Little House Childcare

ABOUT US - what have we done before.

Meet the Staff

My name is Michelle, I have two children, Sophie 10 and Harrison 8.  I always wanted to look after children so when I left school I obtained a BTEC National Diploma in Childhood Studies.  I worked in various settings from private day nurseries to before and after school clubs, playgroups and in primary schools.
I have always been interested in learning more about how I could support children with special needs and I am always looking for ways to continue my professional development in this area. I find it very interesting and rewarding working with children with special needs.
In September 2005 I started a new role at Kingfisher Special School, which I absolutely loved. I worked alongside the Autism co-ordinator and gained lots of hands on experience and knowledge, whilst working with children on the Autistic spectrum. My role then developed to allow me to work with local primary schools to promote inclusion and model core strategies for children finding it difficult accessing the mainstream setting. I have worked with Speech and Language therapists, Occupational Therapists and Educational Psychologists.
I have enjoyed working with the early years children, as I believe it is the early interventions that have an immediate positive impact. I have been fortunate to experience many ‘’wow’’ moments in my time, seeing first-hand the successes and achievements children with autism can have as a result of having structure, routine and early intervention strategies in place.   I have worked with Tracie for over ten years and we have a great friendship, we work well as a team and bounce ideas of each other because we both share the same passion for autism. 

Little House childcare is a great opportunity for us to offer your child an individualised early year’s placement, where intervention strategies will focus on developing learning and communication through play, exploration and Picture Exchange Communication Systems (PECS symbols), in which I have an advanced qualification. We wholeheartedly believe and know we can support and prepare your child for school and  more importantly we aim to have lots of fun along the way!

Michelle’s blog was excellent and a hard act to follow but here goes.  My name is Tracie and I have 3 grown up children.

I  worked for Rochdale Council as an Inclusion Play worker which I loved as I met some fantastic children who taught me a lot.  My role was to support them whilst they accessed play environments.  I later moved to Oldham and worked doing the same as Michelle for the pst 10 years. I know that early interventions are crucial for success.  It can become very difficult as a child gets older if they have had no or limited specific interventions to support their learning. They struggle to sit at a desk, in silence and to hold a pen and to write. They struggle to make eye contact and are often labelled as ‘difficult’. They can be left out and isolated at play times because they don’t have the necessary social skills to join in the games and both children and parents are left feeling confused, upset and feel embarrassed because they don’t reach the same milestones as other children at the same time or in fact at all. This often leads to children becoming frustrated and desperate to be acknowledged and heard, particularly when they have communication difficulties.  People are more aware in recent times of autism and the stigma once attached to it, is fading. But still, more needs to be done-more differentiation, more specialism and more acceptance and understanding. 

I decided to do some research and after speaking to lots of parents I heard the same things over and over.    I believe and I know that early intervention strategies support children with Autism and/or communication difficulties to make sense of the world, to develop language and to begin the long journey of attempting to unravel the minefield of social skills that just don’t come naturally to them.  There are some core strategies which should always be used, other interventions that support learning and opportunities to learn about others in a safe and nurturing environment.   At Little House Childcare we will ensure a child centred, a visualtimetable is provided for every child in our care.  Their learning journey will begin with us and we are determined to ensure that they receive every opportunity to be successful and to learn that they are valued and celebrated for who they are.