From: Steffanie Rogers
Sent: Monday, 9 October 2023 7:17 PM
To: Committee, Education & Health Standing laehsc@parliament.wa.gov.au
Subject: inquiry into support for asd children
As a mum of four, including one with additional needs (adhd, pending asd, gdd and a chromosome deletion) and a special needs education assistant for over 13 years the main gaps i notice are quality support staff within mainstream and ed support classrooms.
Staff are walking in with very little practical experience and been given these complex children and expected to know how to help them.
More professional development of nurodiverse affirming strategies are required, mentoring, training from the child’s therapy team and own parents would be beneficial also to better equip teaching staff with ways to support the child outside of their safe place (their home).
This comes down to a funding problem too - disabled children (or their parents) have to fight to receive ea time in the schooling system and a lot of the time the teachers are spending that time managing behavioural issues rather then the child with the learning or socialisation difficulties.
| see it daily the poor attitude of staff and the way they treat children that don't fit into the box is quite upsetting. It
comes down to a lack of understanding, education and therefore inclusiveness as these children are usually expected to attend special education rather then a mainstream one - how will we ever learn and evolve if we exclude these children from mainstream schooling and hide them away in special education support rooms. Autistic individuals and disabled children where at all possible need to be integrated into regular rooms with their peers so we as a whole community can create better practice and undertanding among us all.
Thankyou
Steff
Sent from my iPhone