What is neurodiversity?

What characteristics might we see in our participants who are neurodiverse?

How can we support their needs, preferences and goals?

We discuss the relationship between Aquatics and Neurodiversity and what adaptations or inclusions your teaching style may need to assist Neurodiverse participants to achieve their goals.

What is Positive Behaviour Support?

We talk through the most common behaviours that you might see in and around the water with your participants, why they occur, and what positive behaviour support you can employ to offer support.

Effective expressive and receptive communication is at the core of rapport building, skill development and overall session/lesson success.

There are so many ways our participants communicate and so many skills YOU can learn, to ensure everyone’s needs are being met. We cover it all in this module.

Drowning looks very different to what the media tells us it does!

We discuss the key points that we need to know in order to identify that an individual is struggling in water.

Nearly three quarters of people on the autism spectrum have another co-occurring condition.

We talk through the most common co-occurring conditions you might see in your participants.

Varying sensory needs will impact not only how your participant is feeling, but their ability to learn.

It is therefore imperative that you feel confident in your knowledge of what sensory needs may present themselves, and what strategies you can employ to support the varying sensory profiles and needs of participants.

Wandering (also known as absconding, fleeing or elopement) is much more likely to occur in certain population groups that we support.

It’s often step one in the drowning process. As such, it’s so important that everyone understands how this can be prevented, and what information everyone involved needs to know.

Working with children as well as those with a disability means two vulnerable population groups at once.

You therefore may need to reconsider your current policies and whether they address all possible risks.

Building rapport is often incredibly rushed, or even overlooked entirely. It is a vital part of engaging with your participant and helping them achieve their aquatic goals. Let's break down the process into more detail.

What are sensory breaks, why do we use them and how do we incorporate them into our sessions?

In order for our participants to receive the therapeutic benefits of water, we need to clearly understand what we're striving for, including using the right terminology.

Let’s hear from the experts in terms of what they focus on and the key considerations when teaching new skills to our participants; ensuring their needs, preferences and goals are at the forefront.

This obviously needs to be a huge focus especially with anxiety levels and sensory challenges being so prominent in many of our participants. Here we talk through specific drills and reasons for each of these.

When and how do we transition our participants who are having 1:1 sessions to small groups?

Is this the goal for everyone?