Autism (ASD)
Autism is a neurological difference, not simply a deficit to be corrected. Autistic children and young people experience the world in ways that are deeply individual, often with heightened or altered sensory perception, a strong preference for consistency and predictability, intense interests, and a different approach to social communication.
At Hopscotch, we start from the position that every autistic child/young person has strengths. Our job is to find them, name them, and build therapy around them.
How Autism Can Affect Daily Life
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Sensory overwhelm: extreme responses to noise, light, touch, taste, smell, or movement that make everyday environments exhausting.
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Sensory seeking: a need for intense physical input (jumping, crashing, squeezing, spinning) that can be difficult to manage in school settings.
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Difficulties with transitions, unexpected change, and moving between activities.
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Challenges with fine motor tasks, handwriting, and self-care
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Social communication differences: difficulty reading facial expressions, understanding unspoken rules, or engaging in reciprocal conversation.
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Emotional dysregulation: meltdowns, shutdowns, or high levels of anxiety.
How Occupational Therapy Can Help
Our occupational therapists work with autistic children and young people on the practical skills that help them navigate daily life: self-care, managing the sensory environment, school participation, motor skills, and emotional regulation. We use a Sensory Integration lens across all of our Occupational Therapy work, which means we look for the sensory underpinnings of behaviour and difficulty before designing any intervention.
How Sensory Integration Therapy Can Help
For autistic children and young people with significant sensory processing differences, Ayres Sensory Integration® therapy can produce outcomes that generalise far beyond the therapy room. Ayres Sensory Integration® works at the level of the nervous system, helping the brain to process and integrate sensory information more effectively. Research supports Ayres Sensory Integration® as an evidence-based intervention for autistic children and young people; with randomised controlled trials demonstrating improvements in goal attainment, daily functioning, and parental stress.
How Speech & Language Therapy Can Help
Our Speech & Language Therapists support autistic children and young people with the communication skills that matter most to them and their families, from developing functional communication in non-speaking children to building the social communication skills that help older children navigate friendships and school life. We take an individualised approach, using the child/young person’s interests and strengths as the medium for therapy.
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Our Experience
Autism is the most common profile we see at Hopscotch. Our whole team has specialist experience in this area, and our Clinical Director Dimitrios Mylonadis is an internationally recognised expert in Sensory Integration therapy for autistic children and young people. We work with children and young people across the whole spectrum: from profoundly affected children and young people with complex needs to those who are academically able but finding school and life increasingly difficult.
