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Next Steps After Diagnosis

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Support After Diagnosis

The role of the Social Communication Team is to help parents and carers become confident in supporting their autistic child. The SCT will help families learn about their child’s development and about strategies for supporting different aspects of their child’s behaviour. After diagnosis the SCT offers primarily an ‘advice and consultation’ service for pre-school children and their parents/carers which includes video learning and parent consultation sessions.

Introduction to Autism Support

We understand there is a lot to process and consider after diagnosis, so we invite all families to an initial guidance session: Introduction to Autism Support. You will be given an invitation to attend this session at your child’s assessment feedback meeting.

What to expect:
This is a group session, together with other parents or carers who have also recently received a diagnosis of autism for their child. Two of SCT’s specialists will explain how our team can support you. They will guide your thinking about your own family’s autism journey; and help you to identify a first step or goal you may wish to work towards with your child.

Social Communication Team Therapy and Play sessions

These Therapy and Play sessions are a welcoming, inclusive place for children with social communication differences, who are not yet in school, and their parents and carers.  Sessions offer an opportunity for you and your child to play together in a relaxed, friendly setting.  You will be able to ask questions, get support and meet other parents and carers.  Each session is supported by the Social Communication Team and delivered by the Bright Start Team.  The Therapy Assistant from the Social Communication Team will be at each session with speech and language therapy and occupational therapy support available alternate weeks.
 

Videos

Following diagnosis, you will have been sent the links to all of the SCT videos (we are gradually moving to make all these available on this website).
 
Parents and carers should explore the website content and watch the videos to help them develop necessary background knowledge, to get the most out of the later sessions. The videos tend to work best if watched in the following order: those at the beginning of the flow-chart are watched before those at the end.

1. Start Here

2. Then watch these

3. Then watch any of these relevant to your child's needs

Pacing

When choosing which videos to watch or sessions to attend, try to be kind to yourself and think what you have capacity to address at any one time. It can be tempting to feel the need to do everything at once. You are more likely to see progress if you focus on just one or two topics at a time.

Interpreters

We would be happy to book an interpreter for you if this would help you access the session. We would need at least 4 weeks’ notice to ensure we can book an interpreter in your language. If you require an interpreter, we would recommend attending a face to face session if possible. If you prefer to attend an online session, you would need to have access to two devices to attend the session with an interpreter. This could be a phone, laptop or iPad. This is because you will use one device to speak to the interpreter and one to access the online session.

How To Book

Once you have watched one of our topic videos you can book a place on the “Next Steps” session relating to the same topic. To book your place, please complete the form below.
 
Please note, the booking email will be checked once a week and places allocated on a first come first served basis. For this reason, please make sure you send your request at least a week before the session you wish to attend otherwise your request may not be received by the Team in time. If you require an interpreter, we need 4 weeks notice (please see below).
Last updated24 Mar 2026
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