Social Stories and other stuff

[donkeyderby]

..which professional/group told you about them? NAS? Paed? HV? Teacher? SALT?

I have said before on here how amazed I am at the level of knowledge that some parents have, especially those with ASD kids. Social stories, sensory disorders, ABA etc. I have never even heard of any of this before finding MN (apart from ABA which I know next to nothing about)

I also feel miffed: DS is 13 with SLD and challenging behaviour and - debatable - ASD and I have never been educated about any of these theories or approaches or been pointed in the direction of appropriate literature. It would be useful to know who I should go to for information.

I'm a teacher and heard about social stories, visual timetables etc. from a great SALT who worked with various children in my previous school.

I heard about them on hear and through reading Tony Attwood's book and general, endless internet searching on ASD

Most of the stuff I know I've learnt through following recommendations and links for reading/research on MN. The autism outreach team in our area is very good too. But in general I find other parents are the best source of info.

By reading books and info available online. There's lots of examples out there.

Our local autism outreach group gave lots of info..and did a workshop about writing social stories.

I first heard social stories and ABA mentioned on here then read further. Our private salt used ABA techniques but I had no idea that I had fallen on my feet there. To be honest ds (who is just 10 and has mod/sev LD as well as asd) has only just matured enough to understand social stories as an out of context means of teaching. The years leading up to that were just practice using stories in context! I suspect without MN I would not have had enough confidence in my own suspicions to push for ASD to be considered.
I wonder if very able adults with AS give ASD a voice whilst those with SLD are not so clearly represented.

I can see how great MN is from the amount of people who have been educated through it. This is certainly where I have first heard of these approaches in any detail.

Do most of you have ASD kids? I notice that it's ASD groups that seem to be educating parents. Have any of you with non-ASD children, been taught about these different approaches and theories?

As to looking stuff up and reading - I do loads of internet research on subjects pertaining to SLD, but often find it's like finding a needle in a haystack. Also, can barely concentrate on reading the back of a cereal packet due to chronic lack of sleep and would love to have access to workshops like busybeingmum. Hope I don't sound too idle.

google! and parenting forums, and other parents mostly.

www.thegraycenter.org/store/index.cfm?fuseaction=page.display&page_id=30

if you want specific advice on a particular problem then stick on here and someone will know.

i have a 17 yr old with aspergers. i found info from various sources. forums are great. and i rang the NAS - thats how i found out about melatonin - i was also seriously sleep deprived as was my then 15yr old.

ask on here and someone will know.

Ed Psych in case consultation - then organised training for us. Also went to training by one of the uk 'gurus' whose name, sadly, escapes me. But they're fab!