Autism affects about one in 100 children and adults. In January last year, nursery practitioner Stacey Smith (pictured) began a one-to-one role with a severely autistic three-year-old girl, Christie (not her real name), at Halstead Pre School in Essex. To prepare, she completed the first level of a three-tier, Department for Education-funded training programme offered by the Autism Education Trust (AET).
Ms Smith completed the training in-house alongside nine colleagues, through Essex County Council. At the end, a setting receives a tier 1 certificate if it can demonstrate it has established an autism lead person role and staff are developing knowledge of young autistic children’s needs.
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