ASSIGNMENT 1: PART A

I.L.P. Date Devised: 24.6.2013

Review Date: 24.9.2013

Child Name Sebastian Clark

D.O.B. 19.02.2010

Age: 4 yrs &1 month

Learning Context
Centre: Donvale Early Learning Centre
Key features: The program are Donvale Early Learning Centre aims to promote and
nurture the development of every child as an individual. Our program involves both
indoor and outdoor environments, as well as weekly visits from different specialists for
activities such as swimming, physical activity, language and music.
Program Support Group Members consulted in devising this plan:
In the division of the plan there were multiple members involved:
Early learning Educator: Susanne Arnold
Teacher aide: Stacey Campbell
Mother: Laure Clark
Grandparents: Benjamin and Ruth Smith
Background/General information
Sebastian is a four year old male, who lives with his mother, older brother Jack and
younger sister Rose. Sebastians cultural background is Australian, and the language
spoken at home is English. Although Sebastian lives at home with his mother, he often
also spends time at his grandparents house, who also often pick up and drop off
Sebastian to kindergarten.
Sebastian lives in Donvale, in a neighbour which is positive and safe. As Sebastians
mother is a single parent their financial situation is not always stable, but in saying this
Sebastian always displays a high level of health and wellbeing.
Sebastian has a great interest in nature and the outdoor environments, as he is often
wanting to explore outside or work on his vegetable garden and worm farm.

SPECIAL NEEDS
Sebastian has been diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome which is one of the Autistic
Spectrum Disorders (ASD). According to the American Psychiatric Association (1994)
Autistic Spectrum Disorders are a group of disorders which are characterised by
deficiencies in social interactions, communication.
NEURODEVELOPMENTAL CONSTRUCTS

Attention: Sebastians attention varies depending on the current topic, if a topic of

Sebastians interest is mentioned, not only does his ability to pay attention change, but
also his whole posture and expression. According to Attwood (2006), this reaction is
common in children and individuals with Aspergers.
Memory: Sebastian has an excellent memory, this is often shown when is able to recall
events is specific detail when asked.
Language: Sebastians language skills and vocabulary are highly developed.
Motor functions: Sebastians motor functions are good, as Sebastian shows no signs of
developmental delay.
Social Cognition: Due to Sebastian having Aspergers, he is often more reserved in
social situations due to less developed social skills, and therefore a deficit in his social
cognition.
Higher order cognition: Due to Sebastian having Aspergers, his ability to problem solve
and use his imagination, and therefore demonstrate higher order thinking, is impaired
(Wing & Gould, 1979).
Spatial Ordering: Sebastian demonstrates a high level of spatial ordering when engaging
in activities such as wooden blocks. When playing with activities such as blocks
Sebastian is often able to recreate things which he has previously seen. It has been
found through research that individuals with autism often display a superior ability with
spatial ordering activities (Caron & Mottron et al., 2004).

Holistic Curriculum
Skills, strengths and competencies
Sebastian has demonstrated his excellent ability to memorise, words, images and
events. When doing activities such as flash cards Sebastian excels at remembering the
letter, number or name of the object.
Sebastians ability to read and write is also improving and progressing at a great rate, as
he often enjoys spending quiet time in the reading corner looking over the different
books.
Challenges
We need to continue to encourage Sebastian to participate and engage in social
experiences and settings. Sebastian is often observed playing by himself and being
reserved in social situations with peers.
Sebastians ability to focus and attend to an activity or instructions is sometimes
hindered, which can result in class disruption and there fore impacts Sebastians ability
to engage.
Learning Priorities
Future targets and goals for Sebastian include expanding and furthering his social
development, and assisting him in forming positive relationships with his peers. By
encouraging Sebastian to engage and contribute in the classroom and with his peers,
we are hoping not only improve his communication and social skills but also ensure that
Sebastian is getting the most he can from the environment.
We are also hoping to assist Sebastian in he development of communication skills by
encouraging him to express how he is feeling to fellow peers and educators so that we
are all able to assist him, and therefore avoid any frustration for Sebastian.
Another area of focus is working with Sebastian to enhance and improve his ability to
comprehend literature. We are hoping to do this by encouraging him to understand the
meaning of literature, and what is happening in it.

Assignment 1: Part B

Sarah Colson
Donvale Early Learning Centre
12 Jolly Street, Donvale 3111
Phone: 9867 5432
Email: sarah_donvaleelc@myeducator.com

Anne Scott
Doncaster Primary School
23 Inverloch Road, Doncaster 3112

January 11, 2014

Dear Anne,
I am writing on behalf of Sebastian Clark and his family, who will be a student in your prep
class in the coming year. My name Sarah Colson, Sebastians current educator at Donvale
Early Learning Centre. Sebastian has attended our centre from the age of 12 months, and has
been in my four year old kindergarten class this past year. I am writing to you in hope that I
will be able to provide you with information that will assist in Sebastians smooth transition
into your class room.
Sebastian has Aspergers Syndrome, which is a part of the Autism Spectrum Disorders
(ASD), this disorder is usually characterised by impairments in social interactions and
communication (Cui & Gao et al., 2010). This year we have been working very hard with
Sebastian, and he is making positive progress in his communication and social skills. A vital
aspect in Sebastians continual social development, is playing and interacting with his peers.
Giving Sebastian opportunities to interact with his peers is vital to his development as is it
through these peer- play experiences that socialisation, development and knowledge about
culture is gained (Wolfberg, Bottema & DeWitt, 2012).

As we are aware that Sebastian will be going into a new environment and with new peers, I
thought I would share the method which we used throughout the year to help settle Sebastian
and give him the opportunity to develop social skills, as well form relationships with his
peers. We followed the suggestions from Hampshire and Hourcade (2014) which was to use a
progression approach with play experiences. We began with encouraging and promoting
solitary play, then parallel play alongside other children, associative play which involves
sharing objects of play with other children, before finally progressing to cooperative play. By
using this progressive method we found that Sebastian was able to ease into social situations,
and become familiar and comfortable with his fellow peers.
Children and individuals with Aspergers Syndrome also often have restrictive and repetitive
behaviours, interests and activities (American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Sebastian has a
strong interest in nature, and always appears to be most happy and content when in in our
outdoor environments, where is often looking after our vegetable patch and worm farm. From
my observations of Sebastian I noticed that even at the mention on nature, Sebastians whole
attitude, posture and ability to concentrate completely changes. Through appropriate
interventions and planning, I began to use this strong interest and direct it towards
educational aims (Attwood, 2000). Examples of this included encouraging Sebastian to read
through providing reading materials with the theme of nature, and creating flash cards with
had objects from nature on them to extend his vocabulary or even mathematics skills.
Sebastian shows no issues in the ability to decode written material, and he has a welldeveloped vocabulary, but one area for improvement is his ability to actually comprehend
what is actually happening in the literature. This is common is children with a highfunctioning autism spectrum disorder (HFASD) (Jacob & Richdale, 2013), and therefore may
be an area for you to focus on with Sebastian. We have been using methods such as trying to

make connections to what Sebastian already knows and encouraging him to predict what will
happen next, or make comments about the text.
I hope that this letter will be of assistance to you, and that Sebastian experiences a smooth
transition into your classroom. If you have any concerns for further questions please dont
hesitate to contact me. I have also attached the latest Individual Learning Plan for Sebastian,
which will hopefully provide further background knowledge and information on his
strengths, and what we were working to improve.
Yours sincerely,

Sarah Colson

Attached: Individual Learning Plan