SISS Autism Team - Toolkits for schools
These toolkits have been produced by the SISS Autism Team to support Solihull schools to further develop their understanding of good Autism practice and the implementation of strategies for pupils with Autism.
These strategies are offered as a starting point and show a good Universal provision that we would hope to see in all classrooms and settings.
We have also included some more Targeted support strategies, where pupils may need further support.
There are numerous further strategies that schools can use and we have included links to further reading and support where we can.
The processes in these toolkits will support you in meeting the Code of Practice requirements for a Graduated Approach to support the pupils in your setting.
Please contact your specialist teacher for further advice and support.
The Coventry Grid
The Coventry Grid was developed to help clinicians distinguish autistic behaviours from attachment difficulties and the subsequent Coventry Grid Interview was developed as a more accessible questionnaire. This was further modified in 2018 to include examples that may indicate the presence of a PDA profile.
The Coventry Grid interview covers the following areas:
- Routine
- Social interaction
- Motor
- Auditory
- Difficulties with eating
- Mind reading
- Eating
- Executive functioning
- Language
- Communication
- Smell
- Treasured objects
- Movement
- Play
- Sensory issues
- Tactile
There are 63 individual questions, some with helpful commentary. This is not a diagnostic tool but can be very useful in teasing out underlying difficulties that would benefit from further exploration. Although there is a scoring system for ease of analysis, in practice this instrument is most usefully employed as part of taking a developmental history, or as part of a multidisciplinary team discussion after an assessment has taken place to help with formulation.