Published on 12, July, 2020
Hi all, I have a 3 year old who is currently undergoing investigation for ASD. I am also a Paediatric Audiologist for the NHS and we often see children for hearing tests who have multidisciplinary needs including autism. We are working on an autism friendly service which includes contacting service users before hand for any way to make their appointment more comfortable and updating our website with videos and what is involved in a hearing test.
We are also making visual timetables for the format of the appointment and to aid in the hearing test instructions. The difficulty is getting audiology specific pictures for this, we have thought of taking real life photos but I know some children may take it too literally and we don't want to cause confusion between photos and pictures and we thought consistency may be better. If anyone could offer any advice it would be greatly appreciated.
Also any other idea to improve our service are also welcome.
We are trying to make our service accessible, family friendly and putting the child at ease for their appointment so hoping that these changes will support that.
Many thanks