Supporting your child with ASD at school

Children and young people with ASD may require additional support to help them progress through their education. The support they need may change and develop as they move through their education and other agencies such as Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy and Social Services may become involved.  The type and level of support required may also increase during certain critical periods, for example, transition.

Below is some information about the support available for children with additional support needs (ASN) including children with ASD.

Putting support in place

In line with GIRFEC, additional support is planned in partnership with parents and children and is personalised to the needs of each child.

Depending on your child's needs, additional support might be provided in a range of ways. For example:

• Carefully planned classroom support, input from a classroom assistant
• Adapting the curriculum
• Access to smaller group learning opportunities
• Inclusion in an autism or language and communication provision
• Input from specialist services such as occupational therapY or speech and language therapy.

The way in which the support your child requires is planned and monitored depends on the level of need. A child's plan should be used with all children who have additional support needs. This involves teachers working with parents and children to set goals for a child's educational development, whilst regularly reviewing progress and the effectiveness of additional suport.

The plan may include a range of targeted interventions from specialist education staff or other agencies. This may be used where there is a significant adaptation of the curriculum, or to help co-ordinate input from a social worker or health professional. It is a written document and should be detailed and specific. You can ask your child’s school for more information. You and your child should be fully involved in setting learning and wellbeing outcomes, deciding on the type of support provided, and evaluating progress.

Coordinated Support Plan (CSP)

A CSP is an education plan prepared by the local authority in partnership with a child's teacher, head teacher and childs parents. It aims to provide coordinated support around the child, identify educational needs and individual learning outcomes. It

Your child may be eligible to have a CSP if he/she meets the appropriate criteria, i.e. support needs are likely to last longer than one year and will require input from one or more agencies working in collaboration with Education. A CSP may be considered if only one agency, along with education is required to support the child to access the curriculum.

For further information, you should in the first instance speak to your childs teacher.

You can also visit:

Enquire – the Scottish Advice Service for Additional Support for Learning

Enquires produces The parents’ guide to additional support for learning factsheets on a range of topics, such as transport to school and taking part in meetings about your child’s education, as well as a series of booklets.

The following diagram provides a decision tree to help authorities decide whether children and young people require a co-ordinated support plan. It should be read in conjunction with the Co-ordinated Support Plan Regulations.