4/5/97454370/positive_sensory_plan_updated_2018_.pdf
‘It starts by profiling the person’s sensory preferences (the activities that have a positive sensory pay-off) and listing the sensory aversives (the things the person can’t tolerate or are triggers for difficult behaviours).
The next section is about what we do with that information. There are two parts to this: Positive Sensory Programme and Sensory Support.
Sensory Support consists of:
Getting control of the physical and sensory environment and removing or reducing the sensory aversives.
Working with the person to help them take control. We can remove some sensory triggers but sometimes, in fact quite a lot of the time, we just can’t stop bad stuff happening.
Positive Sensory Programmes consist of our ideas on how we’ll use what we know about a person’s sensory preferences or interests to:
- Motivate and reward
- Help them learn
- Have fun or relax
- Build a relationship
- Communicate
Chris says, “First things first”:
“We can’t do any of this without building a picture of the person’s relationship to the sensory world. If we have spent some time with the person then, as a team, we probably already know quite a lot about the person’s sensory likes and dislikes. To ensure we have got all the fine detail however we might need to:
“Meet as a team and compare ideas
“Use a tool or checklist to assess the person”
Do’s
Keep it simple. The PSP is designed to give basic advice on how to approach supporting that person. The detailed stuff should be in the person’s learning/ behaviour support plan. For instance, the person might have some quite detailed sensory targets as part of their Individual Education Plan.
Review it often! People’s needs change all the time. So should the PSP. Check the right things are happening.
Get the whole team involved.
Spread the word. Why not present a person’s PSP as part of bite-size learning session with the team? Key workers can make this a regular part of their CPD.
Don’ts
Go it alone.
File and forget!
Make it public. We need to respect the privacy of the young people and adults we support.
We suggest that you visit Chris Barson’s Positive About Autism pages using the links above if you need more detail about the ‘Positive Sensory Plan’.
