\n\tAs part of World Autism Day, the Welsh Local Government Association is helping to promote a series of new website resources designed to teach school children more about autism.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe new web resources have been developed by the Welsh Government’s Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) Strategic Action Plan for Wales, as a dedicated awareness raising programme targeted at children and parents in Wales.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe new resources form a vital part of the ‘I know about autism’ campaign, which was launched earlier this year to engage key stage 2 and 3 level school children in Wales.<\/p>\n
\n\tBased on a fun and interactive slideshow, the new resources teach school children about ASD by leading them through a series of ten questions, before issuing a personalised certificate to any learner who answers them all correctly.<\/p>\n
\n\tCaedraw Primary School in Merthyr Tydfil recently became the first school in Wales where all year 5 and 6 pupils have achieved their personalised autism awareness certificate. A longer running campaign targeted at adults has already resulted in over 8000 certificates being issued to professionals in Wales.<\/p>\n
\n\tThe ASD programme will also be launching a series of new video clips that will help raise awareness amongst parents and primary healthcare practitioners on the website over the coming weeks.<\/p>\n
\n\tSteve Thomas CBE, Welsh Local Government Association CEO said:<\/p>\n
\n\t“The WLGA is proud to host this important educational programme and to support activity designed to raise awareness of ASD in Wales. These new resources offer a great way of engaging primary school children to help ensure a greater level of understanding and awareness of ASD within our schools.” <\/p>\n
\n\tGwenda Thomas, Deputy Minister for Social Services, Welsh Government said:<\/p>\n
\n\t“We are delighted to be working in partnership with the WLGA to promote such an innovative approach to raising awareness of autism in Wales on World Autism Day. These resources demonstrate how the ASD Strategic Action Plan is working to make a practical difference to people’s lives by making more people in the community understand the impact of autism.”<\/p>\n