Attention Birmingham: Building a Sustainable Whole-Setting Approach for Children with Additional Needs
The Early Years Developing Local Provision (DLP) project is delighted to be working in partnership with Attention Autism to build a sustainable approach for children in the early years with emerging social, communication, and interaction needs.
*This blog is based on information from the Attention Birmingham project outline from Attention Autism 2022.
The Attention Birmingham project is designed to give early years leaders and their practitioner teams the information and practical expertise to develop inclusion experiences. The project presents ideas combined with practical strategies in workshops supported by coaching sessions.
What is the rationale for this project?
Children with social communication difficulties struggle to engage and may not readily respond to overtures from the staff to play or talk and this undermines staff confidence.
The neurotypical peer group find the children confusing, interact less and gradually give up. It can be relatively easy to identify that the child is different but knowing what to do about it is more complex.
What we know…
Diagnostic pathways vary in accessibility and can involve long waiting lists.
Practitioners express concern but feel they cannot call on programmes written for a different child and worry they lack the knowledge to move forward.
Autism awareness training and advice from visiting specialists is available but settings must refer individual children, wait for visits, and manage the child in the meantime.
Practitioners are willing and often highly motivated to support a child but have difficulty converting advice into strategies that are practical, and do-able, in a mainstream setting.
Visiting professionals may be recommending the same strategies leading to duplication of precious resources without effectively leading to successful application.
Practitioners are already busy and there are challenges in building the level of practical expertise needed to individualise interventions and weave manageable strategies across the early years community.
It requires confident practitioners to introduce changes that might not give immediate results.
It takes experience to understand the impact of autism and anticipate the way an autistic child may think or respond.
The fall-back solution is frequently to provide high levels of 1:1 and allow the child long periods of child-led/free play, where the child follows their own agenda with limited interaction with adults or peers.
A new way!
The building of practitioner expertise takes time and new ways of working need to be nurtured into everyday working practice if they are to become established in a sustainable, whole-setting approach.
When intervention is embedded in a setting, rather than targeting a specific child, it serves the children who are currently raising concern, and those to come.
Attention Autism
The Attention Autism Programme was specifically developed to produce a practical framework for staff to apply strategies based on autistic learning strengths in small group sessions.
The programme is based on offering an ‘irresistible invitation to learn’. Using this idea activities are designed to be fun or fascinating as well as opportunities to develop attention, social interaction, communication, and group learning skills.
The delivery of the programme builds practitioner confidence and expertise in the use of core strategies, making generalisation of the strategies to situations outside the group easier.
In the project, practitioners are supported in identifying how the strategies introduced could be used at other times in the day in coaching sessions, ensuring changes are practical and doable for that practitioner in their setting
Attention Birmingham in practice
The Attention Birmingham programme includes 40 early years settings across the city and is supported by members of the District DLP teams, colleagues from the Area SENCO Team, the Communication and Autism Team, the Educational Psychology Service, and the Early Years Consultant team.
Settings identify two practitioners and six children to work with. Managers and practitioners are supported to gain parent consent, undertake initial assessments, and agree targets to work on throughout the programme.
The settings are divided into groups and attend online workshops, along with feedback and coaching sessions based on video of group activities that practitioners record in their own setting.
The programme takes practitioners through the stages of the Attention Autism approach and practitioners are encouraged to practice the strategies and activities in the gaps between sessions.
How is it going?
The first group of 20 settings started the Attention Birmingham programme in January 2023 and are already seeing the impact on the children in their setting, as well as an increase in staff knowledge, understanding, and ability to implement the approach effectively.
The second group of 20 settings are nearing the end of the programme and feedback is positive so far.
Reflections and feedback
Some colleagues have shared their reflections on the personal and professional challenges of videoing sessions and receiving feedback from the tutors.
Several commented that they found it difficult to watch themselves on video and that it put them outside of their comfort zone; many had never experienced this level of detailed professional feedback on their practice before.
However, nearly everyone commented that whilst this process was challenging at times, through the coaching and feedback from the tutors, they feel increasingly confident in their practice and that it has been an extremely worthwhile process.
Some leaders shared that they thought they understood the approach as they had been aware of it before the course, however, having completed the programme they were now confident in understanding the detail of the stages and the rationale behind the strategies. This in turn has built staff confidence and deepened their understanding, knowledge, and skills enabling more effective use of the strategies and positive impact for the children in the setting.
“The Attention Birmingham training is going well so far. The children all seem to enjoy it and don’t want the sessions to end. They get very involved and look forward to the sessions when we have them.”
“This training is wonderful for all children and will be used with everyone within our setting.”
“Attention Birmingham has been a big hit at our school. The two members of staff taking part in the training are really enjoying the program and are enthusiastic to deliver the sessions and see the impact it has on the children in their sample. Other staff are now looking forward to learning how to use it within the rest of the nursery.”
“I will be mindful of the interactions I have with children of all needs and also this training will reflect on my activities with children.”
“Use all we have learnt about stage 1 bucket to the last stage and using it daily with our children who are non-verbal. Going for the visual first and then communication. Using the right language with the stages. Putting into practice in daily routine with all children.”
“I have a better understanding of non-verbal children to go with visual first, instead of communicating first. Having an interesting, engaging activity will get the children’s attention for either short periods of time or longer.”
“This course has really helped us to cement good practice for children with additional needs. We are already seeing a positive impact on our learners. Thank you!”
“I have found the Attention Birmingham training to be very informative and enjoyable. It has given me a greater understanding of the development of attention skills and practical ways to develop these through the staged approach.
I liked the way that Attention Birmingham is engaging for children and how it develops their motivation to want to be involved in group activities alongside considerations of how social pressures can be reduced. The modelling in the approach is carefully and thoughtfully developed alongside reduced prompts that children could become reliant upon.
It was fun, engaging and carefully scaffolded training led by skilled practitioners, and I look forward to seeing the approach used in early years settings.”
What’s next for Attention Birmingham?
Many of our DLP teams have also undertaken the course and will be able to share elements with you through outreach support and network events in the future.
We will be training two lead practitioners who will be able to continue to offer the full Attention Birmingham training in the future, so watch out for more information about training opportunities in 2023/24 or email us to express your interest.