What Sparkle Sheffield Do

Helping Families with Autistic Children

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Parent Support

Monthly Professional Parent Workshops

Delivered by autism experts, with refreshments at a cost of £3. Plus, if childcare is available for any of our sessions, we will put it on the website & it will be at an additional cost of £2.50 per child. These sessions will usually be held on the 3rd Monday of each month and will feature a talk by an expert speaker & include refreshments. The speakers will be sought from a variety of different professionals such as autism lecturers, autism and behaviour experts, speech and language therapists & educational psychologists.

Parent-led, Parent/Carer Support Group

Parent-led, daytime parent /carers group: This will be held once a month. Usually on the 3rd Wednesday of each month, in the Sparkle office. Topics will be led by the parent/carers who attend and will feature informal question and answer sessions.

One-to-one Sessions

One-to-one appointments – on Fridays, only at our Sparkle office. These are used to discuss difficulties, give out information, provide guidance and offer advice. One-to-one’s provide a personalised advice session in which parent/carers can speak to autism experienced parents specifically about their concerns. Have their questions answered about autism, DLA, behavioural, schooling and coping strategies. The sessions must be arranged in advance.

Professional Skype Help

Professional Skype appointments for one-to-one advice with our Autism Specialist Mark Brown at a subsidised cost of £25 per hour. Appointments can be arranged by emailing your name & contact details to [email protected] with a brief description of the issues you would like to discuss. Then you will then be sent some date and time options for the Skype consultation.

Email Advice

Help and advice is available via [email protected]. This is suited to parent/carers who find email communication more convenient, or their preferred way to access us. This service can be used answer specific questions or give general advice

Facebook Support

Facebook parent-to-parent support group: A closed Facebook group for parents to ask questions, celebrate success stories, express frustration, gain support, share inspiration. https://www.facebook.com/groups/276046732603727/

Autism awareness cards

Autism awareness cards to help parents avoid confrontation: The cards have a message on the back alerting people to hidden disability. These can be used when people make unhelpful comments or judgements on our parents. They can de-escalate confrontations and usually disperse the person from the parent and child’s personal space.

Family Support

Events

Sparkle Children’s events: includes events like boxing, cinema, bowling, craft play, Rother valley adventure play and Rotherham splash zone. Priced at £2.50 per child and siblings are welcome. Please note parents must remain with their children at all times

Sparkle Plus Children’s events: includes events like Christmas grotto, nativity, emergency services meet and greet, valentine’s Day themed disco, Easter egg hunt, and exclusive use soft play. Priced at £5 per child, siblings are welcome. Please note parents must remain with their children at all times.

Twinkle is a sibling support group for children aged 7-16yrs who have a brother or sister with autism.

They will be given space to express their feelings to professionals, with confidence that what is said stays within the group. They will do lots of activities e.g. cinema visits, bowling and craft.

The group meets on the second Tuesday of every month

Mark Brown is one of Sparkle Sheffield’s Professionals from Special Help For Special Needs, who will be helping the twinkle children with the emotional aspects of having an autistic sibling.

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August 29, 2020

Returning to School Resources September 2020

August 20, 2020

Children’s Zoom Activities – Sponsored by Stowe Family Law

August 6, 2020

Online South Yorkshire Autism Fayre 2020

Auti-Talk presents the Lord Mayor of Sheffield 2016

Raising awareness is one of the most important things that we do. Thanks to BBC Look North, Sheffield TV Live and BBC’s The One Show , BBC Radio Sheffield, Hallam FM they have really helped us to make a real difference in doing just that. A HUGE thank you from all of us from Sparkle Sheffield

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