Referral for possible autism 18 month old - advice?

[AskingforaBird]

Hi everyone. We've just got a referral from our amazing health visiting team to a scheme which I think is called iBasis.

I can't find a huge amount about it online and what it entails, so I was wondering if anyone had any advice?

Feeling very grateful that we're getting this support for my child who we have suspected might be neurodivergent for a while.

Also, any advice on best Makaton resources would be really appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

Singing Hands and Something Special are good for toddler. I did an approved in person course which was really interesting if you are looking to teach yourself, you can also buy an instructional DVD. My county library had 3 copies of their resource pack but never in a year did I manage to get hold of one! We started Makaton with my son who had a speech delay at 16 months. It definitely made a big difference for us.

Hi

I'm not familiar with iBasis but in regard to Makaton I can help as I'm a Makaton Tutor, whilst also being a childminder. :-)

There are a number of free resources on the Makaton website you may find useful and you can actually sign up for a 7 day free trial which allows you access to the 40000+ resources available in the Makaton Library.

As lastfiresocks commented, Singing Hands and Something Special are great resources to follow as you know they are accurate. If you look to You Tube for ideas then I would make sure you look at pages like Singing Hands and Mr Tumble, or pages that state that they are a Makaton Tutor as sadly there are a lot of videos out there that claim to be Makaton but aren't and the last thing you want to do is teach your son incorrect signs.

If you are in a position to attend training, then I highly recommend you do and I'm not just saying that because I'm a Makaton Tutor but there is a lot more to Makaton than just the signs and it's not something you necessarily pick up on from watching videos. You also get a manual to keep which covers all the signs and symbols taught and to attend level one you don't need any previous signing experience.

If you have any questions or want to get in touch then please feel free to email me at [email protected], you can also find my courses both online and face to face and my social pages on the links below.

Makaton Tutor Mel :-)

BOOKWHEN https://bookwhen.com/makatontutormel

FACEBOOK https://www.facebook.com/makatontutormel

YOU TUBE https://www.youtube.com/@makatontutormel

LINKEDIN https://www.linkedin.com/in/makatontutormel

I would learn BSL over Makaton. Check out Lets sign BSL website for resources.

Also spread the sign for video dictionary