About Els for Autism, South Africa
At Els for Autism, South Africa, we strive to provide families of children on the autism spectrum with comprehensive training on how to use best practices in education and autism practices, to best teach their child.
Furthermore, we recognize that every parent and family member play an important role in helping their child reach his or her fullest potential. Thus, our primary mission is to empower caregivers by educating those in the lower-resourced autism community throughout South Africa.
Caregiver Support Services
Short term parent/caregiver coaching
We offer a short-term parent coaching approach, guided by the RUBI Autism Network parent training workbooks. The RUBI Autism Network is used by facilitators to provide parents/caregivers a structured, 11-18 session parent training model. Each biweekly session between facilitator and parent focuses on guiding the parent in applying techniques and tools to help manage the child’s challenging behaviours. Currently, all families joining our centre will begin with the RUBI training.
Longer term Caregiver / Parent-child interactive parent coaching
At the discretion of management, a handful of families are be offered a longer, more intensive term parent-led intervention. This service will include receiving sponsored access to an online intervention tool called Rethink Ed, which allows our trained facilitators to follow best practice methods to guide you in your teaching of your child. You as the caregiver are coached in applying techniques and tools when working with your child, in order to teach them a variety of skills.
caregiver support groups
All families attending the centre (past and present), as well as families who follow our social media pages, are encouraged to join our Friday afternoon online groups. These support group meetings currently take place every second, third and forth Friday of the month on zoom, with the aim of learning new tips and tools, while also gaining support from other families in the autism community.
teacher training
On expanding our services, Els for Autism, South Africa are now offering in-school staff training, where school staff will be taught about behaviour management strategies with a focus on evidence-based practices. In this training, teachers and staff will learn the ABCs of behaviour, including antecedent and consequence strategies to help empower students on the Autism Spectrum. There are hands on activities, tasks, and theory.
