Autism, Neurodiversity and Me

Join Steph Reed and Louise Maggs talking about collaboration between home and school for PECS users and success stories.

Autism Specialist Teacher Lynn McCann is on the podcast to talk about ADHD, lived experience and the impact on teaching neurodivergent students.

TV presenter, producer, director and podcaster Gareth Jones AKA 'Gaz Top' joins Steph Reed to discuss the value of neurodiversity in the context of neurodiverse family.

Last Updated on February 15, 2022 by Steph Reed

Podcast Episode Notes

Well the past few months have been, I don’t know how to describe it… absolutely crazy! It’s been very strange, difficult and challenging. There’s been highs. There’s been lows. But fundamentally, things have changed. Things are different. Things are uncertain. I know that we’ve all had our own experience and our own journey and our own challenges. So I hope you and your loved ones are safe and well during this pandemic.If you have your own children, I hope that you are all in one piece and that you have managed to have some kind of quality time together.

If you’re a key worker, we love you!Parents, we love you! Teachers, we love you. Thank you to everybody!Now things for myself, and Autism Spectrum Teacher (which is myself!) have been very challenging because like perhaps yourself or others you know, I was without any work. My work before the COVID-19 pandemic was in schools, supporting staff, families, SENCO”S and teachers, developing SEND provision and practice.Of course, then schools closed and I was unable to support the schools, and families in the same way that I would have done before. Now, we’ve all been managing the best that we could from a distance. To a point that’s helping some people, but of course I wanted to do more and essentially, I needed to keep everything that Autism Spectrum Teacher and myself does including all of the projects and this podcast.

This is the reason why I’ve had to put the podcast on hold for the past couple of months. Without those means of ensuring stability for the podcast, I couldn’t continue it. However, I have some plans and I have put things in motion. I want to tell you all about the future plans!We’ve all had to adapt, right? And to be honest, I’ve been really pleased with how some of the children have adapted! You know, sometimes we really do fear the worst don’t we!? Of course there have been many challenges and a lot more challenges I would say, but we’ve got to stick to the positive here. There have been some children that have really surprised us.

Now, this episode and the next seven podcast episodes are going to sound very different to previous episodes.There is a theme that will be running through this and the next seven podcasts. And that is that… I’m very pleased and proud to announce that… I have released a series of online training courses, which gives a lot of concise and digestible information as well as practical strategies and how to apply these in real day life.

Bonus episode: This is a live recording from a 'Facebook Live' I hosted this week. It took place in a group aimed at general support through the Covid-19 Crisis, in the island of Jersey, where I am from.

I took this opportunity to talk to parents and carers about potential strategies that could be helpful for families with children with special needs, when spending all day at home.

Zafer Elcik, founder of the Otsimo educational apps joins Steph Reed to discuss how he originally built the apps to help teach his brother. Zafer works alongside educators, speech and language therapists and families to develop educational games aimed at learning different concepts, as well as a free open source AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) tool in Turkish and English.

Jenny McLaughlan, founder of Chewigem, a support community for different sensory needs as well as a range of chewing, fidget and sensory aids for children and adults joins Steph on he podcast. Hear some great sensory related success stories!

Steph Reed, autism specialist teacher discusses and poses questions about enhancing communication at school and home through adapting the environment, our teaching approach and resources.

Angela Charalambous, a reading specialist from the Workshop Reading Centre in Johannesburg discusses strategies to support children to enjoy reading and feel more confident.

Jane Crawford and Helen Cottell from the West Sussex County Council Autism and Social Communication Team discuss the information in the 'Evidence Based Guide to Anxiety in Autism' put together with Sebastian Gaigg from the Autism Research Group at City University of London. Themes covered include how anxiety presents differently in autism, the potential causes of anxiety and practical strategies to help and support.