Lynn’s bit: As a team we have fully embraced the explosion of understanding, articles, books and advice about autistic girls. It goes some way in undoing the long years of girls being ignored in research, male stereotypes and the myths surrounding autism. BUT – we also work with autistic boys and although we do use […]
I want to explain why despite the effort, it seems like a person with ADHD might struggle to get things finished and how we can support them. 13 Ways to encourage poster People still think ADHD isn’t a real thing or a ‘naughty boy’ invention. Or an excuse for bad behaviour. Or something that […]
Another blog by Sarah Loveridge, one of our specialist teachers. Change can be scary, especially a big change like a new baby joining the family and ESPECIALLY if you’re autistic. Thankfully, we often have around 9 months to get ready for this change, and autistic children will need as much of this time as […]
By Lynn McCann author of Stories that Explain *Social Stories are a Trademark of Carol Gray https://carolgraysocialstories.com As an autism specialist teacher, I have been writing social stories for over 15 years. But I’m the first to admit that social stories can be ineffective, damaging and even dangerous. The trouble is that many people […]
By Sarah One of the most common issues we come across when going into schools is children struggling to work without constant prompting. This can be for a variety of reasons including (but not exclusively) fear of failure, difficulty getting started (the dreaded blank page problem!), distractions in the environment around them, trouble understanding the […]
Just to jump right in…The autism specialist is me, Lynn McCann, and I was diagnosed with ADHD in July. As with most events like this there is a back story. I have been an autism specialist for 16 years now and in that time have studied and researched autism, ADHD, PDA Profile and other conditions. […]
Context I set up my company, Reachout ASC in January 2014. At first I worked on my own, but soon added another specialist teacher, and most crucially, I paid someone to do my bookkeeping (not my biggest strength). Now I have two part time employees, three self-employed associate specialist teachers and I’m holding on to […]
As an autism specialist teacher, I work in a few different secondary schools. At the end of the year I always give the Y7s a little celebration for surviving their first year of secondary school. ‘Surviving’ has been the word that most of them use when they look back over their first year and this […]
*”A meltdown (or shutdown) is when a child becomes very distressed and emotionally overwhelmed. They can be caused by many different factors, such as situations that are unpredictable, sudden changes or things not happening as the child was expecting. They can also be delayed as the child takes time to process a difficult situation and […]
Written by Kirsten Illingworth Specialist TA with Reachout ASC. “Autistic children may react to a bereavement in different ways to neurotypical children. Some of the underlying perceptual and processing difficulties observed in autistic children may affect their understanding of death and their reaction to a bereavement. Autistic children, like any others, need their grief both […]