ReachoutASC:BLOG

​This guest blog is from Joanna Grace who I first knew through her start up of the Sensory Project in 2010.  I liked what she was proposing to do and I pitched in a tenner towards it and watched how (thanks to much more generous people than me) the Sensory Projects have grown. In her own words:

Joanna Grace is a Sensory Engagement and Inclusion Specialist, Trainer, Author, TEDx speaker and Founder of The Sensory Projects.

Consistently rated as Outstanding by Ofsted Joanna has taught in mainstream and special school settings, connecting with pupils of all ages and abilities. Since launching The Sensory Projects Joanna's work has extended into adult care for people with complex needs and dementia. To inform her work Joanna draws on her own experience from her private and professional life as well as taking in all the information she can from the research archives. Joanna's private life includes family members with disabilities and neurodiverse conditions and time spent as a registered foster carer for children with profound disabilities.

Joanna's books Sensory Stories for children and teens , Sensory-being for Sensory Beings and Sharing Sensory Stories with People with Dementia sell globally. She has a further four books due for publication within the next two years, including two children's books.

Joanna is a big fan of social media and is always happy to connect with people via Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin

In this blog she tells us why it is so important to be looking for girls who may be on the autistic spectrum...

​I've been reluctant to wade into the sea of behaviour debate I see in the news and on social media at the moment, but I would like to share some insights from my practice about how autistic students in secondary school use behaviour to communicate that something is wrong.  I want to show you how we might go about supporting them so that the real issues are dealt with and behaviour improves.

I do think it is important in secondary classrooms for all students to behave in a manner that enables the lesson to continue and the content and learning to happen   .It is necessary for schools to have a clear behaviour policy and a system of sanctions that are consistently used by all staff.   This provides clear expectations and clarity of procedure.

However, in my many years of experience supporting autistic young people in secondary schools I have learned that negative behaviours always have a reason, and that we can mostly be sure that the autistic student is struggling to communicate what the problem is.  They may get angry, obstinate, oppositional, withdrawn, self-harm or disruptive as a reaction to the frustration and stress of not being able to communicate and sort out a problem.  Sometimes they cannot understand what the problem is they are having.   Sometimes they are trying so hard to be good that the pressure causes them to have meltdown's, usually at home.  We need to listen when parents tell us that - it's a great clue for us that the student is stressed at school.  

Photo from Reachout ASC conference

​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 an autistic professional explains why we should make more accommodations so that we can all work better together.  Hope we can all think to ask "What can help?"

Here is their account:

Last week I attended a conference for professionals in education.  It was an amazing event; inspiring, exciting and thought provoking.  There was only one problem. I spent most the day in sensory overload.

If you looked at me sitting on the outskirts of the conference, not making eye contact, not joining conversation what assumptions would you make?  That I don't want to be there?  That I'm aloof? Unfriendly?   What you don't see, what you don't understand is that I am in sensory over load, fighting to keep myself together and maintain some sort of integrity. 

​Primary teachers are the most creative people I know.   In just one day they explain, instruct, present, make, demonstrate, coach, advise, organise, design, guide, adapt, mentor, listen, comfort, laugh, cry and

…oh and of course…teach!

Each day there are around 30 individual human beings in our care and we want to nurture them, develop their talents, teach them the curriculum and see them make progress.   We want to help them get along with others and contribute to the world.

If one or more of those children have autism then primary teachers want the same things for those children.   But a child with autism may need us to be more adaptable, do things in a different way and build a support structure around them that meets their individual needs. 

​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 anxiety, the inability to make your body do the movements you know it should be able to…but today it just can't.  And what if some days you're not as bad so you manage some things and everyone thinks you are faking it when on other days you are unable to function.

The most important thing to understand about PDA is that it is a "can't" not a "won't".

​ I have an autistic friend who is a maths teacher (amongst her other talents). She has a great way of explaining what being autistic is like and we often talk about the apparent anomaly between her confidence in speaking to someone 1:1 or to a whole group of students, as opposed to being in a group or party situation with lots of people to interact with. I love how she describes it....

​Yesterday was January 1^st 2018 and it was my birthday…well the 4^th Birthday of Reachout ASC.  This time four years ago I'd only just left my school and started a new business.  There wasn't much rest that Christmas holiday,  I can tell you!  I end 2017 with a team of three people who help Reachout ASC be all it is.  Emma Turver is the other specialist teacher, doing the same work as I do and being very good at it.   Meriel is our administrator and can do in 3 minutes what would take me 3 hours to do, and Cristina is our newest member of the team, working as our office assistant.   She is an Aspie and we will be writing a blog together about employing autistic people later in the year.

Working in and with many different schools has given me the opportunity to see how education, and specifically SEND reforms are working in real life.   I deliver training to SENCOs and staff from all over the north of England and here many stories from many people.   2014 wasn't only the birth of Reachout ASC, but also the birth of the new SEND Code of Practice, since revised in 2015.    The landscape for children, parents, SENCOs and school provision has changed in many ways, and in other ways hasn't changed at all.  I'd certainly recommend reading posts from Special Needs Jungle to keep up to date with the national picture.

​Ok teachers this is THE half term when I get so many more emails about autistic pupils in school and their behaviour.   I wanted to warn you all and help you get ready….but not for the challenging behaviour,  no,  it's supporting your pupils with autism at this time of year that I want to help you with so that the chances of their behaviour changing is lessened.

Of course, the culprit, the trigger for behaviour at this time of year is most likely to be Christmas…not Christmas itself…but the way we DO Christmas.

This is what happens in most primary schools...

​There is something I've noticed as I travel around schools supporting pupils with autism and their teachers.

Autistic children are unhappy in school. Very unhappy. Many of them show this in their behaviour, and it's often because of their behaviour that I'm asked to help.   I work with PRUs.  They are receiving more and more children, younger and younger who are permanently excluded from mainstream schools.  They are traumatised at an early age.  Older children too are school refusing,  being excluded and let down.  Too many are not getting the help, support and life chances they need and deserve. 

​ 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 the world around them.  It also affects their perception of their own bodies and how they function.  And I'm often asked whether the sensory responses can be different on different days – yes, they can.  Some sensory responses can be hyper and some hypo – in the same person.