Transition or Transformation?

John Clements is a clinical psychologist of over thirty years' standing, specializing in the field of developmental disabilities. He has previously worked for the NHS and university system in the UK and jointly established the UK's first independent psychology practice specializing in issues for people with developmental disabilities. Julia Hardy is Principal Educational Psychologist at The Duke's Centre in Kingston, London. She has worked with autistic children for many years. Stephanie Lord is a retired Headteacher and Director of Children’s Services who has worked with young people with autism since 1979. She developed the BERIS and Touch Talks programme for children with autism and is currently furthering these approaches in Romania.

So often books describing an educational method or philosophy can seem divorced from the real world of the schoolroom and the school office, with the day-to-day procedures, staffing difficulties and petty bureaucracy involved. This title comes as an exception to that rule, chronicling the "transformation" experienced by a group of students on the autism spectrum, and the teachers and staff in their special school, as a result of making major changes to their way of working. These changes were based firmly on what the latest research has revealed about learners with autism, but you get a sense of how hard it is to turn around school cultures alongside the engaging descriptions of students and their development. The authors are highly experienced practitioners with a wealth of expertise in understanding and managing behaviour problems and challenges to learning. This shows through in their descriptions of the hard work involved in this process of change... Interestingly, past receipt of speech and language therapy emerged as an importantfactor in later progress, something that should be highlighted in an era of cuts that have affected this already hard-to-access specialty. In sum, educators will find the attitudes, enthusiasm and practices described by these authors worth emulating.

• Acknowledgements. Introduction. 1. Student Stories. 2. The Staff Perspective. 3. An Understanding of Autism. 4. Ethos, Practice and Curriculum. 5. The Relationship Style. 6. Relationship Techniques - Visual Supports for Communication. 7. Relationship Techniques - Developing a Reflective Self. 8. Relationship Techniques - Body Basics and Massage. 9. Relationship Techniques - Reward, Punishment and a Culture of Celebration. 10. Transition or Transformation? 11. Organisational Supports. Appendix I. Sample Staff Training Materials. Appendix II. The Role of Educational Placement, Education Provision, and Parents on the School Performance of Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (Phil Reed, Lisa A. Osborne and Emma Waddington, Swansea University).