I wrote this blog in April and with another lockdown planned it seems relevant to reshare it. Starting autism act as a brand new business in January 2020 after the trauma of losing my local authority autism specialist teacher role, was a huge step for me. A SEN department redesign and the redundancy that…
BBC’s Strictly Come Dancing was back on our screens at the weekend – happy times for me! My husband calls it ‘Strictly Widower’ season as I sprawl out on the sofa and he shuffles upstairs with a bar of chocolate to watch something else. I wouldn’t go as far as calling it a ‘special interest’…
This blog is the final chapter of my M Ed dissertation (for which I received a distinction) It details the conclusions of my research into SEN training and autism training for teachers and how it can impact on their understanding and ultimately, their practice. I wrote and delivered a workshop based on the Autism Education…
Covid 19 has restricted many of our activities, both personal and professional for 6 months. I know what the restrictions it has meant for autism act, with all face to face work and school visits cancelled and postponed since March. It was good to be out in 2 schools last week delivering staff training –…
At this current time, social media pages and forums are flooded with SEN training and opportunities. Probably more than ever before due to the restrictions of Covid 19. Businesses that were running a face to face service, like autism act, have had to change their services. My favourite phrase is ‘I had to turn…
It doesn’t matter where you are in the country, you can access a staff meeting from autism act. This service will be available from September and I am very excited about it! And there’s not much to thank Covid 19 for let’s face it, but it has widened the autism act audience and for…
destination autism – guiding your journey is a brand new service to autism act. The lack of post diagnostic courses have been evident to me since my role in the local authority, even in that time the parent course I delivered with colleagues was cut from LA services. Although parents will be signposted to a number…
The zoom workshops have proved a popular addition to autism act since May. To be honest, all workshops were written to be delivered face to face but when Covid 19 hit, I had to diversify to get training delivered online in order to keep the business going. I’ve had to tweak every workshop to make…
Visual supports are actually a part of all our everyday lives. The phone The clock The fitbit The road sign The time on the washing machine to tell you how long til the end of the cycle The diary …. When you consider it, the list is endless. Visual supports are a reminder of what…
I can’t even begin to tell you how much has happened in a year. Today is the day (21st July) that my work world fell apart and I found out I was being made redundant. After 5 years of learning how to be ‘autism focused’ which I felt was my absolute strength, I was being…