Barnado's Cygnet Course

I was very lucky to receive an invitation to the Barnado's Cygnet Course, which is a parenting course for carers of kids with autism between 8-18. I liked the fact that it was tailored to older kids and was also intrigued by some of the interesting topics that will be covered; my primary interest being sensory processing issues.

I'd missed the first week, which was just introductions but the instructor kindly gave me a brief refresher of the main points covered. She also gave me the course booklet, a questionnaire to fill in and a pen and pad for notes. I think we do a questionnaire at the end of the course to see if we have improved in confidence after applying the techniques.

Today's lesson was communication.

The lesson was a PowerPoint presentation and all of the slides are also featured in the book, which is handy. The tutors look at each slide and discuss them with the group. We also had a couple of activities about communication, which also served as ice-breakers, with the group discussing how, why and what we communicate. We also did a game, which was putting a jumbled sentence in order.

We learned about overcoming barriers to communication and also about social stories and issues specific to autistic kids.

The session was fun, but I didn't find it particularly relevant to me, as my son doesn't have many of the issues discussed today. Next week will be more important for me, as it's about sensory problems. It was nice to meet other parents of autistic kids though, and the instructors were lovely.

I will report back next week after attending the next session and give my feedback on how it went.