Reference for Becki

11.9.2008


To whom it may concern,


Becki Perriman is my most trusted and long-term worker at Memory Gardens Autistic youth club. I have every confidence in her and her ability to tune into the needs, concerns and interests of the children attending the club.

Becki takes a genuine pleasure in following, extending and supporting the experiences and choices of these children. She knows how to join them in their activity, affirming the details of their various interests, facilitating these by devising special spaces with whatever is to hand. She involves them for as long as their interest remains then switches into a different gear once they have moved on.

She is an excellent one-to-one worker which I feel is the area where her most unique skills lie. She can draw into a communicative space the most introverted of children simply by not making demands on them and allowing things to develop out of their actions. Children visibly relax around her leaning into the spaces she opens up.

Yet Becki is not a soft touch and will negotiate with and expect a certain attention and dialogue from children who are capable of this.

Becki may sometimes appear quiet or uncomfortable in meetings or on first arriving. However over the years I have come to realise that Becki works in a very direct and practical hands-on way and that where that connection is called for in the specific demands of the club she is one of the most pro-active and on-the-ground workers I have ever known.

She has a clear sense of what needs doing, of whom at that moment needs to be given some attention, and of possible problem areas where situations are beginning to boil up. At such times she is clear and coherent in expressing to other workers the needs as they unfold and can express and summarise well in meetings both these situations and observations of a more positive kind in relation to a certain child and some small yet special act of theirs. She has an ability to see through to the real issues concerning children which puts into a different framework acts that might otherwise seem unimportant.

Becki has a real feeling for the children she works with. She has a genuine sense of celebration and possibility in the way she relates to them. They sense her acceptance and quiet affirmation of who they are and this gives them the confidence to express themselves.

I would not hesitate in recommending Becki for this post.


Sincerely,



Ruth Solomon
Co-ordinator
Memory Gardens Autistic Sculpture Project