Watch and learn!
Can you believe it’s been more than a year since the first national lockdown began? Now that non-essential shops are re-opening and the vaccination programme gathers pace, we’re hoping that a return to something approaching normal is on the horizon.
Aside from that, we should also acknowledge just how much the Sycamore Trust staff have adapted services during the period of disruption caused by coronavirus. Developing social and communication skills can be extremely challenging for individuals who experience difficulties in communicating their own wants and needs in a face-to-face environment and we understood that providing our services via video technology would bring up new challenges.
We have worked hard across the whole organisation to continue to deliver our support and services to all our families and individuals using video technology. One of our programmes in particular has been redesigned and adapted to ensure that we could continue delivery to our families and that they were provided with the support needed at a vital stage in their child's development, especially where many other services were restricted or put on hold. The Speak With A Picture programme was delivered by zoom and feedback from families have proven it to be a great success.
The project is aimed at pre-school children who are predominantly non-verbal and/or have social communication difficulties, and three SWAP programmes have been delivered remotely over the past year. Judging by the feedback, it’s been just as effective as the face to face sessions before the lockdown!
• 100% of parents felt that by taking part in the SWAP programme they had a greater understanding of how best to communicate with their child and gained more knowledge on how to support their child and gain access to other services
• 100% of parents stated that by attending SWAP they felt more empowered to talk to professionals and other parents about their child needs
• 100% of parents stated that their child had now begun to develop independent communication skills
• 100% of parents have noticed a positive change in their child's behaviour since attending the SWAP programme
• 100% of parents feel that their child has begun to build positive social, communication and interaction skills
• 100% of parents would recommend SWAP to other families
• 100% of parents stated that they were highly satisfied with the programme
So, in other words, it was top marks all round! SWAP is funded by BBC Children In Need and we’re very lucky that we have such a dedicated team in Lynn Chapman, Cheryl Kearney and Ann Marie Lyons-Mummery. But the programme wouldn’t be so successful without the efforts of the families involved, as Ann Marie explained;
"We would like to say how proud we are of our families that have taken part in SWAP during the pandemic. They were all fully committed to the programme in a time where their access to support from friends and family was difficult and services such as preschool, speech & language, early intervention programmes were restricted or stopped entirely. The children have all started to build independent communication skills which has led to a reduction in challenging behaviour and more positive social interactions - this is down to the patience and commitment of the families who have worked hard to introduce this new communication system at home and in the wider community (where restrictions allowed).”
The SWAP team revised the whole programme to allow us to run the programme remotely and this included the creation of online parent only facebook group where we have shared videos, information on local services & support groups, resources and activity ideas. This group has allowed parents to help and support each other and a suite of SWAP videos to support parents understanding of PECS® was also produced alongside a range of factsheets.
Cheryl said; “The past 12 months has been a very different year for us, we are so pleased that our children and families felt that the programme was so successful and we now feel that going forward we will be able to provide a programme that will suit the needs of our families further with elements of the remote programme and face to face programme combined to make the programme more child and family focussed.”
A number of our services have been modified to suit the circumstances and there’s every chance that the hybrid model of some face-to-face sessions combined with some virtual sessions will prove effective in the future as we adapt to the period immediately following the lifting of lockdown. However, it is a set of circumstances that staff and volunteers have embraced and almost all the Sycamore Trust projects and services have continued throughout the pandemic.
It’s a situation that CEO Chris Gillbanks is immensely proud of. She explained; “Like many other organisations, we had very little time to prepare once it became clear that the coronavirus was going to disrupt our working practices, but our staff have adapted brilliantly in the circumstances. We’ve embraced technology to continue to offer almost all of our activities and we’ve continued to support all our families and individuals, as well as inviting new families to access our services.”
