Local Offer: encouraging independent travel

It is important for young people to access life independently wherever possible. However they do need to feel safe and have autonomy. To support and teach them these important skills, it needs to be started when they are young.

A professional in one of our special schools was discussing this recently:

"I know all this depends on the needs and ability of the person but I definitely believe it can and should be done - not being able to make decisions about their own travel and get about the immediate community around them is so debilitating for our young people with SEN and it should be a huge priority."

"The key to it all for us is really just persistence and practice, and noticing the tiny bits of independence they are gaining each time - might be getting their wallet out of their own pocket unprompted one day, or finding their own seat on the bus, or scanning the bus pass themselves. All those bits add up but obviously the complete process is completely daunting at first when you are aiming at complete independence. Visual schedules with photos of different key parts of the process (bus stop, number of bus, ticket scanner, landmarks on route so you know you are going in the right direction) are all really important if you have someone who relies heavily on that prompt for it to be successful"

This is worth considering when making baby steps towards your young person being able to be independent within the community.

Dr Desiree Gallimore's book 'The Essential Guide to Safe Travel-Training for Children with Autism and Intellectual Disabilities (2017)' is good for further reading.

What to teach a young person

You should consider teaching your child how to:

• walk to school at the end of year 6 and to secondary school
• walk to a friend/family member's house
• get to the local shop
• travel into town
• go into a shop/cafe
• get to college or school by bus or train
• problem solving

You could also teach them:

• how to learn the route/journey or plan a journey
• how to practice the journey and how to find alternative routes
• how and where to buy tickets for travelling and what to say and ask for
• where they can sit on the train/bus, and where they need to wait
• how to search or look at a timetable
• how to use a smart phone and apps to help
• if using a taxi, which company to call and how to arrange a taxi
• how to build confidence
• about personal safety - crossing roads, stranger danger
• how to 'wait'

The benefits of this are:

• increased confidence and independence
• decreased reliance on specialist transport and parents/carers
• more opportunities to go out with friends and join clubs
• more opportunities to go to college or find a job

You can find out more about tools and learning for road safety on our traffic and road safety team's 'road safety resources' page.