Glenbrook Surestart and the Belfast Trust Speech and Language Therapy Service (SLT) have been recognised accolade at the National Autistic Society’s Autism Professionals Awards for their work with young people presenting with communication and social interaction difficulties in Ardoyne, Cliftonville and Ligoneil through the “Little Learners” program.
The annual awards recognise people, services and schools across the UK who are making a difference to autistic people and their families. The winners were chosen by an independent panel of autism specialists, who were looking for high standards of innovation, creativity, impact and sustainability.
Little Learners is a needs-led developmental programme for children aged 2 – 3 years old, presenting with suspected Autism. The program is a co-production between Glenbrook Surestart and Belfast Trust Child Development Speech and Language Therapy Service.
Caroline Milligan, Project Co-Ordinator, Glenbrook Surestart said “Part of our remit is to reshape core services and identify areas where we can provide support. We identified more children were presenting with communication difficulties and services on offer were not meeting their needs so we looked for a partner to help us develop a solution to that need and we found that in Child Development, Speech and Language Therapy.”
Elaine McGreevy, Speech and Language Therapist Lead, Belfast Trust, said “I was really excited to see how we could pull pour resources knowledge, skills, passion and commitment to deliver a program of the highest quality for young children presenting with social interaction difficulties and at that stage “Little Learners” was born.”
“Little Learners offers a range of support in a practical way, making the best use of resources to meet the needs of the children in difficult circumstances.”
“We are proud to have our work acknowledged as we have worked hard to develop this service and share our knowledge across other Surestarts and our Speech and Language Therapy service so that children beyond the Glenbrook area also benefit.”