How Can The Accessible Homes Team Help Children With SEND

A seven year old boy who has been diagnosed with Autism (ASD) who was referred to our service to help with keeping him safe at home. He was a very active boy who enjoyed being outside and bouncing on his trampoline, however the fence wasn’t very secure and he could escape quite easily and his parents were worried that he would run onto the main road as he had no road safety awareness. Inside the home he enjoyed spending time in his room, he loved climbing and would climb onto his windowsill and bang the windows hard with his hands, mum was worried he would break the window and fall from the first floor or cut himself. Whenever he got into the bathroom he would turn on every tap and splash water all over the floor, at times this water would leak down into the kitchen ceiling.

When we received the referral we called his mum and made an appointment to come out. We spoke about his medical history and his function and behaviours within the home along with his likes and dislikes. I discussed with mum the options that we could offer and we made a plan to put secure safety fencing in the garden which we make it less likely that he would escape. We also showed mum window protectors which are material covers that protect the window, meaning that he couldn’t climb onto the windowsill and also couldn’t bang the window making sure that the glass window wouldn’t break. In the bathroom I discussed with mum the option of raising the door handle so Matthew could only access the bathroom with supervision and putting non-slip waterproof flooring in the bathroom to prevent flooding and provide a non-slip surface if the floor did get wet.

The adaptations enabled him to access all areas of the house safely and play in the secure garden. Here are some images of what we achieved.