On this page, we have tried to answer all the most frequently asked questions about Little Talks Autism Consulting and the services we offer. Please do not hesitate to contact us if you any other questions.
In which areas of the UK does Little Talks provide services?
We are based in the North East of England and the central belt of Scotland. We provide services to children in the following cities and surrounding areas: Edinburgh, West Lothian, Glasgow, Newcastle upon Tyne, North and South Tyneside, Gateshead, Durham, Washington, Sunderland, Stockton-on-Tees, Middlesbrough, and Wynyard.
Where do the sessions take place?
Our sessions typically take place at your home. Sometimes we will include visits to community settings in our sessions (such as a park or shop) if parents or carers need some additional help with supporting their child in those places. We require a parent or caregiver to be present for all sessions. In some cases, we provide support and training in nurseries and schools (if permission from the nursery or school is granted).
If it suits the needs of your family, we also offer remote sessions where a member of our team will provide consultation services to you via video calls.
How often do sessions take place?
Sessions are usually once a week or every other week and last two to three hours. Remote consultations usually last one hour.
What does a typical home session look like?
The purpose of our sessions is to provide parent/caregiver training to help your child make progress toward the goals your consultant and you have identified together. As a company, we try to ensure that all of your child’s goals are functional and meaningful for your child and will improve their well-being, social communication, emotional regulation, and/or independence. We do not work on reducing self-stimulatory behaviours (stimming) unless your child’s stims are harmful to themselves or others.
Our sessions are primarily child-led, which means we follow your child’s interests and use those interests to work on your child’s goals as much as we can. Depending on your child’s age and developmental level, the session may include a small number of adult-chosen activities. These will always be brief and they will never be the primary focus of any session.
One parent/carer must always be present during sessions. Our aim is to show you how to implement strategies to support your child’s development throughout your daily life.
During sessions we ensure that children experience a high level of success to promote their self-confidence. Lots of motivating activities are included. We want your child to enjoy themselves! A child who is having fun is learning. We give the child lots of opportunities to initiate social interactions, and we honour and encourage their attempts to communicate. We use visual supports to help make expectations clearer, and we aim to create a language-rich environment by making lots of comments throughout our play. We typically alternate between movement activities and seated activities as this helps with regulation and concentration.
What strategies do you use in sessions?
We use lots of different strategies to promote spontaneous communication and help ensure your child stays happy, well-regulated, and motivated throughout the session. Some examples include:
- Modelling language at your child’s developmental level throughout the session
- Providing lots of opportunities for the child to communicate, and being responsive to all of their efforts to communicate
- Using visual supports (e.g. a visual schedule) to help establish predictability and clear expectations
- Incorporating your child’s interests into learning activities
- Adjusting sensory input from the environment
- Alternating between movement-based and seated activities throughout the session
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What will my child be learning?
The consultant will conduct a detailed assessment of your child’s existing skills during the initial sessions, which includes in-depth conversations with parents/caregivers about their priorities for their child. Where appropriate, we also collaborate on goals with other professional, such as teachers, Speech and Language Therapists and Occupational Therapists.
Once the assessment is completed, we create a goal plan based on the assessment results and parent priorities. We typically re-assess and update the goal plan every six months.
Some examples of skills we commonly work on include:
- Communicating using speech and/or alternative forms of communication such as pictures, sign language, or an AAC device
- Emotional regulation
- Joint attention – This occurs when two people pay attention to the same thing. For example, when you say, “Look, a bus! and point to it, and your child looks to where you are looking and pointing
- Social skills such as sharing, taking turns, and playing with another person
- Daily living skills such as eating, dressing, sleeping through the night, and toilet training
- Play skills, although any type of play is fine! For children with limited interest we try to help with finding additional things and activities they enjoy
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As a parent/carer, how involved will I be in my child’s sessions?
Very! You will be present for all sessions and you will take an active part in each session. Your autism support specialist will explain and model strategies and then ask you to give it a try. You will also likely be given “homework” between sessions. Most (if not all) of our recommended strategies will be ideas that can be incorporated within your and your child’s daily routines.
Parents/carers using the remote consultation model will be coached by their consultant to work directly with their child during remote sessions and will continue to practice these strategies in between sessions.
My child doesn’t have a diagnosis of autism (and/or may not be on the spectrum). Can he/she still benefit from your services?
We don’t require children to have a formal diagnosis of autism in order for them to be eligible for our services. Research has shown that high quality early intervention for children with developmental delays can change a child’s developmental trajectory and improve their well-being. If you suspect your child may be showing signs of autism or developmental delay, we would encourage you to find some extra support as soon as possible. Obtaining a diagnosis of autism can be a lengthy process so it doesn’t make sense to us to wait for a diagnosis to start working with a child!
Our expertise is predominantly with children with a diagnosis with autism, however we also have experience working with children with different diagnoses (e.g., Global Developmental Delay and Sensory Processing Disorder) and with children who don’t have a diagnosis but may be struggling to learn certain skills.
Please contact us if you’d like to find out if our services could be beneficial for your child, whether they are diagnosed with autism or not.
Can you provide training to my child’s teachers/nursery staff?
Yes, but only upon request from the nursery or school.
What is the best age to start receiving services from Little Talks Autism Consulting?
You don’t need to wait until your child reaches a certain age to receive services from us. We have worked with children as young as 14 months. However, we do not typically start services with a child who is older than 8 years of age.
You also don’t need to wait until your child has a diagnosis of autism to contact us. Although many of the children we work with do have a diagnosis of autism, we also work with learners who are going through the diagnosis process, who have a different developmental delay or who don’t have a formal diagnosis of autism.
For more information on whether our services would be appropriate for your child and family’s specific needs, contact us directly and book your free initial meeting.
When do services from Little Talks end for my child?
This is a tricky question to answer. Occasionally we are only involved for a few months while tackling a very specific goal (e.g. toilet training or sleep). More commonly, we support children until they start primary school. For some children, we are involved well into their primary school years.
The time at which services end depends on multiple factors:
- Parents/carers’ goals for the child
- Logistics around how sessions fit into the child’s schedule
- Budgets
- With what type of skills the child needs support
- How well supported they are at nursery/school
- The child’s age
There will be ongoing dialogue between us, parents/carers and other professionals about your child’s progress and development and whether support from Little Talks Autism Consulting continues to be beneficial. Parents/carers are also free to terminate services at any time and for any reason, although we do appreciate as much notice as possible.