I have loved expanding my knowledge on Autism, I have learnt new ways to support children that have or may have Autism and how to use different resources to support children and families. 

I have gained so much knowledge in the 3 sessions I have been to. It has given me the confidence and the tools to create inclusive environments to all the children who come into my service. I will also be able to share my knowledge with my team. 

The training gave me ideas and strategies that will benefit every child in our centre, not just children diagnosed or ‘red flagged’. It made me consider how inclusion strategies benefit all. 

The Champions Program has given me the tools to work with all children and help them succeed in their day to day lives. I now feel more confident identifying signs of ASD and to use different strategies to ensure all children are included. 

I will advise anybody in the childcare industry to go for this training as this gave my team and better understanding how to deal with behaviour and support parents. 

As an Early Childhood Educator and a mother of a newly diagnosed child with Autism, I found these sessions invaluable and the skills, confidence and knowledge gained will help moving forward. 

I have learnt so much during this two day training. I have reflected on my professional practice as an Educator and feel confident and wholesome in the fact that I can help children reach their goals, and provider the support that they need. 

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.

Wow! Such an amazing comprehensive look into ASD. I feel like everything was unpacked and I now have the confidence to implement new strategies to support the child, family and educators.

I found this project so beneficial and full of information which is relevant to our service. I cannot wait to go back and share with my colleagues and children. Would recommend for others to attend and participate.

The consultants were great presenters and very knowledgeable. They were supportive and gave some great suggestions to help understand Inclusion and how to build a better environment that supports all children regardless of their differences. Really great project and we can not wait to implement some of the things we have learnt.

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.

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 day care 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.

On reflection we realized that sometimes less is more so we decided to begin in the two main rooms that the educators who attended the training were working (JJ2 – our older babies/toddlers) and JJ4 (our 3-4 year olds) The idea being we could start slowly introducing small portions of the visuals within our rooms that were specifically targeted to the current needs of the children. These were the toileting routine, and sunscreen stations as we found that routine times were the most challenging. The planning matrix became the starting point for our observations when we noticed challenging behaviours to enable us to pinpoint where the children actually were and what need they might be trying to communicate with their behaviour. 

Obviously the year has now ended and children have transitioned rooms and some of our educators have transitioned with them. The simple visuals have provided a sense of continuity for these children and we are now entering into a new year where we are still settling children into new environments. Having our quiet, self regulation areas in all rooms has been a consistent practise that we have found works well. We also introduced a sensory box into two of the rooms where we have older children who need ‘rest’ but struggle to lie down for whatever reason. These have enabled them to settle and reset in the often busy environments in our very large service. 

I feel the training has empowered these educators to be confident in implementing these additional strategies and they speak from a place of knowledge now when people question their methods. Education for such a large staff team is slowly coming from within the team and it is working well. Thank you for your amazing support and guidance. The more we know, the more we can share and the more confident we can feel to support everyone to feel included in our service.

As a regional organisation we often feel unprepared and unable to effectively support children within our setting. Being a part of this project has empowered us on our journey in implementing strategies to develop an inclusive culture.

A very informative program which allows for a greater understanding of why and how certain reactions occur. I developed more insight into recognizing and documenting certain triggers. Consultants presented and answered questions to embed these practices practically. Awesome program!!

The program is very informative and well structured. Our consultants worked very well together and answered our questions and gave suggestions informed by research. Our consultants engaged us every step of the way and checked in for clarification of our understanding. We believe that what we have learnt in this program is essential to inclusive education and hope as many educators and teachers as possible can access this program.

The Autism Championship Program has impacted our centre in such a positive way more so then we initially thought it might. After the two day training session, all three educators that attended came back with such a fresh, new perspective and stated that this was one of the best professional developments they have had the opportunity to attend. First day back and they were implementing new strategies, the rooms and children are so much calmer. They have been implementing one strategy at a time, waiting for this to be imbedded in practice before moving on to another one. We are finding the pressure and stress on the educators has been reduced as they are feeling more confident in their roles as they understand our children a lot more. We cannot recommend how highly beneficial this program has been for us so far and we are so grateful to be a part of it.

This is my first formal training for Autism inclusion support. It has made me feel more empowered as to what I can implement in my settings when I have a child who has been diagnosed or not. A lot of the strategies are going to help me support ALL children.

The project has helped me better understand about Autism in Early Childhood. I’ve learnt new strategies and uncovered information about behaviour and the research behind it. With all these resources to share with families and fellow educators, I think I‘d be great help and mind opener too. I really hope to see more projects like this being offered to educators, so children can receive the best care possible.

The training provided affirmed my current knowledge level and supported building my capacity in areas of interest. Such and informative and positive experience. Thank you so much.

The course was delivered well and was an eye opener. As we went through the day I was continuously connecting information to the children I work with everyday. The trainers were easily understandable and made themselves approachable, this created a warm environment which allowed everyone to feel included.

The training was so informative and throughout the information it was clear that we could link the strategies to our centre and children. It was amazing to hear from other educators and share our experiences, triumphs and where we might need extra support.

These sessions have been so valuable for the services, they have learnt so much and it’s really great to see them coming on board.