This interactive online workshop will explore how education and mental health professionals can better support the social communication needs of children in school settings. Through presentations, discussion and practical video-based activities, the session will consider early support and intervention, how adults can respond and adapt to individual children’s communication profiles, and practical approaches that can be applied in educational settings.
Delivered by Professor Jonathan Green, Dr. Catherine Aldred, and Denise Anthony.
Register for the event & pricing
Sign up at this link or on the Book Now buttons, and complete the form that follows. You’ll then receive an email confirmation and a link to the webinar, plus we’ll send you a calendar reminder nearer the time.
Delegates will have exclusive access to recordings for 90 days after the event, together with slides. Plus you will get a personalised CPD/CME certificate via email. Recordings from the session will be available to delegates from 5 working days after the event.
- ACAMH Members MUST login to book onto the webinar in order to access this webinar and get a CPD/CME certificate.
- Non-members: this is a great time to join ACAMH, take a look at what we have to offer, and make the saving on these sessions.
| Ticket Type | Price |
|---|---|
| ACAMH paying Members (Online, Concession) | EARLY BIRD £109 (until 11/01/27 then £139)(Join now and save) |
| ACAMH Learn Account Holders | EARLY BIRD £139 (until 11/01/27 then £169) |
| Non Members | EARLY BIRD £139 (until 11/01/27 then £169) |
| ACAMH Undergraduate/ Postgraduate Members | £15 |
| LMIC Members | Free |
About the workshop
The workshop summarises how evidence-based communication support and intervention in education embodies the 5 principles underpinning the SEN reforms to increase equity and inclusion for neurodivergent and autistic children. The focus on embedding communication support in everyday interactions aligns with the Code of Practice, Ofsted and EYFS.
The workshop presents the research evidence and a progressive, strengths-based approach to identifying neurodivergent and autistic individuality and developing supportive, adapted interactions and environments.
The workshop demonstrates Paediatric Autism Communication Therapy (PACT), suitable for pre-school and Primary school contexts. PACT uses a developmental relationship orientation, with long-term scientific evidence of significantly enhanced child social communication outcomes in pre- to post-diagnostic intervention and support. It has also been successfully feasibility tested in NHS and education services.
Video examples demonstrate the PACT delivery method for a range of children, supporting their unique communication styles and improving interaction and relatedness through increased adult adaptation to the child. This contributes to gains in social and communicative initiation, adaptive functioning and language use, while reducing emotional distress.
The PACT-Educators module introduces PACT principles in an educational context, demonstrating how adult adaptations in daily interactions can enhance child social communication and wellbeing.
The manualised stages build incremental steps towards better alignment, or ‘optimal fit’, between adult and child, embedded in everyday life and routines.
PACT is suitable for children aged 2–11 years with a range of communication and language differences, from children who use sentences to those who use few or no words and communicate through non-verbal means.
Learning outcomes:
- Awareness of the efficiencies and benefits of early communication support and autism care
- Understanding practical communication support strategies that can be applied in a range of education settings.
- Understanding of how to adapt everyday communication interactions to support autistic children in education contexts
Who should attend
Educational Psychologists, teachers, SENCOs, Mental Health Support Team (MHST) professionals, and specialist CAMHS professionals working with or supporting schools.
About the speakers
Jonathan Green is Professor of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at University of Manchester and the Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital. His work includes developing models of parent-mediated supports for early autistic development and a stepped integrated identification/support pathway for early autism care, now being implemented in the UK and internationally. Jonathan has undertaken participatory and co-production work with the autistic community including the phenomenology of autistic compared to neurotypical experience, and intervention co-design; arguing for a re-concepualisation of autism to include developmental and autistic experiential perspectives. He is a Senior Investigator in NIHR, Fellow of the UK Academy of Medical Sciences, and UK Global Senior Leader for Autism in the International Society of Autism Research (INSAR).
Denise Anthony – Denise provides expert assessments, reports, and recommendations to meet individual needs. She has dedicated her work to enabling pupils and students to grow in confidence as learners and to realise their potential. She is committed to providing pragmatic guidance to individuals, parents, schools, and organisations to see individuals fulfil what they are capable of and to be part of removing the barriers to learning and facilitating amazing outcomes. Denise is proud of her collaborative work with parents, schools and other professionals. Denise is certified in ADOS 2 (Autistic Diagnostic Observation Schedule), BOSA and PACT (Paediatric Autism Communication Therapy).
Denise has worked in various senior roles in primary, secondary and higher education for over 30 years. Her breadth of experience has always been focused on the area of Special Educational Needs. She is passionate about inclusive education and ensuring that young people have access to what they need to enable them to flourish.
Dr. Catherine Aldred – Catherine is a research and clinical specialist in autism intervention. Her work includes leading trials of pre- and post-diagnosis Paediatric Autism Communication Therapy (PACT), which showed significant improvements in autism functioning sustained for 2 and 6 years, respectively post-intervention. The new autism care pathway has evidence of feasibility trials in the rollout into the NHS and education context, and is recommended by NHS England. Catherine has over 40 years experience of working in CAMHS teams and a wide variety of education contexts. She is the co-director of a social enterprise with Professor Jonathan Green, leading training and implementation of the new detection and autism care pathway.
Catherine has contributed to developing integral measures for monitoring, review and individual goal setting and has developed PACT-Educators, an e-learning resource for pre-school and primary school education.