Autism Support

Parents and carers of children registered with a GP surgery in the Berkshire West NHS area (Reading, Wokingham and West Berkshire) – click here for a list – who have possible or confirmed autism can benefit from the support services detailed below.

• If you would like to register an interest in attending any of these evidence-based autism workshops or courses, or have any questions, please complete our online referral form, email contact@autismberkshire.org.uk or call 01189 594 594 (option 1) and leave a voicemail message. If a booking link for a workshop is shown, you can register yourself to attend.
• If you are a health, education or social care professional who supports autistic children and young people and their families and you want to make a referral to the service, please click here for our referral form for professionals.

Helpline

Advice about support for families of autistic children and young people and making an appointment with one of our family support workers is available by emailing contact@autismberkshire.org.uk or calling 01189 594 594 (option 1). Also provides information about Autism Berkshire’s other services. Click here for more details.

Autism advice workshops

The full range of free online workshops and courses available is as follows – we recommend that parents and family carers new to autism attend all three of the workshops about Understanding More About Autism, Sensory Differences and Supporting Behaviour, as the topics covered complement each other.

All these workshops take place online between 12.30pm and 2pm, unless otherwise stated.

Understanding More About Autism: This workshop is for parents and family carers who are new to autism or who want to update their existing knowledge. It explores the key elements of autism and introduces the concepts of sensory differences, executive functioning, emotional regulation and masking. It is a great introduction to our range of autism advice workshops. Those attending will receive information to keep for future reference.

Forthcoming workshops:

• Thursday, April 23.

Sensory Differences: A two-part interactive workshop which looks at the sensory processing differences and difficulties which are thought to affect at least 80% of autistic people. Session 1 looks at how we all react to the sensory world around us and how this might be different for our autistic children. Building on this information, Session 2 looks at things you can do to help your child, and everyone is encouraged to share their own experiences. This workshop is useful in understanding why our children sometimes behave in ways that surprise or challenge us. Those attending will receive information to keep for future reference.

Forthcoming workshops:

• Part 1: Thursday, May 7; Part 2: Thursday, May 14.

Autism & Mainstream Schools: Many autistic children and teenagers find the mainstream school environment challenging. The workshop looks at the legislation around support at school and the opportunities and limitations of potential support strategies. Parents and carers will be encouraged to share ideas that have helped their child and may help others in similar circumstances.

Forthcoming workshops:

• Wednesday, June 3 (10am to 11.30am).

Supporting Behaviour: A two-part interactive online workshop which aims to help parents to identify the reasons behind their child’s behaviour and to understand it as a sign of emotional distress. Session 1 explores different types of physical, verbal and emotional behaviour, and discusses how autistic meltdowns/shutdowns are different to age-appropriate behaviour. In Session 2, we’ll look at the strategies you can use to help your child to feel distressed less often and reduce the impact on the whole family. Parents usually find it helpful to have attended Understanding More About Autism and Sensory Differences before doing this workshop. Those attending will receive information to keep for future reference.

Forthcoming workshops:

• Part 1: Thursday, June 4; Part 2: Thursday, June 11.

Emotional Regulation: Looks at strategies designed to help parents and carers to support their child to develop their ability to manage their emotional response to challenging situations, and how to use resources such as Social Stories and Comic Strip Conversations. To gain the most from this workshop, which is led by Autism Berkshire trainers, we recommend that parents should first attend the initial series of autism advice workshops. The strategies explored are most suitable for parents of verbal children aged 5 and above.

Forthcoming workshops:

• Thursday, June 25.

Eating & Mealtime Challenges: Issues eating a wide range of foods are common in autistic children and young people. This workshop for parents and carers, with Autism Berkshire trainers, discusses the factors that underlie food refusal, some tips to help encourage new food choices and where to get specialist advice and support.

Forthcoming workshops:

• Thursday, July 2.

Workshops for Parents and Carers of Autistic Teenagers

This programme of three evidence-based autism advice workshops, developed by Autism Berkshire’s family support team, provides tailored information and support for the parents and carers of autistic children and young people aged 11 to 17 and who are in mainstream education or home-educated and do not have learning disabilities.

We recommend that parents and carers attend all the sessions, as the topics covered complement each other.

All these workshops take place online between 12.30pm and 2pm unless otherwise stated.

Autism & Teenagers: This workshop looks at the challenges of being autistic in adolescence, including maturing behaviour and developing independence, as well as puberty and sexuality.

Forthcoming workshops:

• Thursday, April 30.

Anxiety & Teenagers: This workshop considers why anxiety is so prevalent in autistic teenagers and the importance of self-esteem and resilience, and looks at strategies to support emotional regulation.

Forthcoming workshops:

• Thursday, May 21.

Teenagers & Social Situations: This workshop focuses on the social situations autistic teenagers face at school, at home and online. It discusses how to support them to develop an understanding of other people, how to find and make friends, and the part that social media plays in their lives.

Forthcoming workshops:

• Thursday, June 18.

Sleep Difficulties: This workshop for parents and carers, with trainers from Parenting Special Children, covers autistic and ADHD young children’s sleep cycles and sleep needs, the reasons behind night settling and night waking, strategies to help parents and carers feel less stressed when sleep training a child, and parenting strategies for settling a child to sleep and staying asleep.

Forthcoming workshops:

• Thursday, July 7.

Preparing for Adulthood: The aim of these workshops is to help the parents and carers of autistic and ADHD teenagers (aged 13 and above) to navigate the transition to adulthood and to support their young people with knowledge, skills and confidence.

Forthcoming workshops:

• Wednesday, July 1, 10am to 11.30am.

This is a new evidence-based workshop from the Berkshire West Autism & ADHD Support Service team, that aims to help parents/carers of teenagers aged 13+ to:

• Think about individual strengths and challenges, plus what is important to and for their young person and tips about how to discuss this with them
• Identify individual things for parents/carers and young people to focus on from a checklist of suggestions.
• Make a plan with their young person about what they want to work on first and next.
• Look at ideas to help their young person plan what to do and who can help.
• Find out about other local organisations that can advise and help parents, carers and teenagers at this key stage in young people’s lives.

Transition to Primary School advice session

A free online session for the parents and carers of autistic children aged 3 to 5, whether they have a diagnosis or are waiting for a Berkshire CAMHS assessment, who will soon be starting full-time education. Our family support workers share some tips and strategies that parents can use to support their children through the transition to primary school. There will be plenty of time to ask questions.

Forthcoming sessions:

• To be advised.