International Youth Day focus: travel training prepares autistic young people for adulthood
For International Youth Day we want to shout out about how our schools are helping young people become independent!
Meet Travel Training: a weekly class for students at Inscape House School that teaches them how to confidently travel between places. From deciding on destinations, planning a route and thinking about what kind of transport they are taking, students prepare for life after school. When you enter the class you are welcomed by a big map of Manchester with pins and photos placed on locations that students have been already and enjoyed, or locations still on their bucket list.
This term has been a busy one, with trips to:
- the Imperial War Museum where students visited a temporary exhibition called "Chila Welcomes You”, a colorful art installation with light-based neons by artist Chila Kumari Singh Burman.
- Manchester Museum for the ‘Wild’ exhibition, examining our relationship with the natural world.
- few trips to the Arndale Shopping Center for a walk around the shops. Students lead the way around the shopping mall to check out their favourite stores, look at items and compare prices.
- the temporary Lowry exhibitions
- Cheadle library
- and many more!
Travel training teaches our young people a whole variety of skills from learning to navigate public transportation independently, fostering independence, and boosting self-esteem. Using public transport from a young age opens doors to more activities and experiences as they grow older. Ultimately this expands access to education, as some of our learners use public transport to come to school by themselves, and will be confident enough to carry this confidence through the next stages of their education.