towards an autism strategy for scotland

Posted by Allan Wilson on the 10th September, 2010

The Scottish Government, working in partnership with the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Reference Group, have developed a draft Scottish Autism Strategy.  The Strategy sets out what the Scottish Government in partnership with users, carers and professionals proposes to do to meet the needs of people with ASD in response to growing concerns that, whilst much has been achieved in Scotland to date, much has yet to be done.

The draft strategy reviews and builds on existing policies with a number of recommendations under five main themes:

1. Diagnosis, assessment and interventions
2. Matching resources to need
3. Standards and scrutiny
4. Staff education and training
5. Research

CALL Scotland's CPD Programme for 2010-11 includes a number of courses that are particularly relevant to teachers working with pupils with autism spectrum disorders:

• 09.12.10 - Creating Communication Friendly Schools
• 20.01.11 - Personal Communication Passports
• 03.03.11 - Multimedia Social Stories

These and other CALL courses can also be run as in-service training in schools and local authorities.