THIS is the £360,000 unit which has helped autistic children experience the magic of speech for the first time.

Stone Hey is a purpose built unit at Broadfield School, Oswaldtwistle, which consists of two classrooms and facilities for up to 12 autistic pupils to begin school life and was funded through government grants to Lancashire County Council, which runs the school.

The site at the Fielding Lane school for children with moderate learning difficulties has been in use since last September and already has a full class of pupils from throughout East Lancashire who are progressing in leaps and bounds.

It will be officially opened next week by Hyndburn MP Greg Pope.

Six full time members of staff, including two teachers, two nursery nurses and two support assistants, are all employed in the facility which achieves a close partnership with parents to develop the strategies they use at home with their children.

Angela Banner, co-ordinator for autism and teacher in charge of the unit, said: "Children with autism essentially have communication difficulties, rigidity of thought and a desire for things to be the same.

"In the unit we use specialist approaches for autism including a system called TEACCH which stands for Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication Handicapped Children.

"The system of learning includes substituting pictures and symbols for words and using other visual channels to access learning as many of the children cannot use verbal communication yet. "The children also use a system of signing called Makaton which is a sort of shorthand version of British Sign Language where they sign key words rather than whole sentences.

"There has been a lot of enthusiasm from the children and the unit has created a positive environment for them to learn in -- some of them who had not used verbal communication before are now chatting for the first time which is quite magical .

"They are all very happy little children and are progressing well"

The youngsters aged four and five will attend classes at the unit which teaches national curriculum Key Stage 1 for nine terms before it is decided whether they will transfer to Broadfield or into mainstream school.

Each pupil has their own learning plan with targets set for them to achieve in terms of personal and social objectives.

Next Thursday an official opening ceremony will take place at the unit led by Greg Pope between 11.30am and 12.30pm.

This will also be attended by the county architect who designed the unit, Mark Tudor, and builders Clement Dickens.