St Christopher’s School and Children’s Home
(Bristol)
Policy on Flexibility of Thought
Ratified by Trustees
November 2014
Review date
December 2015
Introduction
The purpose of this policy is to describe our understanding of one of the major difficulties
encountered by pupils with Autistic Spectrum Disorders (ASD), and how it affects their
ability to learn and to cope with day to day life. It is also within the remit of this policy to
detail how we support those pupils and promote their learning and development.
A diagnosis of autism or ASD means that the pupil has problems in three areas of
development: communication, social interactions and imagination (restricted flexibility of
thought), also known as the ‘triad of impairments’ (Lorna Wing, 1996). In 2013, a new
Diagnostic-Statistical Manual (DSM) description of ASD replaced the Triad with a Dyad of
impairments which includes Social Communication and Repetitive and Stereotypical
Behaviour.
Experiencing such deficits in these fundamental areas of development, often results in
high levels of anxiety, and at times this can be expressed inappropriately through
aggressive or self injurious behaviour.
Our task is two-fold, on the one hand to create a safe and secure learning and living
environment that helps reduce levels of anxiety, whilst on the other, it is to enable pupils to
develop more flexibility and better coping strategies to improve their independence, their
capacity to learn and their enjoyment of life.
What is Flexibility of Thought?
The typically developing young child initially learns through pretend play, imitation of
actions they experience and perceive in their immediate environment. Later on, this is
transformed in to a more abstract form of thinking and learning. This natural ability is
impaired in the development of the pupil with ASD.
Children with ASD have difficulties in using imagination to solve problems and in
predicting outcomes in day to day life. These difficulties link to a limited ability to
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generalise from one experience to another, perhaps similar one, as well as an inability to
anticipate new experiences, not already encountered. Learning activities that require
imaginative or abstract thinking can be difficult for them to make sense of and engage in.
Impaired flexibility of thought can be seen in the following behaviours:

Restricted interests, e.g. Disney videos. Repetitive activities, e.g. ordering objects
in their environment.

Dependency on established routines and rituals in order to secure familiar
outcomes.

Difficulty with transitions between environments or activities.

Difficulty with changes in the familiar environment, people or routines.

Poor levels of imitation and incidental learning skills.
Creating a safe environment
Problems with flexibility of thought can arise from overload: difficulty in processing
information from more than one sensory channel; inadequate filtering; selecting of stimuli.
We can help the pupil with autism by providing them with familiar activities, routines,
rhythms, and structure, as well as opportunities for repetition of newly taught experiences.
It is also helpful, if when communicating with the pupil or presenting activities, we ensure
that we do not engage more than one sense e.g. do not demand that the pupil look as well
as listen at the same time. Of course this will vary for each pupil and therefore it is
important to be aware of which senses are preferred by the pupil you work with, and how
well they are able to process these stimuli.
Developing flexibility of thought
There are a number of very helpful strategies that we use to enable pupils to develop
flexibility of thought and increasingly cope with change. Three of the most common at St.
Christopher’s are: Visual Support, Structured Teaching, and Intensive Interaction. These
approaches will be discussed below in more detail.
In addition to these teaching strategies we must also ensure that we plan plenty of
opportunities in the pupils’ daily life where they can engage in making choices and
decisions, manage change and solve problems.
One of the advantages of the residential school provision is the Waking Day Curriculum.
Pupils are taught in one setting, and encouraged to practice them in a variety of settings.
For example, in planning joint IEP targets in language and communication the pupil can
learn to make choices of a snack using PECS, in the House and in the classroom.
Another example is teaching a skill such as sorting, e.g. cutlery in Numeracy, then
practicing this in ‘real life’ when setting the table in the House dining room. It is essential
for school and care staff to enable the transfer of learning by liaising regularly with
each other – this forms the basis of our Waking Day Curriculum.
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Visual Support and Structured Teaching
These are two very important aspects of TEACCH (Treatment and Education of Autistic
and related Communication handicapped Children). Visual Supports we use are mainly
visual schedules, and also visual work systems. Visual schedules help pupils make sense
of time sequence and the beginning and end of activities. Using visual schedules in the
classroom and House helps pupils cope better with transition from one activity to another
as well as from one setting into the next. Having a ‘change’ or ‘surprise’ card as part of a
visual schedule can also help to explain when an expected activity is cancelled
unexpectedly.
Structured Teaching is the main element underlying the TEACCH programme. Its main
purpose is to improve the pupil’s adaptation. This can be achieved on one level by
developing the pupil’s skills, often using his or her special interests, whilst on the other by
modifying or structuring the environment to accommodate autism deficits. (Schopler,
Mesibov & Hearsey, 1995).
There are four major components to structured teaching:

Physical organisation

Schedules

Work systems

Task organisation
Physical organisation has to do with creating visually clear areas and specific
boundaries in the classroom or House that pupils can identify with specific activities.
Making associations between activity and physical space will help the pupil know what’s
expected of them. E.g. when going to their work station they know they have a learning
task to complete.
It can be useful to have in the classroom or House a ‘transition area’ where the pupil’s
visual schedule is kept. Going to the transition area in between activities as well as
checking the visual schedule can help with making transitions.
Schedules (visual timetables) provide a visual aid that gives pupils a concept of when and
what activities will occur and in what sequence. Visually clear schedules help pupils
anticipate and predict activities. They help reduce problems with memory or attention, time
and organisation. They compensate for problems with receptive communication, and
encourage the pupil’s independence. Schedules can also increase the pupil’s motivation,
by readily available visual reminders e.g. “first work, then play”.
Schedule (visual timetable) cards can also be used as ‘transition cues’, when the pupil can
take an activity card off the schedule and match it to a card outside the area where the
activity takes placed e.g. Groves Hall. This practice also helps pupils become more
independent and confident with transitions.
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Work systems are another important element in Structured Teaching. They give a visual
sequence of a distinct learning or work task, e.g. getting dressed in the morning using a
sequence of prompt cards to show the correct order of clothing items to put on. Work
systems also help develop flexibility of thought, by enabling the pupil to complete daily
tasks independently.
Task organisation is the fourth element of structured teaching, and is mainly used in the
classroom, when pupils are completing tasks in their individual work stations. This involves
setting up the actual task to be completed in a left to right sequence (or sometimes top to
bottom) that the pupil can independently follow and when completed, put in a ‘finished’ box
e.g. completing a jigsaw puzzle.
Intensive Interaction
We can help pupils develop flexibility of thought, through our understanding and engaging
them with what has meaning for them. We use Intensive Interaction to engage with and
interact with autistic youngsters. Here the focus is on developing early communication and
social interaction.
Pupil and carer need a shared language. A first step in Intensive Interaction is for the pupil
to recognise something of their own thoughts and activities in the other person. Carers
need to be flexible to make themselves available in this way. We look out for and respond
to any interaction the pupil initiates themselves. We build up a repertoire, practice through
repetition and work toward general interactivity, where dedicated one to one sessions start
to lead to a more general style of engagement with the pupil. Flexibility of thought can then
be developed through generalisation of activities: introducing new games, new settings
and new people.
Generalisation of Skills
It is important to create plenty of opportunities for the pupils to generalise newly-acquired
skills. This could be done by practising a new skill in more than one environment e.g.
learning to tie shoe-laces in class and in the House. It should also be done by introducing
slight variations to familiar activities and tasks, e.g. when teaching a new concept, such as
‘a cup is for drinking’, show a variety of cups.
Pupil-Centred Approach
St Christopher’s follows a holistic ethos, based on Rudolf Steiner’s therapeutic educational
approach. This approach is based on the collaboration of a multidisciplinary team of care,
education and therapy staff, in developing a holistic picture of the individual pupil, and their
unique abilities and needs. The understanding of each pupil is based on observation,
empathy and assessment of needs with the aim of creating a sense of security, a
balanced routine and identifying key areas of learning and therapy intervention.
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Developing a healthy sense of rhythm through significant routines forms an important part
of our philosophy. The rhythms of day, week, the seasons and celebrations help to create
a sense of security as well as introduce elements of imagination and fun to the pupils’ life
at school.
Staff training
All new staff attend an induction course within the first two months of their appointment.
This includes an introduction to Autism and to Play and Interaction.
All care and teaching staff attend visual communication workshops 1 & 2 as part of their
induction.
All care and teaching staff receive a three day PBM training course on dealing with
challenging behaviour.
Please refer to: Policy on Transitions (file 2)
Policy on ASD Needs (file 2)
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