Under the patronage of His Eminence Metropolitan Basilios, the Church school department of the Antiochian Archdiocese held their first workshop providing strategies and support to teacher volunteers and youth leaders on the special considerations of children who are living with autism, ADHD and learning difficulties. Volunteers attended face to face at the Antiochian Youth Centre as well as online from interstate.
The expert team of presenters comprised of experienced allied health workers including a paediatric speech therapist and occupational therapist as well as special education teachers and a teacher of the Deaf. The team provided extensive strategies and support through their detailed presentation and a teacher pack, which had useful resources such as visual timetables, fidget and weighted toys, social stories and emotion cards to assist with emotional regulation.
The attendees had the opportunity to ask questions and learn strategies to adjust their future lessons and activities to support children in their care to have equal access to learning and environment. A special consideration officer has been allocated to each parish to provide further ongoing support to parish teachers and church schools.
The feedback was extremely positive and further workshops are planned for the future including addressing children living with a disability and parent workshops.
