00:15:26.000 --> 00:15:39.000 Sharon Shargeant: So hello everyone and welcome and thank you for joining us today. My name is Sharon Sargent and I'm an autism parent carer educator specialising in the developmental approaches RDI and PACT. 00:15:40.000 --> 00:15:52.000 Sharon Shargeant: I began my journey as a PACT practitioner 9 years ago, and have since supported families, professionals, and professionals to use the approach in practice. 00:15:52.000 --> 00:16:02.000 Sharon Shargeant: I consider myself to be highly privileged to be in a position to support families as they develop greater confidence, understanding and connection. 00:16:02.000 --> 00:16:09.000 Sharon Shargeant: And to witness the positive impacts that PACT can have on both the adults and the children that I work with. 00:16:09.000 --> 00:16:18.000 Sharon Shargeant: And today I'm going to talk through how I've been delivering PACT programs across both home and school. And throughout this webinar, I'm going to be referring to that as the HASS. 00:16:20.000 --> 00:16:21.000 Sharon Shargeant: Okay. 00:16:22.000 --> 00:16:37.000 Sharon Shargeant: Before we get going with the talk, I just need to run through some things. So we know that today's session may be attended by a mix of professionals, parents, carers, and neurodivergent young people. You're all very welcome. 00:16:37.000 --> 00:16:42.000 Sharon Shargeant: We hope the content will be accessible and useful whichever perspective you're joining from. 00:16:42.000 --> 00:16:57.000 Sharon Shargeant: Before we begin, just a quick note that today's session is being recorded and the recording will be shared with you afterwards. It will also be available on the PACT website, so you'll be able to revisit any of the sessions. 00:16:59.000 --> 00:17:14.000 Sharon Shargeant: We'll also have around 15 minutes for question time at the end, but you feel free to add any questions that you have in the chat as we go along, and I'll aim to answer as many of those as possible at the end. 00:17:15.000 --> 00:17:31.000 Sharon Shargeant: So we're really pleased to have you all with us here today. And I just want to let you know that the next session in this series will be the IBASIS, the NHS implementation, delivered by Sue Vosma and Liz McNeely. 00:17:31.000 --> 00:17:35.000 Sharon Shargeant: And I'll be sharing details at the end of this talk. 00:17:36.000 --> 00:17:46.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um, we would really appreciate it if you could answer the short feedback survey that will pop up at the end, um, because we really value your input. 00:17:46.000 --> 00:17:51.000 Sharon Shargeant: And, um, it directly shapes how we develop and deliver future webinars. 00:17:51.000 --> 00:17:57.000 Sharon Shargeant: To ensure that the content is relevant and useful for professionals, parents and carers alike. 00:17:57.000 --> 00:18:00.000 Sharon Shargeant: So for now, let's get started. 00:18:02.000 --> 00:18:05.000 Sharon Shargeant: Okay, just having a sip of water. 00:18:08.000 --> 00:18:13.000 Sharon Shargeant: Why we developed the Home and School Programme. I'm just going to share some background. 00:18:13.000 --> 00:18:18.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um, the hat didn't begin with PACT, it actually predates my PACT training. 00:18:19.000 --> 00:18:30.000 Sharon Shargeant: At the time, I was working as an RDI consultant, and I teamed up with Zoe Thompson for several years, trying to secure funding for parents to have RDI home programs. 00:18:30.000 --> 00:18:35.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um, the determination that we had… 00:18:35.000 --> 00:18:40.000 Sharon Shargeant: Well, it's because both Zoe and I are parents ourselves of autistic children. 00:18:40.000 --> 00:18:49.000 Sharon Shargeant: Zoe, um, co-founded Brightview to School with her husband, Dixon, because they struggled to find the right educational environment for their son. 00:18:49.000 --> 00:18:57.000 Sharon Shargeant: And my own experience as a parent has shown me how important it is for home and school to work together rather than separately. 00:18:59.000 --> 00:19:02.000 Sharon Shargeant: So during one of our tribunal hearings. 00:19:02.000 --> 00:19:07.000 Sharon Shargeant: We were told that funding a home-only program raised questions of accountability. 00:19:07.000 --> 00:19:18.000 Sharon Shargeant: And the panel sent us off into one of the side rooms for about 20 minutes to go and put together. 00:19:18.000 --> 00:19:22.000 Sharon Shargeant: how we thought a home and school program could work. 00:19:22.000 --> 00:19:29.000 Sharon Shargeant: So that was the beginning of a rough framework of what then went on to become the HASS program. 00:19:29.000 --> 00:19:37.000 Sharon Shargeant: Several years later, after I'd actually trained in PACT, I recognized how well PACT's emphasis on. 00:19:37.000 --> 00:19:50.000 Sharon Shargeant: the developing shared attention, the adult adaptation, the whole collaborative working together fitted so well with the HASS framework, and we began to use PACT within the home. 00:19:50.000 --> 00:19:53.000 Sharon Shargeant: and school-funded programs. 00:19:54.000 --> 00:20:09.000 Sharon Shargeant: So at the heart of the HASC was the recognition that fragmentation was affecting consistency for the child. The question then became, how could home and school work more closely together in a way that was accountable? 00:20:09.000 --> 00:20:11.000 Sharon Shargeant: collaborative and sustainable. 00:20:18.000 --> 00:20:25.000 Sharon Shargeant: Sorry, I'm not sure my slides just jumped then it went through me a little bit. Okay, so why a home and school model matters? 00:20:25.000 --> 00:20:36.000 Sharon Shargeant: I think Claire's quote, that's one of the parents that I've worked with, captures the importance of the alignment. If school and home aren't doing the same thing, it's counteracted. It just doesn't work. 00:20:37.000 --> 00:20:43.000 Sharon Shargeant: So with a home and school model, we can work on shared goals rather than separate agendas. 00:20:43.000 --> 00:20:55.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um, and gain a shared understanding of the child so that consistency starts to come across in, across lots of different environments, but particularly home and school. 00:20:55.000 --> 00:20:57.000 Sharon Shargeant: So… 00:20:57.000 --> 00:20:59.000 Sharon Shargeant: PACT recognises the child. 00:21:00.000 --> 00:21:04.000 Sharon Shargeant: Sorry, PACT recognises the child's communicative. 00:21:04.000 --> 00:21:16.000 Sharon Shargeant: attempts are valued, and the HASS recognises that the parents and the teaching assistants, or in our case, learning mentors, actually each hold valuable knowledge that's. 00:21:16.000 --> 00:21:18.000 Sharon Shargeant: Really important for the other person. 00:21:19.000 --> 00:21:27.000 Sharon Shargeant: So we then needed to be thinking about, well, what does PACT offer that could support this collaborative approach? 00:21:30.000 --> 00:21:34.000 Sharon Shargeant: So what PAC brings to the HASP? 00:21:34.000 --> 00:21:44.000 Sharon Shargeant: Some of you will be trained in PACT, and others of you may not be that aware of the PACT principles, so I'm just going to recap on that a little bit. 00:21:45.000 --> 00:21:54.000 Sharon Shargeant: At the heart of PACT is developing shared and maintained attention by following the child's lead, the child's focus, and the child's interests. 00:21:54.000 --> 00:22:07.000 Sharon Shargeant: It's not about teaching scripts and strategies, it's about slowing down and helping adults notice, adapt, and respond differently to the child's signals, whether those signals are verbal or not. 00:22:07.000 --> 00:22:14.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um, the PAC program uses video feedback, um, because that allows us to be… 00:22:15.000 --> 00:22:22.000 Sharon Shargeant: in the moment more, when you're actually present, and you're engaging at a time, it's often… 00:22:22.000 --> 00:22:30.000 Sharon Shargeant: It's difficult to take on everything that's actually happening and that video feedback is really useful information because we can slow down and watch. 00:22:31.000 --> 00:22:34.000 Sharon Shargeant: minute little interactions that are happening. 00:22:36.000 --> 00:22:42.000 Sharon Shargeant: So, in essence, PACT helps reduce the child's perceived demands, and it works at building trust. 00:22:43.000 --> 00:22:51.000 Sharon Shargeant: So rather than running separate programs, our aim was to have these principles shared across home and school. 00:22:53.000 --> 00:22:57.000 Sharon Shargeant: So what does the HASP look like for ROS? 00:22:57.000 --> 00:23:02.000 Sharon Shargeant: At the center here should actually be the child. 00:23:02.000 --> 00:23:06.000 Sharon Shargeant: Everybody is working for that child to support that child's needs. 00:23:06.000 --> 00:23:17.000 Sharon Shargeant: So we have the parent and the teaching assistant or learning mentor. In this case, myself as the PAC practitioner, and the school is Bright Futures School. 00:23:17.000 --> 00:23:30.000 Sharon Shargeant: And we work together around shared goals, around a shared approach, and sharing progress, but also setbacks, so we have a little bit of an exchange going on on an ongoing basis. 00:23:31.000 --> 00:23:50.000 Sharon Shargeant: The model itself is online and the main reason that this particular model is online is because Bright Futures School is in Oldham in Manchester and I live in Berkshire. So the only way for this to work was for us to be able to do online. 00:23:50.000 --> 00:23:52.000 Sharon Shargeant: All of our, um… 00:23:52.000 --> 00:23:54.000 Sharon Shargeant: interactions online. 00:23:54.000 --> 00:24:01.000 Sharon Shargeant: So we have bi-weekly Zoom meetings and the parent and the learning mentor are present in those. 00:24:01.000 --> 00:24:08.000 Sharon Shargeant: Before that session, um, both the parent and the learning mentor. 00:24:08.000 --> 00:24:14.000 Sharon Shargeant: Get together some video footage to share with me at least 24 hours before our meeting. 00:24:15.000 --> 00:24:26.000 Sharon Shargeant: And then in that meeting, we will watch back that video footage and our discussions will be around the footage that's shared. 00:24:26.000 --> 00:24:44.000 Sharon Shargeant: And by the end of that, both the learning mentor and the parent will come away with goals that they've set themselves. Now, sometimes there is quite a big overlap, and they'll both have the same goals, and other times there will be a slight difference where they've noticed different things that they particularly feel like they want to work on. 00:24:44.000 --> 00:24:49.000 Sharon Shargeant: But the goal itself is guided by myself as the PAC practitioner. 00:24:51.000 --> 00:24:57.000 Sharon Shargeant: So, of course, having a model on paper is one thing, implementing it is something else. 00:24:57.000 --> 00:24:59.000 Sharon Shargeant: Sorry, need another sip. 00:25:02.000 --> 00:25:08.000 Sharon Shargeant: Oh my goodness, it's full. Okay, HASP as a pilot programme. 00:25:09.000 --> 00:25:16.000 Sharon Shargeant: We didn't start, as I said, we didn't start with a finished blueprint. We actually had to go off into… 00:25:16.000 --> 00:25:18.000 Sharon Shargeant: a room and put a program together. 00:25:18.000 --> 00:25:27.000 Sharon Shargeant: We did have some guidelines from the program that was already running and how that worked for parents to be able to manage to do the program. 00:25:27.000 --> 00:25:31.000 Sharon Shargeant: We very much learned as we went along. 00:25:31.000 --> 00:25:44.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um, and the flexibility of home, school, um, working together, and, um, molding, basically, to make this work has been an ongoing… 00:25:44.000 --> 00:25:49.000 Sharon Shargeant: task for us to be able to get under our belts. 00:25:49.000 --> 00:25:54.000 Sharon Shargeant: So some aspects actually worked immediately. 00:25:54.000 --> 00:25:58.000 Sharon Shargeant: That was absolutely great. And other elements needed to be refined. 00:25:59.000 --> 00:26:06.000 Sharon Shargeant: The school and family feedback has very much shaped how the model has developed. 00:26:06.000 --> 00:26:14.000 Sharon Shargeant: And it continues to evolve, though we do have a lot of different policies and things in place now, and contracts. 00:26:14.000 --> 00:26:16.000 Sharon Shargeant: where we didn't have those to begin with. 00:26:17.000 --> 00:26:25.000 Sharon Shargeant: As the programme developed, we became increasingly aware of what successful implementation actually required. 00:26:26.000 --> 00:26:37.000 Sharon Shargeant: And this is from the school perspective. I contacted Zoe before this presentation and said, look, you know, can you just give me an update of what things are like from your side? 00:26:38.000 --> 00:26:41.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um, and so she talked about some… 00:26:41.000 --> 00:26:46.000 Sharon Shargeant: some important crucial parts actually. So timetable allocation. 00:26:46.000 --> 00:26:55.000 Sharon Shargeant: Dedicated protected time for sessions and meetings. Basically, um, the school is very much a partner in what we are doing. 00:26:55.000 --> 00:27:10.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um, if they… the leadership of the school were not participating, it would be very hard to have that protected time, because when there are staff shortages, or there's a crisis of some sort going on, it would be very easy. 00:27:10.000 --> 00:27:18.000 Sharon Shargeant: to pull whoever I'm working with, whichever learning mentor I'm working with, off, and just cancel our Zoom, because they needed that. 00:27:18.000 --> 00:27:21.000 Sharon Shargeant: member of staff to do cover. 00:27:21.000 --> 00:27:23.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um, so… 00:27:23.000 --> 00:27:30.000 Sharon Shargeant: But because the school actually recognised that the work that we are doing is important, they've made a point of… 00:27:30.000 --> 00:27:41.000 Sharon Shargeant: protecting that time. So that's protecting the time for our meetings, but also protecting the time for the learning mentor to actually do daily sessions with the child. 00:27:41.000 --> 00:27:43.000 Sharon Shargeant: And, um… 00:27:43.000 --> 00:27:51.000 Sharon Shargeant: protecting the time for the learning mentor to do their filming, uploading of their filming to me. So there is… 00:27:51.000 --> 00:27:54.000 Sharon Shargeant: allotted time there put in place. 00:27:55.000 --> 00:28:07.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um, as I said about covering arrangements, so that's just making sure the timetable is there, and the staff are available to be able to be slotted in, so that we get our allocated time. 00:28:07.000 --> 00:28:23.000 Sharon Shargeant: The school have been the leadership in this programme. They're the ones that actually deal with the local authority and for the funding aspect of it, but also how the whole programme hangs together for it to be able to work for school. 00:28:25.000 --> 00:28:30.000 Sharon Shargeant: School also have, Bright Futures School, also have, um… 00:28:30.000 --> 00:28:35.000 Sharon Shargeant: Basic training across members of staff, so on the, uh… 00:28:35.000 --> 00:28:49.000 Sharon Shargeant: training days, they will sometimes ask me to actually do talks for the staff, for them to get a basic understanding of PACT and the principles, and how everyone can play a part. 00:28:49.000 --> 00:29:05.000 Sharon Shargeant: But that also takes place from the learning mentor sharing within the team, the things that they're working on. So the staff have a better understanding of what's working for that child and changes that they can also make. 00:29:05.000 --> 00:29:15.000 Sharon Shargeant: to help that child. It's not going to be in the same level as what the learning mentor is getting, because they're not getting that one-to-one, or not part of the team. 00:29:17.000 --> 00:29:24.000 Sharon Shargeant: Recruitment consideration has been a big part of our learning process. 00:29:24.000 --> 00:29:34.000 Sharon Shargeant: To make the program work, we really do need learning mentors that have the right mindset, that they, um… 00:29:34.000 --> 00:29:36.000 Sharon Shargeant: are able to… 00:29:36.000 --> 00:29:46.000 Sharon Shargeant: put aside, to a certain extent, some of the training that they've previously had, and be more open to looking at a developmental approach. 00:29:46.000 --> 00:29:57.000 Sharon Shargeant: and be on board to learning new things and implementing those. And sometimes it takes a little while to get a good match between the child and the learning mentor. 00:29:57.000 --> 00:30:03.000 Sharon Shargeant: So that's one of the big things that we've learned, and also for the school for recruiting in the first place. 00:30:04.000 --> 00:30:07.000 Sharon Shargeant: Ongoing communication. 00:30:07.000 --> 00:30:15.000 Sharon Shargeant: because we have regular meetings, it's not just the Zoom meetings that I have with the parent and the learning mentor. 00:30:15.000 --> 00:30:30.000 Sharon Shargeant: I actually have Zoom meetings with the leadership at the school, the managers at the school. If any problems arise, then we have additional meetings. So it's an ongoing whole participant. Everybody is playing a part. 00:30:31.000 --> 00:30:37.000 Sharon Shargeant: One of the things I would say from the learning mentor, I have a quote here. 00:30:37.000 --> 00:30:40.000 Sharon Shargeant: That didn't fit on this screen, there's too much here already. 00:30:40.000 --> 00:30:47.000 Sharon Shargeant: that the more videos and Zooms they participated in, the more their confidence increased. 00:30:48.000 --> 00:30:56.000 Sharon Shargeant: So with that in mind, different people bring different expertise to the program, to the team. 00:30:58.000 --> 00:31:13.000 Sharon Shargeant: So as part of our team, we have the parent who has the daily insights and knowledge of their child across different environments, not just the home, but community with extended family and. 00:31:13.000 --> 00:31:19.000 Sharon Shargeant: They're able to give those insights and share them with the school and the learning mentor. 00:31:19.000 --> 00:31:26.000 Sharon Shargeant: Then we have the learning mentor that's able to supply the consistency within school. 00:31:26.000 --> 00:31:37.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um, practice on a daily basis, and also share things, um, any problems that are arising in school, and we can then adapt what we're doing around that too. 00:31:38.000 --> 00:31:45.000 Sharon Shargeant: So as the PAC practitioner, my role is to coach and to help with the reflection. 00:31:45.000 --> 00:31:46.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um, and… 00:31:46.000 --> 00:31:49.000 Sharon Shargeant: sometimes, uh, redirect. 00:31:50.000 --> 00:31:53.000 Sharon Shargeant: The path that we're taking, because if. 00:31:53.000 --> 00:32:06.000 Sharon Shargeant: With, um, with it being school as well, if there's any issues going on between the parent and the school, it's not my role to do that, so it's just redirecting them to the school to talk to school about any concerns they might have. 00:32:07.000 --> 00:32:18.000 Sharon Shargeant: Uh, the school leadership, as I've said, like, the allocating the time, the resources, and having the ongoing support has just been really crucial. 00:32:19.000 --> 00:32:22.000 Sharon Shargeant: So again, this is from one of the, um… 00:32:22.000 --> 00:32:37.000 Sharon Shargeant: Great Future Schools Learning Mentors. Being part of this home and school approach has enabled me to communicate with parents and share the child's interests and better practice. So between us, uh, working as a team has really been working well. 00:32:38.000 --> 00:32:44.000 Sharon Shargeant: So alongside the benefits, we also encountered a number of practical challenges. 00:32:45.000 --> 00:32:53.000 Sharon Shargeant: So I've already talked about the fact of needing to protect time for the programme to actually work. 00:32:53.000 --> 00:33:03.000 Sharon Shargeant: Consistency and shared understanding across staff. But also, you know, we have staff changes, staff illnesses. 00:33:03.000 --> 00:33:05.000 Sharon Shargeant: uh… 00:33:05.000 --> 00:33:08.000 Sharon Shargeant: Different things can happen, but there's… 00:33:08.000 --> 00:33:21.000 Sharon Shargeant: The actual member of staff for some reason or other may not be able to continue working with that particular child, so then we have to sort of start again with a new member of staff. So that can be a challenge. 00:33:22.000 --> 00:33:29.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um, the fact that school runs to a timetable, the funding for these programs is term time. 00:33:29.000 --> 00:33:38.000 Sharon Shargeant: So holidays, illness and staff changes will cause some disruption to being able to run the HASS program. 00:33:38.000 --> 00:33:49.000 Sharon Shargeant: Then we have the fact that I'm remote working, so sometimes it can take a little bit longer to build those relationships up with the members of staff. 00:33:49.000 --> 00:33:51.000 Sharon Shargeant: And… 00:33:51.000 --> 00:34:00.000 Sharon Shargeant: But it's something that we do get around, and if necessary, the management team will actually work with us as well on that. 00:34:02.000 --> 00:34:18.000 Sharon Shargeant: So different approaches. One of the learning mentors I work with at the moment actually has speech and language training as well. So she's actually able to bring in different elements that I'm not aware of. So that actually really helps as well. 00:34:20.000 --> 00:34:36.000 Sharon Shargeant: So again, from one of the Bright Futures Learning mentors, they've talked here about how being part of this has been, and watching the videos back, has actually enabled them to recognise that they can change their own responses. 00:34:36.000 --> 00:34:40.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um, and by doing so, they… they actually see more… 00:34:40.000 --> 00:34:44.000 Sharon Shargeant: shared attention and connection with the child that they're working with. 00:34:49.000 --> 00:34:50.000 Sharon Shargeant: Okay. 00:34:51.000 --> 00:34:56.000 Sharon Shargeant: I need to have another sip of water. As I said, it's really hot here. 00:35:02.000 --> 00:35:08.000 Sharon Shargeant: Whilst school implementation challenges are important. 00:35:08.000 --> 00:35:12.000 Sharon Shargeant: It's equally important to understand the experience from a parent's perspective. 00:35:14.000 --> 00:35:22.000 Sharon Shargeant: So parents often describe that by participating in the HASS, they've actually noticed changes in themselves and their child. 00:35:22.000 --> 00:35:35.000 Sharon Shargeant: And, um, the reflections that they've provided can be striking. Um, definitely improves increased awareness, greater confidence in being able to interact with their child. 00:35:35.000 --> 00:35:37.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um… 00:35:37.000 --> 00:35:41.000 Sharon Shargeant: What, um, sorry, brain is frazzled here. 00:35:41.000 --> 00:35:45.000 Sharon Shargeant: Also, the fact that from… 00:35:46.000 --> 00:35:50.000 Sharon Shargeant: From the program itself, and from watching the videos back. 00:35:50.000 --> 00:35:55.000 Sharon Shargeant: They're developing different ways of interacting and actually watching. 00:35:55.000 --> 00:36:10.000 Sharon Shargeant: what the learning mentor's doing, as well as what they're doing, often helps both sides to actually be thinking about, well, oh, I hadn't thought of interacting in that particular way, so it's not just watching their own videos, it's actually seeing what the other person's doing. 00:36:10.000 --> 00:36:18.000 Sharon Shargeant: helps create different reflections and ways of noticing how they can make improvements. 00:36:20.000 --> 00:36:26.000 Sharon Shargeant: So the main thing is the noticing moments of connection, learning to step back and observe. 00:36:27.000 --> 00:36:36.000 Sharon Shargeant: Alongside these reflections, families and school staff have also described meaningful changes in everyday interactions. 00:36:37.000 --> 00:36:43.000 Sharon Shargeant: So it's important to remember that many factors contribute to a child's development. 00:36:43.000 --> 00:36:49.000 Sharon Shargeant: And positive changes emerge across multiple areas. So from. 00:36:49.000 --> 00:36:55.000 Sharon Shargeant: The work that we've been doing, oh, sorry, back or forward. 00:36:56.000 --> 00:36:57.000 Sharon Shargeant: Sorry. 00:36:57.000 --> 00:37:00.000 Sharon Shargeant: Yes, so from the work that we've been doing. 00:37:00.000 --> 00:37:10.000 Sharon Shargeant: We are seeing the child, the children, communicating and making more attempts at communication, whether that's verbal or non-verbal. 00:37:10.000 --> 00:37:22.000 Sharon Shargeant: Uh, with some of the children when we started, the shared attention was only up to a minute, where now we are seeing those same children able to engage for, like, 20 minutes at a time. 00:37:23.000 --> 00:37:39.000 Sharon Shargeant: The relationships are developing, so that's with the learning mentor, with the child, with the parents are feeling that their relationship is stronger, but also we're seeing that with grandparents and other extended members of the family. 00:37:39.000 --> 00:37:44.000 Sharon Shargeant: The parent is actually sharing information with the rest of their family. 00:37:45.000 --> 00:37:54.000 Sharon Shargeant: So, this has been brought about by the consistency that we're sharing, and the approaches that we're sharing across settings is actually… 00:37:54.000 --> 00:38:05.000 Sharon Shargeant: Enabling, um, the whole program to come together, to have that consistency for the child, that support for the child, with the child completely at the center of what we're doing. 00:38:06.000 --> 00:38:09.000 Sharon Shargeant: Michelle here, one of the parents. 00:38:09.000 --> 00:38:14.000 Sharon Shargeant: has said that there's been a huge improvement in communication with both my children. 00:38:14.000 --> 00:38:23.000 Sharon Shargeant: She has, um, two children on the autistic spectrum, and they are very different in the way that they, uh. 00:38:23.000 --> 00:38:28.000 Sharon Shargeant: the way they are on the spectrum. We have one child. 00:38:28.000 --> 00:38:29.000 Sharon Shargeant: who… 00:38:29.000 --> 00:38:37.000 Sharon Shargeant: very much the shared attention, everything came into place quite quickly. Uh, he's very verbal, he can converse. 00:38:37.000 --> 00:38:52.000 Sharon Shargeant: But he was getting his sentences completely muddled up. So when he was trying to express something, his sentence structure was off. So we used the later stages of PAC to actually help him to be able to formulate his sentence. 00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:56.000 Sharon Shargeant: Those sentences, and that has been really successful for him. 00:38:56.000 --> 00:39:07.000 Sharon Shargeant: where, um, her other child has more co-occurring conditions, and he has started, um, right at the beginning of the PACS program. 00:39:07.000 --> 00:39:18.000 Sharon Shargeant: And she's seen changes with him as well. And he is speaking now and communicating more and getting his needs met. 00:39:19.000 --> 00:39:22.000 Sharon Shargeant: Being able to more express what needs he has. 00:39:23.000 --> 00:39:31.000 Sharon Shargeant: So looking across the experience of parents, mentors, and school staff, several key themes have actually emerged. 00:39:35.000 --> 00:39:39.000 Sharon Shargeant: Sorry, I'm taking a breather. I'm just cooling down a bit. 00:39:39.000 --> 00:39:40.000 Sharon Shargeant: Okay. 00:39:41.000 --> 00:39:48.000 Sharon Shargeant: Consistency prevents that fragmentation across home and school, and we are actually seeing that in our model, it's actually proving that. 00:39:48.000 --> 00:40:00.000 Sharon Shargeant: The relationship drives progress. That shared attention and communication, um, is absolutely fundamental to building those relationships, and they are coming along really nicely. 00:40:00.000 --> 00:40:09.000 Sharon Shargeant: Adult adaptation led to increased meaningful child interaction and prolonged engagement. 00:40:10.000 --> 00:40:25.000 Sharon Shargeant: The parents' insights actually deepen the understanding for everybody, but also the learning mentors' input helps just as much where parents don't ordinarily see what's actually going on at school. They just get the odd comment here and there. 00:40:25.000 --> 00:40:33.000 Sharon Shargeant: The parents had a lot more involvement in what's going on in school, much more awareness, so that it's worked really well in that way. 00:40:33.000 --> 00:40:41.000 Sharon Shargeant: The discussions that we have very much are about validating the differing or similar perspectives. 00:40:41.000 --> 00:40:47.000 Sharon Shargeant: And that's been crucial for the implementation of the PACT as a HASS program. 00:40:49.000 --> 00:40:53.000 Sharon Shargeant: So implementation requires that commitment. 00:40:54.000 --> 00:41:05.000 Sharon Shargeant: I have another quote here, but again, didn't put onto the screen, but it's from one of the parents, Claire. To all be having the same goals and the same vision makes a huge difference. 00:41:06.000 --> 00:41:10.000 Sharon Shargeant: And I think that's been very much evidence in evidence. 00:41:10.000 --> 00:41:17.000 Sharon Shargeant: So for me, across the parent and school feedback, one thing has kept emerging. 00:41:17.000 --> 00:41:23.000 Sharon Shargeant: That people weren't simply learning what to do differently, they were learning to notice differently. 00:41:24.000 --> 00:41:29.000 Sharon Shargeant: So that reflection led me to think about one final question. 00:41:31.000 --> 00:41:36.000 Sharon Shargeant: Who is adapting most in the interaction? Is it the adult or the child? 00:41:37.000 --> 00:41:46.000 Sharon Shargeant: For me, one of the most powerful aspects of PACS is that it invites us to reflect not only on the child, but on our own role within the interaction. 00:41:48.000 --> 00:41:58.000 Sharon Shargeant: Okay, so thank you so much for joining me today and for your time and engagement. Just before we move on to the Q&A, I just have to cover a few more things. 00:42:01.000 --> 00:42:06.000 Sharon Shargeant: Our webinar series that's coming up. 00:42:08.000 --> 00:42:10.000 Sharon Shargeant: I'm again taking a breather. 00:42:11.000 --> 00:42:21.000 Sharon Shargeant: Our webinar series that are coming up, you can see there's a couple there that have already been and gone, but you can still access those on the PACT website. 00:42:23.000 --> 00:42:33.000 Sharon Shargeant: This is the research. If anybody wanted to go off and have a look at the research again, you can get to this by going on to the PACT website. 00:42:34.000 --> 00:42:39.000 Sharon Shargeant: And if you were interested in going into training. 00:42:39.000 --> 00:42:40.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um… 00:42:40.000 --> 00:42:46.000 Sharon Shargeant: This is how you could do it as well. Go onto the PAC website and become a PAC practitioner. 00:42:53.000 --> 00:43:05.000 Sharon Shargeant: So thank you again for your interest in PACT and we hope to see you at the next webinar. Do you have any questions? I should have had something else come up on here. 00:43:05.000 --> 00:43:06.000 Sharon Shargeant: And… 00:43:07.000 --> 00:43:21.000 Sharon Shargeant: Oh, so I just need to, again, ask… my notes aren't on there. I need to, again, just go over and say that we've got those there, but also we need that feedback, so we'd be really appreciated if… 00:43:21.000 --> 00:43:30.000 Sharon Shargeant: you are able to give that feedback to us so that we can tailor the talks to what you actually want us to be producing. 00:43:31.000 --> 00:43:38.000 Sharon Shargeant: So we are now open for Q&A. So I'm going to stop sharing. 00:43:50.000 --> 00:43:52.000 Sharon Shargeant: Did we have any questions? 00:43:52.000 --> 00:43:53.000 Sharon Shargeant: Questions? 00:43:53.000 --> 00:43:58.000 Claire (Admin): There are a couple in the chat for you, Sharon. 00:43:59.000 --> 00:44:01.000 Claire (Admin): If you can see it. 00:44:02.000 --> 00:44:07.000 Sharon Shargeant: I'm really sorry. I am so hot. My last leg's here. 00:44:10.000 --> 00:44:12.000 Sharon Shargeant: I'm… 00:44:12.000 --> 00:44:28.000 Sharon Shargeant: There are many similarities and differences between RDI and PET, so maybe this isn't necessarily the place to actually share those. I would say some of the things that are, like just briefly, some of the things that are in common are the… 00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:32.000 Sharon Shargeant: Synchronizing actions. 00:44:32.000 --> 00:44:36.000 Sharon Shargeant: synchronizing interaction. 00:44:36.000 --> 00:44:46.000 Sharon Shargeant: In RDI, we call that co-regulation, the communication, changing the communication. But with RDI, the main thing behind RDI is trying to. 00:44:46.000 --> 00:44:55.000 Sharon Shargeant: Develop dynamic intelligence, or executive functioning, where PACT is about helping the child's communication. 00:44:55.000 --> 00:44:57.000 Sharon Shargeant: Both help to slow the process down. 00:44:58.000 --> 00:44:59.000 Sharon Shargeant: Guide. 00:44:59.000 --> 00:45:07.000 Sharon Shargeant: the parent, whoever is working with the child down. But it's there's more to it than that that I can't really cover here. 00:45:10.000 --> 00:45:20.000 Sharon Shargeant: Ah, good point. I meant to actually say that in my talk. I wonder how long the sessions run for… ran for. Was it a 12-sessions program or done differently? 00:45:20.000 --> 00:45:32.000 Sharon Shargeant: Because, um, the school have funding for a home and school program, that's what they have the funding for, so we have a little bit of leeway on how long the program can actually go on for. 00:45:32.000 --> 00:45:34.000 Sharon Shargeant: The 12th… 00:45:34.000 --> 00:45:44.000 Sharon Shargeant: sessions is still roughly there. It takes about 6 months still, but because of the school holidays, everything gets broken up. 00:45:44.000 --> 00:45:46.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um… 00:45:46.000 --> 00:45:59.000 Sharon Shargeant: And also, some of our days coincide, like, the Zoom meetings coincide with school events going on, so sometimes it just goes on a little bit longer. But basically, we still are looking at 12. 00:45:59.000 --> 00:46:01.000 Sharon Shargeant: sessions for the program. 00:46:01.000 --> 00:46:10.000 Sharon Shargeant: If we have many staff changes, which we have had with one child, then obviously that gets the program going that little bit longer, because it's that retraining. 00:46:12.000 --> 00:46:22.000 Sharon Shargeant: Please, could you give one or two reflections about the dynamics between parents and learning mentors, and how you facilitate productive dialogues? Wow! 00:46:22.000 --> 00:46:27.000 Sharon Shargeant: Okay, it's very much, I use the PACT protocol. 00:46:27.000 --> 00:46:31.000 Sharon Shargeant: Um, where we're working on a particular… 00:46:31.000 --> 00:46:43.000 Sharon Shargeant: stage, looking at particular goals that we want to be, um, coming into place for the child, and using the same techniques as PACT, the PACT program, actually the parent program uses. 00:46:43.000 --> 00:47:00.000 Sharon Shargeant: to just open that up, conversation up. But when we're actually looking at the footage, um, where, like, where there's a parent, when I've worked with two parents, quite often it might just be that I'm only asking that one parent to reflect on their video footage. 00:47:00.000 --> 00:47:06.000 Sharon Shargeant: With the learning mentor and the parent, we do have a little bit more discussion about what we're seeing as a team. 00:47:06.000 --> 00:47:10.000 Sharon Shargeant: And that helps the conversation flow a little bit more. 00:47:13.000 --> 00:47:18.000 Sharon Shargeant: And that seems to be all the questions that are on there. 00:47:18.000 --> 00:47:22.000 Sharon Shargeant: At the moment, I don't know if anybody else wants to ask anything. 00:47:23.000 --> 00:47:25.000 Sharon Shargeant: Feel free to unmute. 00:47:31.000 --> 00:47:41.000 Sharon Shargeant: Okay, so do we have, oh, there we have the feedback. If you could go onto that feedback there and give your input, it would be really appreciated. 00:47:41.000 --> 00:47:43.000 Sharon Shargeant: And I think… 00:47:43.000 --> 00:47:52.000 Sharon Shargeant: That's it for today. So obviously come along to any of the other webinars. Everybody would love to see you to be there. 00:47:53.000 --> 00:47:56.000 Sharon Shargeant: Thank you for coming along. 00:47:57.000 --> 00:47:58.000 Sharon Shargeant: Okay. 00:48:00.000 --> 00:48:02.000 Sharon Shargeant: Bye, guys!