New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline - Ministry of Health

Part 3: Education for learners with ASD
Links with Te Whäriki – the New Zealand
early childhood curriculum
New Zealand is fortunate and unique in having
an early childhood education curriculum. Te
Whäriki (the New Zealand early childhood
education curriculum) draws on an ecological
perspective to highlight how the child’s learning
environments extend to incorporate family,
community and professional relationships and
settings. The strands of Te Whäriki are:
• well-being – mana atua
• belonging – mana whenua
• contribution – mana tangata
• communication – mana reo
• exploration – mana aotüroa.
These strands provide a very comprehensive
framework within which goals for the
young child with ASD can be developed in
collaboration with families and whänau.
• actively teaching ‘survival skills’, for
example, turn-taking, sitting quietly during
activities, listening to directions from both
near and afar, communicating basic needs
• members of the team around the child
visiting the new setting and considering the
demands of the environment and teaching
the child the skills needed, for example,
putting belongings into a tray or locker,
indicating they need to go to the toilet,
putting toys away
• members of the team from the current
setting providing information, support and
education to the staff in the new setting
• planning the transition to the new setting
with visits which take place on a gradual
basis
• using social stories and other visual strategies
to introduce the new setting and the people in
it 209 211 212 (see section 3.4 for a further discussion
of Transitions).
3.1.d Transitions and young children
Part 3
The young child particularly requires structure
at times of transition. Transitions occur when
changing environments as part of the daily
routine (eg, home to early childhood education
centre), changing activities (eg, meal time to bath
time) and when changing to a new education
setting (eg, beginning school). These transitions
require careful planning for both the child and
the new environment 209 .
A key transition is to move from home to an
early childhood education setting and from there
to school. A survey has identified a number of
successful programmes for young children with
ASD. The following useful strategies have been
suggested:
• preparing children to function as
independently as possible from the
beginning. This may begin by teaching
imitation and attention to adults and then
particular skills taught in small steps
94
New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline