The Lorna Byrne Children’s Foundation is delighted to announce a brand new project with YMCA Ireland’s Parents and Kids Together (PAKT) to provide support for disadvantaged families who have autistic children. There are high numbers of young people referred to PAKT who are either diagnosed as being on the autistic spectrum or awaiting diagnosis. They display many challenging behaviours which need expertise. Many parents of these children are overwhelmed, do not know how to support their children and cannot access services that could help them. Amidst all these challenges these parents are very articulate and resilient who know their children and are advocating to the best of their ability, but they are without the basic skills and resources to support the child at home. This has become even more apparent during the pandemic and living through the restrictions and facing the subtle but significant changes to their children’s lives.
Our project aims to work with this specific group of families – working directly with children showing acute sensory needs. It will provide PAKT youth workers with occupational therapist expertise of how to manage sensory input and differing behaviours of young people attending PAKT groups and also training and one to one sessions for these families that are tailored to what their individual experience at home is.
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For more information on the Lorna Byrne Children’s Foundation see www.foundation.lornabyrne.com