Six years ago, we were introduced to a frightened little girl who communicated only by crying, kicking and repeating the same phrases over and over again.  Over time we have come to know her well, and now her repetitive phrases only reappear if she is stressed. They are one of the indicators we use to tell us that something is wrong.

My jobshare partner and I had no idea about autism when we first met her, and we found ourselves on a steep learning curve. As teaching assistants, we were employed for a few hours a week until her diagnosis of autism enabled a statement of SEN to fund us for more hours.  

We researched, observed, asked experts, and discussed until we started to feel we knew a little about how to help her.

Being employed as a ‘1:1’ teaching assistant meant we were funded solely for the hours we worked with the child, leaving no funded time without her. However, we soon realised that to do the job properly we would have to meet to compare notes, to share ideas and to work together to help her progress.

Multiple barriers

Always, our aim was to get her into the classroom, but she found this so stressful; she frequently ran out and we found ourselves struggling to keep her calm.  

Looking back at our notes, even at the beginning of Year 2 we celebrated if she had achieved one task in a day that was of our choosing and not hers. She was accurately described as “own agenda driven” by the specialist communication team. 

That team no longer visit owing to budget cuts.  

Our first breakthrough was in Year 1 when the first weekly spelling tests began, at the same time, on the same day every week.  She was fortunate to be able to write and so the predictability of a weekly spelling test became our way into the classroom. 

Close observations led to us explicitly teach social play daily, with her class peers; these continue to this day. Very gradually, she spent more time in the classroom and less time 1:1 with us, although the balance between being included as a body in the classroom and being able to access learning has always been a tricky one. Her poor speech and language skills mean that it is very difficult for her to process the information given orally by the teacher and so much of our time is spent rewording, making visual prompts, encouraging her to stay on task. It’s all in the planning. 

Different approaches

We have worked with some amazing teachers that have made every effort to include her in classroom teaching, and some who have fallen prey to the stress of performance-related targets, leaving us to provide all differentiation.  

In situations where there is no recognition that her barriers to learning could be reduced by teacher behaviour, it has proven extremely difficult to keep her in class. We’ve read and agree with the teaching assistant deployment research (DISS (2009), EDTA (2012), and MAST (2013)).  We know she deserves to be taught by the teacher. Equally, we cannot stand back and watch while nothing happens.  

After a few years, the school agreed to fund us for an extra hour a week, during which time we were able to discuss her progress and plan what might work the following week, based on what had happened following our efforts the previous week. In practice, everything was done outside our 1:1 working time, but at least we felt that our efforts were appreciated by the school.  

This hour was the token funding that we used to justify our continued research into the use of different approaches, as well as attending SEND and autism conferences, meeting with her parents, meeting with the educational psychologist, writing social stories, maintaining observational notes from which to identify what worked and what didn’t work and attending and contributing to yearly reviews.  

Successes and setbacks

She has thrived. We made many mistakes, but we learned from them. Many things we have tried haven’t worked. Some have. We are now the ”Autism Champions” for the school and we have set up lunchtime sessions to share resources and information about special educational needs. 

Currently in Year 5, with an amazing class teacher, she would always prefer to be in her class, and any visitor would be hard pressed to identify the child with autism. We work as a tag team with the teacher, always observing, but promoting her independence as much as possible while ensuring we have removed as many barriers to her learning as we possibly can. We have visited the special school her parents hope she will attend next year and now have a plan to make her transition as smooth as possible.

We are privileged to have worked with her throughout her time at primary school and we are filled with a mixture of excitement, pride and dread at the thought of her moving on to secondary school in a year’s time.

And last month, they took our extra hour away.  

The writer is a teaching assistant in a primary school

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References

Blatchford, Peter , Bassett, Paul , Brown, Penelope , Martin, Clare , Russell, Anthony and Webster, Rob(2011) ‘The impact of support staff on pupils’ ‘positive approaches to learning’ and their academic progress’, British Educational Research Journal, 37: 3, 443 - 464, First published on: 27 May 2010 (iFirst)

Blatchford, P., Webster, R. and Russell, A. (2012) Challenging the role and deployment of teaching assistants in mainstream schools: The impact on schools. Final report on findings from the Effective Deployment of Teaching Assistants (EDTA) project

Webster, R. and Blatchford, P. (2013) The Making a Statement project final report. A study of the teaching and support experienced by pupils with a statement of special educational needs in mainstream primary schools