This month, Bridges in Social Understanding, an online curriculum that teaches children on the autism spectrum critical social skills, is celebrating 19 incredible years of helping children to live happy, independent, social lives.
2019 is a milestone year for the Bridges team, who began their work as Speech and Language Therapists over 20 years ago.
When Mary and Catherine, the founders of Bridges in Social Understanding, realised that children on the autism spectrum weren’t receiving the long-term and specialised support they needed for their social development, they spent 12 years developing a curriculum based on evidence that would give them social skills for life.
Nineteen years later, the Bridges curriculum is now used by hundreds of schools and families at home across the UK, South Africa, and Australia – but this is just the beginning. To help as many children as they can, Bridges is offering individuals a 14-day free trial of their curriculum from anywhere in the world.
The driving force behind Bridges
Bridges began when its founders, who were working as specialists supporting children on the autism spectrum in their Singapore clinic, realised that their students were not receiving consistent social development support.
After spearheading what is now the largest charity for autism in Singapore, Mary and Catherine recognised that the key to real, lasting learning for these children was empowering parents and working with them in partnership to create a constant source of support for their child.
In 2000, Mary and Catherine began to develop a curriculum that was based on evidence collected, supported by their clinical expertise and a critical awareness that social understanding changes as a child matures.
To ensure that the curriculum would create real, lasting learning, Bridges worked with a group of dedicated parents beyond the clinic to test specific teaching strategies, ensuring that these lessons carried over effectively when taught at home.
The children themselves became part of the curriculum’s dynamic development and showed how important it was for the child to ‘buy-into’ their social learning and build their skills over time.
Social learning, lessons for life
Now, the Bridges curriculum is available online for parents to use in their daily lives, as well as being a resource for teachers, specialists and clinicians in schools across the world.
With proactive and sequential lessons, and interactive class materials designed to suit children’s unique learning styles, Bridges has helped their students to go on to live independent, happy social lives.
It’s brilliant to see the milestones Bridges has reached, now with a global presence, industry recognition and continued support to create a brighter future for children on the autism spectrum.
See how Bridges can support parents, teachers and specialists to transform the social lives of children on the autism spectrum with a 14-day free trial of their curriculum.
Click here to see the Bridges in Social Understanding curriculum and start your free trial
