LEADING ON SEND ACROSS ALL SCHOOLS CONFERENCE2-3 APRIL 2019 | LONDON
Tag: Autism
‘My Invisible Disability’ by Caitlin Hire (New Publication)
Caitlin Hire is a young woman with Autism, who through her teenage years has also experienced some issues with her Mental Health.
Through it all she has shown incredible inner strength and emotional resilience .
This is her story, in her own words, of her journey with Autism. She talks specifically about her struggles with the conventional school system, an experience common to many teenagers with AS.
Her story is full of insight , and will be a revelation to so many other young people, their families and professionals. Her account is poignant, and is told with great candour..”Masking is exhausting, but it’s what I need to do in this neurotypical world to survive.”
Caitlin has given permission for her story to be shared more widely, and ‘BarryCarpenterEducation’ is delighted to offer it as a free download below in .pdf format.
Click the cover image below to open & view Caitlin’s story.
New Book in the ‘Books Beyond Words’ series
‘Belonging’ deals with issues of Loneliness for people with Learning Disabilities.
https://booksbeyondwords.co.uk/bookshop/paperbacks/belonging
National Autism and Girls Forum
For updated information on the work of the Forum please go to –
http://www.naht.org.uk/about-us/our-councils-committees-and-forums/autism-and-girls-forum/
Chair: Professor Barry Carpenter, CBE, OBE.
2018 ASEPA National Conference
For more information: http://www.asepaconference.com.au/keynotes.php
To register your place click the image below:
Girls & Autism (Forthcoming Book for 2018)
Girls and Autism
Educational, Family and Personal Perspectives by Barry Carpenter, Francesca Happe and Jo Egerton.
Click the thumbnail image below to download and view in full.
Mental Health Article – Inquiring Minds
Jo Egerton, Schools Research Consultant, and Bev Cockbill, Training Co-ordinator and Structured Teaching Practitioner in complex learning needs, Chadsgrove Teaching School, Bromsgrove, write about the use of mental wealth journals for pupils with additonal needs.
Click thumbnail/image below to view full pdf.
Autism in Girls: Call To Action updated and relaunched
At nasen live in Birmingham in July , Professor Barry Carpenter , Chair of the National Working Group on Autism in Girls, ( supported by the NAHT) relaunched the Call to Action, as part of his keynote address. This can be downloaded free below.
It has also been announced that a new book ‘ Understanding Autism in Girls (Routledge) will be published late 2018 . The book will feature chapter contributions by members of the National Working Group , and will be edited by Professor Carpenter with Professor Francesca Happe, and Jo Egerton.
The ‘Parents of Girls with Autism’ online community
The ‘Parents of Girls with Autism’ online community has now been approved and can be found here http://network.autism.org.uk/group/parents-girls-autism
The community is aimed at parents, however it also welcomes women with autism and professionals with an interest in the subject.
Please register through the weblink above to join.
Developing housing for young people with learning disabilities
This blog describes an initiative in the West Midlands led by MyLife.http://www.mylife.uk.com/
This guest blog comes from Professor Barry Carpenter CBE, chair of MyLife, a support service in Hartlepool and Moseley in Surrey enabling people with complex needs to live as independently as possible in the community. Here, he describes MyLife’s new initiative in the West Midlands to support young people leaving education and preparing to live independently.
We all develop the desire to live independently and take control of our adult lives as we approach school-leaving age, and young people with special educational needs are no different.
But transitioning into employment and independent living is obviously more challenging for this group. As a former headteacher, I’ve seen so many young people not do well because of a lack of support as they enter adulthood; they haven’t been able to secure a job, they remain dependent on their parents and lose confidence in their abilities.
MyLife is currently working in partnership with a school in the West Midlands to explore ways we can help young people with special needs better prepare for leaving education.
My daughter, Katie, has been the inspiration for this next stage of MyLife’s development. She has Down’s Syndrome and she has shared a home with friends for eight years. Now aged 30, she’s just about to start her first paid role with a school, running a ‘without words’ book club for children who find learning easier through images rather than text.
Katie has experienced numerous knock-backs but I believe the fact that she is independent and able to manage her own life has given her the self-esteem to withstand these setbacks and maintain her confidence.
And building this independence is what we are focusing on in the West Midlands.
A tenet of the revised Code of Practice for SEND is to offer young people support past the age of 19 and up to 25. MyLife is working with Westminster School in Rowley Regis to develop their curriculum for this age group.
A key theme is ‘My Home’, and students will have access to a training flat where they can learn life-skills such as cooking, cleaning, registering with a doctor and taking public transport.
Alongside this we are looking at ways we can support the young people to live independently. This will involve sourcing a range of accommodation to meet their range of needs, be it a shared house, a flat of their own or supported living. We shouldn’t just think that this model can only be available to people with low support needs; living as independently as possible should be available to people with the most complex needs as well.
It’s an exciting development of our services and one that we want to see expand.
The National Audit Office estimates that equipping a young person with the skills to live in even semi-independent housing could reduce support costs to the public purse by around £1 million. It also suggests that supporting one person with a learning disability into employment could increase that person’s income by between 55 and 95 per cent.
But what is most important, both for young people and our communities, is that these skills give young people with additional needs, people like Katie, the chance to create a home for themselves where they can make their own choices, have friends to visit and have somewhere to recharge and truly relax.
Professor Barry Carpenter is Chair of the Advisory Board for Mylife. A former headteacher of three special schools and a school inspector, he is currently Chair of the Autism and Girls Forum and the Complex Needs Training Review Group for the National Association of Special Educational Needs.
His innovative research project on children with complex learning disabilities in the UK is now being replicated in two major European projects and translated into major European languages.
He is a member of Health Education England Learning Disabilities Expert Reference Group for the Department of Health, and lead consultant for the South Australian Department of Education and Children’s Services. He is also a director of Books Beyond Words.
To find out more about MyLife services go to http://www.mylife.uk.com/
