For two days, I attended a training session conducted by Autism Western Australia. It was a remarkable, satisfying and memorable experience from the beginning to its end. This is because of the immense knowledge and useful resources that I received from the brilliant speakers. They were brilliant in regards to their teaching strategies, activities, support and assistance. As a result, the experience has changed not only my life but another one. It is an autistic child’s life— the perfect boy that I care for. He has a voice now; he can articulate his wants and needs through visuals. I cannot thank the speakers enough for what they have done, and I will always be grateful. It has made a positive difference in our lives. I would highly recommend this training session to anyone; everyone should be made aware of autism. I am looking forward to the next training session, and I do not doubt that it will be insightful.

My experience with the information and training provided was very positive, providing a bigger understanding and picture of Autism and strategies to support and help people with ASD. 

Everyone was able to express themselves and their ideas with no judgement, but with response that are supportive, and ideas and suggestions to help centres who seek and need the support.

We have 5 children in our Centre who we believe have ASD. It’s so “relieving” to hear such simple, achievable measures can help. We’re inspired to go back to our rooms and start trying a few (at first) ideas! It’s a privilege to get to teach these beautiful children and know we can also improve their QUALITY OF LIFE! THANK YOU!

The information and support given to our service will be invaluable to take back and teach our educators how to better meet the needs of our Autistic children and will definitely allow us as a service to improve the quality of life not just for our Autistic children but all children in the service.

This project has been a huge eye opener for me. I am so excited to spread the word and help Educators, families and children become more Autism Aware. I am confident now in my knowledge and supporting families through various processes. The strategies provided to me, I have never seen or used before and I will use them every day in my Early Learning daycare setting and in my everyday life with children and adults. The consultants were amazing and the way they presented the information was easy to understand and engaging.

20 years in the sector and this is by far the best, most useful training I have ever attended. The benefits to my day to day, and how approach inclusion are huge.

Wow, what a learning experience. So much to take in and implement. It has made me open my eyes to true inclusion and what I can do to make our environment a better place for all. Thank you for providing such a fantastic tool. I hope we can continue to pass this information to others. It is a workshop that should be available to everyone to hear. The world would be a much nicer and inclusive place to live in! 

When I (Manager) began here at KidsHQ Jacaranda, we had some challenging behaviours across the centre. The educators were burnt out of ideas and the pressure was building. Inclusion Support was in the process of coming but, the timing was limited and I could not find a way to support and train the educators in time before the risk of losing them to another field.

When I heard about the Autism Champion Project, I signed up that day and put down 3 of my key educators. We were successful and the educators went to training. They said this is the most adaptive, supportive and proactive training they had ever been to. At the time we had 6 children with Autism or were undergoing assessment for Autism and were unsure on how to support these children to now have an open door policy to all children with additional needs that require support that other centres are unable to give at this time.

We have 2 particular cases we could particularly refer to. A 4-year-old Boy in our Kindy space was non-verbal but used hand gestures to guide us to his needs or desires. In the beginning, we were uncertain on how to assist in calming him, how to help him regulate (how to help us regulate) and our days were quite challenging and long. Once we went to the training we learnt how to create more flexible environments, free-flowing spaces indoors and outdoors that helped him (and all our children) to flow where he needed to go without resistance or hesitation. We learnt about his need for space but also reassured him we are close and this eased his times of stress or tension. Within a matter of weeks, he began joining us for group science experiments when in the past he would stand on his own and appear uninterested in group settings. When the family got accepted into a First Steps Program, they booked him here for 1x Day a week continuously because they did not want to lose his rapidly growing development in social interaction and connection with us. This young boy is now going off to Kindergarten and the families are feeling much more supported knowing that he can engage in group settings and be okay.

We have recently accepted another enrolment for a young 2-year-old girl who is in a similar position. The family could not find a centre that would be supportive or accommodating to her needs as their First Steps centre was closing down. She has only been in attendance for one week and has already shown us how incredible she is. Because, we have been trained through this project, we are able to seamlessly welcome her into a full toddler room of 20 children with no calls for distress or alarm. Her family is supported and are no longer worried and she is in a space that is welcoming and inclusive. Without this Project, I truly believe my educators would have burnt out and would have left the Early Childhood Field. This Project genuinely saved us from burnout. Now, we are building an inclusive and supportive centre as a team to support all children in our region.

I have gained so much practical knowledge through these training days and the consultations within the service. We are able to use the strategies for the children and families and provide more inclusive support for the community of learners. The educational materials provided give a great insight on how autism affects people at different ages and how we can give children the best possible start.