Louise Malkin completed an undergraduate degree in Psychology in 2002 at the University of Portsmouth before undertaking teacher training at Leeds University in 2003. During this time she gained experience across the full primary age range and also worked with children with English as an Additional Language. She began her teaching career in a mainstream school in Kent, teaching 5-6 year olds, before moving to a special school in 2005, where she taught within the Autism Unit. It was at this time that Louise undertook her initial PECS training and began to fully implement PECS and the Pyramid Approach within her classroom, working closely with the schools Speech and Language Therapist. She also worked extensively alongside parents to enable PECS to be implemented in the home environment, whilst undertaking further training including TEACCH and Teaching Verbal Behaviour, in which a Teacher Learning Academy submission was completed. Louise joined Pyramid in 2008, and is particularly interested in how PECS and the Pyramid Approach can be used to enable students to access the Early Learning Goals and National Curriculum, and to encourage behaviours that enable learning.