Bridges - Part 1: Partnering Autistic Children in their Social Learning

Partnering Autistic Children: Strategies For Social Learning

The autistic young people that Bridges meet talk about the need for social information, a ‘guide book’ that explains how social interaction works. One young man described friendship as something so complex it must have been “invented by a genius!” 

Through engaging autistic children in social learning across their primary school years, they taught us how to see the world from their point of view. They wanted to get along and feel good about themselves, especially at school. With their partnership, these children and their families taught us that social learning needed to address the way they think. Now as young adults, they share the significance that early social understanding has made to their relationships, wellbeing and resilience. 

Part 1 of a two-part presentation highlights what we have learnt: that providing a systematic social curriculum to autistic children proactively can develop their self-awareness and confidence as they mature, so they feel good and are empowered in managing themselves.

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Catherine has been working in the field of autism for over 30 years. Her passion is to understand and connect with the unique way autistic children think and learn and develop teaching resources the children can relate to. She is committed to equipping autistic children with social understanding that makes a real and lasting difference in their lives as adults.

She co-founded Bridges in 2000 and co-established a systematic social curriculum across 12 years of clinical development, working directly with autistic children during their mainstream primary school years.

Prior to Bridges, Catherine was the prime mover in establishing what is now the largest charity for Autism in Singapore. In consultation with the National Autistic Society UK, her work helped establish services which laid the early foundation for the Autism Resource Centre (Singapore).

She is a founding committee member of the Speech and Language Therapy Association Singapore (SALTS); and invited lecturer to the Master of Science in Speech and Language Pathology Programme at the National University of Singapore.

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