Sylvia Senior – Distance Learning Understanding Autism

Name: Sylvia Senior

Course Name: Understanding Autism

Course Type: Distance Learning

Sylvia was prompted to follow a distance learning course in Understanding Autism because she thought it would be useful in her role as a higher-level teaching assistant at the primary school in Scawsby, South Yorkshire where she works.

Sylvia said, “There was an autistic child in the Year 3 class I looked after last year. He was very bright and knew a great deal about world geography including all the capital cities and the county towns in the UK. I didn’t know much about autism and having tried online learning before, I decided to look for something on this subject. I spotted the NWSLC course on Facebook and signed up.

“The course really opened my eyes to the autistic spectrum and how wide and varied it is. I learned such a lot and even learned to recognize traits of autism in my own circle including behaviour associated with OCD. Back in school, I became aware that I needed to prepare my autistic pupil ahead of time if there were going to be any changes to the timetable. I could definitely see a difference because he was able to adjust his expectations with enough warning.

“I enjoy studying online, it really suits me and the way I work. I used the physical workbooks as reference material and completed the answers online. My tutor was amazing; she was always there no matter when I needed help and was very responsive to any queries.”

Sylvia already had a successful career as a dance teacher and was proud to reach the finals of the ‘Miss Dance of Great Britain’ competition at Sheffield City Hall. Her claim to fame includes competing against Mel B from The Spice Girls. Returning to the workplace after having her family, Sylvia volunteered to hear children read at her primary school. She enjoyed it so much that she went back to school herself and gained a maths GCSE and then a CACHE diploma in childcare before securing her role as a teaching assistant.

Sylvia added, “I would definitely recommend studying a course online with NWSLC; I will definitely sign up again because I know there is a good range of subjects on a similar topic.”