Our vision at picturepath is to support children in managing their day; reducing stress and anxiety to create an inclusive learning environment. To achieve this we need experts; our users. Picturepath users provide the most important learnings and their expertise determine the route for development of the picturepath products..
It is our partner schools who identified the potential use of the data picturepath holds. In the last 3 years we have had countless conversations regarding harnessing the information gathered through picturepath to support children and their care team in managing expectations.
The autism institute for research asserts that collaboration through keeping records, sharing knowledge and experience can support those caring for a child to achieve goals and objectives. Keeping data will help identify patterns, monitor the consistency of support, and ensure holistic learnings across a child’s care team.
Schools do a fantastic job identifying behaviour and intervening appropriately, however the autism institute submits that, “Memory is not as reliable as we think. Emotions, hopes, and fears can distort our recollections.”, emphasising the importance of keeping records.
Picturepath currently captures some really interesting data points:
- Activities completed by a child across the day.
- Does a child like or dislike an activity
- Does the teacher / support staff assess the day as a good day or a bad day
- The capturing of the teacher’s / support staff’s assessment of the day
Through picturepath dashboards this data is presented to schools to support engagement with parents and guardians and allow the identification of behaviours, and potential ways of managing expectations.
We propose that keeping these records will help with the following:
- With the identification of patterns – e.g. behaviour challenges on particular days, favourite activities, least favourite activities, aligning least favourite activities.
- Identification of intervention points
- Share with your care team – Your records can be invaluable in helping your care team form a deep understanding of your child with autism by getting to know their needs, behaviors, and preferences.
There are immediate benefits to capturing information with picturepath including the ability to easily share reports with parents / guardians and gathering information on children which will provide evidence for funding, and reporting to LEA’s and Ofsted.
Government guidance promotes, “Active involvement of people with autism, family members or carers, and the use of documentary evidence or records of early development and past/current behaviours (especially experiences of home life, education and social care)”. The digital capturing of this information allows this immediately.
In the future we plan to add data points for meltdowns, sensory seeking, when a child is sleepy, all in the hope of building a holistic picture.
So in answering the question, ‘Can data and record keeping support the management of expectations for autistic children?’ picturepath’s response is that we intend to give you the tools to find out.
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