The flexible scheduling project

Led by Dr Kate Woodcock, coordinated by Siobhan Blackwell, Centre for Applied Psychology, University of Birmingham

Who?

Parents and teachers of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, Fragile-X and Prader-Willi Syndrome (5 years +).

What?

A study aiming to develop a new strategy that we hope will prevent the development of some of the difficulties that children can experience with changes to their routines or expectations. This will involve taking part in telephone interviews and group discussions with researchers, in person at the University of Birmingham or remotely via webinar, and testing the strategy we develop together at home/in school with your child.

Why?

Resistance to change can be challenging for children and their families. We want to develop a strategy which aims to reduce the likelihood of the development of disabling resistance. We call this strategy “Flexible Scheduling”. It aims to improve the cognitions that we think are important in managing changes to expectations. We want to work with families of children to ensure that our approach has the right balance between the structure needed by your children and the flexibility to improve cognition in the right way. It is very important to us that this new strategy is feasible and acceptable to those who may use it.

How?

Contact us at the University of Birmingham on:
+44 (0) 121 414 6036 (Kate) or +44 (0) 121 414 3335 (Siobhan)
or by email at