Photo from Ann Memmott www.annsautismblog.com showing what visual hyper-sensitivity can be like in a classroom. As I promised, here are my tips for secondary teachers getting ready for the next school year. There are likely to be a number of autistic students or other SEND needs coming into your classes this year and I want […]
Emotion Works was developed by Claire Murray in Edinburgh and about 4 years ago I came across it on the internet. The first thing that caught my eye was the visual cogs. Thinking that this would be good for the pupils with autism that we support at Reachout ASC, we jumped on a train and […]
“The classroom is each teacher’s mini-kingdom and the ‘home’ of your pupils for most of the school day. Teachers lavish care and attention on how it is set out and how they decorate it, and spend time organising furniture and equipment that they and their pupils will need to access throughout the year. In primary […]
Image from: Supporting Autistic Learners course by Lynn McCann Many autistic children have Sensory Processing Disorders. (And so do children with Down’s Syndrome, ADHD and other or no other conditions). Their sensory systems (as above) can be hyper (over) or hypo (under) sensitive and this affects the way that they understand, perceive and interact with […]
Imagine that every day the simplest demands make you panic. Not just the demands from other people but the demands that you place on yourself, the things you know you should be doing.Like getting out of bed. Getting ready for the day. Getting out of the house. It’s not just feeling lethargic. It’s the crippling […]
Autistic pupils can find everyday transitions difficult, as well as the major transitions that happen. The reasons can include: Not being told what the change will involve, What will be expected of them, How long it’s going to last, Perceived or real sensory challenges, Not being given time enough to process the changes or enough information […]
I was born worrying, so my mum said. I don’t really know what it is like not to have a million worries running through my head all at once. Every conceivable disaster is imagined once my brain focusses on a particular thought – There’s a downside to having a wild imagination. But over the years […]
Do we think beyond our autistic pupils and wonder if teaching staff or other professionals may be grown up autistic people? Sensory overload, social confusion and other differences don’t go away, but many autistic adults spend a lot of time and energy trying to ‘mask’ their difficulties in busy, demanding environments. This anonymous account from […]
It is seriously one of the biggest issues we have to deal with when we support secondary autistic students, so I thought it would be worth sharing my suggestions about homework. So…if you have a student refusing, never seeming to do homework, parents are saying that it is causing meltdowns and great distress, the student […]
My friend @AnnMemmott who blogs at http://www.annsautismblog.co.uk first introduced me to the Spoon Theory in relation to autism. It was originally created by Christine Miserandino when asked about her chronic illness, (you can read the original post here http://www.butyoudontlooksick.com/articles/written-by-christine/the-spoon-theory/ ) but is a great way of helping us understand why school and college is such hard […]