Karam

I bring a unique set of skills and experience related to SEND and inclusion. I trained as a Primary school teacher in mainstream schools and a specialist setting, taught in an SEN setting for a number of years, I have been an assistant head teacher in a specialist settings, I have a doctorate in education (autism and learning disabilities) and led two Primary education courses at degree level.

I have taught students with profound and multiple learning disabilities through to students completing their PhDs. I have experience teaching students with autism, ADHD and dyslexia up to university level. This includes basic literacy as well as more advanced writing, development of presentation skills, and academic reading. Additionally, I led a Primary PGCE with SEN, where I trained teachers who were going on to train and work in specialist and mainstream schools. I have also been part of the senior leadership team in a specialist school, where I led the teaching and learning for children with complex needs.

SEN teaching

Throughout my teaching career, I have taught children with PMLD, SLD and autism, Down's Syndrome, ADHD, attachment disorders, FASD, cerebral palsy, dyslexia and SEMH. At the special school in which I taught, I usually taught children with autism and intellectual disabilities. In my teaching, I consistently used AAC, Intensive Interaction and structured teaching, with a focus on children's individual interests to develop engagement and connection. One of my proudest moments in my whole career was working with a girl with autism and severe intellectual disabilities who had significant challenges with emotional regulation. This student was sent home almost every day from school due to behaviours that challenge and her place even at a special school was at risk. Over the course of three years working with the student and her family, I introduced Intensive Interaction, colourful semantics, PECS, a completely child-led approach and music therapy. This led to the student engaging in most lessons, never being sent home from school, a complete reduction in behaviours that challenge and the child saying her first sentence.

Autism specific

Most of my career has been spent working with children with autism. I have worked one-to-one, led classes and whole pathways within schools. In my teaching, I use a structured approach to ensure predictability and routine for children. This allows the students to feel safe and secure so that they can make meaningful progress in their learning. I have implemented these ways of learning in schools and in students' homes, for example, through the Direct Payments scheme.

My doctoral research was around using our (adult) interactions with children with autism to promote positive emotional wellbeing and emotional regulation. My research highlighted the central place of a trusting relationship between adult and student. Through this trusting relationship, we can teach both communication and emotional regulation skills.

Teaching communication

I have years of experience teaching children who have few or no words. I have worked with speech and language therapists to develop individual approaches to communication for each child. These approaches include using signing systems, like Makaton, symbol exchange, like PECS, communication boards, symbols and combining all of these to develop total communication environments in schools and homes. All of the children I have taught have made progress towards being understood and understanding others.

Learning difficulties and executive functioning

I have spent years developing my teaching practice working with children with learning difficulties and disabilities. I have taught hundreds of students with profound, severe and mild learning disabilities using personalised approaches. This teaching has included core subjects like Maths and English, as well as skills around independence, emotional regulation and communication.

Numeracy and literacy

I use a structure and visual approach to teaching literacy and numeracy. For example, using colourful semantics which is an approach where each type of word, e.g. noun, has its own colour so students can visualise sentence structure independently. These structured and visual approaches are used as a stepping-stone for some students, who go on to read, write and do Maths without the structure. Others use the stepping-stone in other ways, for example, using the structured sentences to learn how to communicate verbally, rather than writing in the traditional sense. However, I believe, like many others, that students who are using symbols or pictures to convey their ideas, are writing - just in a different way.

Independence and regulation

Independence has always been an important part of my teaching. I have lots of experience teaching life skills in home environments and out in the community. Work in the community is essential, especially for students with learning difficulties, so that they can apply their learning to real life contexts to be independent in a safe way. I have led lots of community visits for students up to the age of 19 with severe learning difficulties so am acutely aware of how to do is safely and productively.