Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Teaching Autism (The Future Of SEN Education)

Transcript

Teaching Autism (The Future Of SEN Education) · Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD

• 0:06
  Hey guys, welcome back to another Saturday live.
• 0:07
  What is going on pump to be doing these out?
• 0:09
  We do quite a lot of these lately in the same day.
• 0:11
  So I think this is like the third one in a day, so I might
• 0:14
  brain is scrambled anyway. Super awesome, to have this next
• 0:18
  guest on the show. With, there's anyone left on the
• 0:19
  podcast. This is something that I've
• 0:20
  never done before. I'm normally interview people
• 0:23
  who are on the autism spectrum and doing stuff in that scene,
• 0:26
  even though I did interview somebody who was running like a
• 0:28
  disability section of a football stadium.
• 0:31
  But today, I have a very special guest who actually met in person
• 0:34
  once before as well. This Sophie and she when I met
• 0:38
  Sophie was a school teacher I think at the time in an sem
• 0:41
  school but now she's a senko which is special educational
• 0:45
  needs coordinator for a mainstream school so I'm excited
• 0:49
  to get into this conversation. Talk about all the bits and
• 0:51
  pieces and the ins and outs of what she does and hopefully
• 0:55
  should lead to insights. Oh so if you wanna introduce
• 0:57
  yourself and what you do and stuff.
• 0:59
  Yeah, of course. Hi I'm Sophie.
• 1:02
  Thank you for calling me a special guest, I feel and I feel
• 1:05
  honored to be Be here if that's okay.
• 1:08
  So yeah. I'm in my third year of
• 1:11
  teaching, I've taught a lot of autistic children.
• 1:14
  I also study study a master's degree focusing on autism so
• 1:19
  it's really my passion and Champion e neurodiversity.
• 1:23
  Wow awesome. That's good to have you on the
• 1:25
  team because yeah, we need all the help.
• 1:26
  We can get right now is so much stuff being thrown at us.
• 1:29
  Thanks to seeing and Mark Rover. Anyway, we're not gonna get into
• 1:32
  that but but anyway, No, it's really interesting because, you
• 1:37
  know, you know, coming from an awesome Advocate myself of being
• 1:41
  a, you know, a diagnosis of Asperger's syndrome, and ADHD
• 1:43
  OCD dyslexia and a bunch of other stuff.
• 1:46
  You know, it's easy for me to see here and say, like, you
• 1:48
  know, this is what people need to know about autism, blah,
• 1:51
  blah. But what we never really kind of
• 1:54
  have on this shower or on my content is what do people who
• 1:58
  are working in that field. What do you need to know?
• 2:00
  You know me? Because I'm always saying like
• 2:01
  you need to know this. What would you like to know?
• 2:03
  You know, I think that's interesting.
• 2:04
  So what would you say? Some of the biggest issue areas
• 2:08
  are for for kind of like educational establishments with
• 2:11
  autism. I mean where to start.
• 2:16
  Oh no. I think there's a whole host of
• 2:20
  things as there, always is with education.
• 2:22
  Unfortunately, I watched a video yesterday.
• 2:28
  I think with Joanna Grace about creating sensory spaces in our
• 2:34
  schools and it was found in her research that some people kind
• 2:39
  of have it, or don't have it sort of The Knack for teaching
• 2:45
  neurodiverse children, some people kind of get it and some
• 2:48
  people. Tired.
• 2:49
  So I think that's a huge barrier that we face in terms of the
• 2:54
  attitudes that staff has toward working with Neo, diverse
• 2:58
  children. And, and kind of not
• 3:01
  understanding the communication in behavior in nonverbal cues,
• 3:09
  those sorts of things. So I definitely find that a
• 3:13
  challenge. And I think something that I
• 3:15
  would always love to narrow is particularly with Never bore
• 3:19
  children. I'm always kind of assuming what
• 3:23
  they're trying to communicate. So I think from an autistic
• 3:27
  persons perspective, I would kind of love to know what some
• 3:30
  of those things could be interpreted as meaning from your
• 3:34
  perspective under wasn't that's super interesting.
• 3:37
  You know, I've I've got a course, I'll give you access to
• 3:41
  it actually, and I do sell the cost like 270 know.
• 3:45
  It's like 249 pounds, I think, but I'll give you access to the
• 3:47
  course for free. Or like therapist educational,
• 3:51
  you know, professionals mums, dads and also people on the
• 3:54
  Spectrum and actually cover this, this instant, you know,
• 3:56
  how do you how do you understand what I'm saying?
• 3:58
  You know, if they're unable to speak in a certain way, you
• 4:02
  know? So it's really interesting and I
• 4:03
  Do cover that in this course. So I'll send you access to them
• 4:06
  and you and I definitely love your feedback or no.
• 4:08
  Yes, no problem. You know, it's funny because
• 4:12
  when we think about school and stuff like that, I have the same
• 4:14
  issue with like hospitals and doctors surgeries that, you
• 4:17
  know, less than 40 percent of the GPS and the hospital staff
• 4:20
  know anything about autism. So it's like, how on Earth are
• 4:23
  you going to go somewhere to be treated when they know less than
• 4:26
  40% of your condition? Another shouldn't be know.
• 4:28
  How did you know everyone's condition where you going to a
• 4:30
  health establishment for a start, right?
• 4:32
  So the same issue I have with like the education establishment
• 4:36
  like how would you say the ratio is of the amount of teachers,
• 4:39
  who are aware of the issues or some presents?
• 4:44
  I would say that almost everyone is aware but I think It's the
• 4:51
  kind of the portrayal of autism in the media is the level of
• 4:56
  what people understand. So expecting very kind of like
• 5:00
  Sheldon Cooper asked kind of children and if a child in their
• 5:06
  class that has a diagnosis of autism doesn't present in that
• 5:09
  way. They ended up just feeling quite
• 5:11
  stuck and not going, we're not knowing where to go with it.
• 5:15
  For example, we've got a child at the moment who's So fixated
• 5:19
  on sticks, that's the special interests who just loves stakes
• 5:23
  and the teachers. Like how am I supposed to teach
• 5:25
  him? What he wants to do is look at
• 5:26
  stinks. See you make his learning about
• 5:30
  steaks? Yeah something to me that feels
• 5:33
  like a second nature. Kind of laying but for some
• 5:37
  currently, no, I don't know. Well, it's algebraic, isn't it?
• 5:40
  You apply sticks to a unit of anything, so you just that's
• 5:43
  what it is. Is stick is the unit on the,
• 5:45
  ain't it, right? It's yeah.
• 5:46
  I love, I love algebra for that reason.
• 5:48
  That's I was like, you never use algebra in real life as like you
• 5:51
  do son, but you know, it's and I just loved most and stuff.
• 5:54
  But you know it's funny because it's really like to like to me
• 5:59
  and the work that I do, it's really kind of like sometimes
• 6:02
  people ask me a question. I'm like, have I just answered
• 6:04
  that as simply as I just did? And I always say, like, did I
• 6:08
  answer your question, okay? Because I feel like I just said
• 6:10
  to you, like they say, how do I get from A to B and I'm like,
• 6:13
  you just walk it and they're like oh yeah yeah and then I'm
• 6:17
  like that just so so Simple that I just really did.
• 6:19
  But I think it's because, you know, from what I see is that if
• 6:23
  you're an educator, you know, if you're a professional working in
• 6:25
  the field, if you're not, like you got so many things going on,
• 6:28
  if you're not actively, like searching at nighttime, you
• 6:30
  know, scrolling through, you know, those like papers and
• 6:33
  stuff at night on your phone, reading up on autism.
• 6:35
  Like, how are you supposed to know, like, is there training
• 6:37
  available? Like how, what is your role as a
• 6:39
  senko? Do you have any responsibility
• 6:41
  to educate the staff in the kids?
• 6:44
  Yeah, definitely I do quite a lot of CPD training.
• 6:48
  And with the staff at my school, a lot of kind of generic
• 6:54
  training that all staff in school can attend and I also do
• 6:58
  specific class team meetings. If they have a child in a
• 7:01
  classic is neurodiverse specific strategies that are working for
• 7:06
  the key to keeping up-to-date on what's working.
• 7:09
  Well, what's not working? Because I think it's very easy
• 7:12
  from a leadership perspective to just assume that you know what's
• 7:16
  going on on the ground, from what you see. see, I think that
• 7:20
  is absolutely huge making sure that staff are involved in every
• 7:24
  step of the process because they see that child every single day
• 7:29
  and also taking time out of my schedule to go and spend time
• 7:34
  with the child in their classroom, I think it was just
• 7:38
  huge because we're making massive decisions about their
• 7:41
  educational Health and Care plans, the interventions that
• 7:45
  we're putting in place for them and Understand how we supposed
• 7:49
  to do that without sort of seeing it firsthand in
• 7:53
  communicating to those people. Exactly.
• 7:55
  I mean, you know, it sounds like is that a lot of work that you
• 7:59
  think needs to be done in terms of Education versus autism like
• 8:03
  because, you know, and I always say it like this.
• 8:05
  Like, one of the things I'm campaigning for is his, Like,
• 8:07
  You Know, Places need to be autism for it on your devotedly
• 8:11
  friendly. Right?
• 8:12
  Because, you know, if you go back to like the twenties, if
• 8:15
  you're a wheelchair user in the 20s and there was no ramps, Get
• 8:18
  to the grocery store or that's your problem, you know what I
• 8:21
  mean? But now, I mean, it'd be
• 8:23
  sacrilegious. Imagine a store didn't have
• 8:25
  disability access, right? That they could be sued and
• 8:28
  rightfully so. And I just think like, wow, look
• 8:30
  how far we've come with with protecting disability rights and
• 8:33
  things but then you look at University guess I got back and
• 8:35
  slaps. That's cause I will give you one
• 8:36
  hour a year to shop in the store.
• 8:39
  It's like what what is that about you know, that autism hour
• 8:42
  once a year? You that's a great but do not
• 8:44
  the store needs to rethink its Market because if you think that
• 8:47
  like one in a The people in that Kingdom diagnosed with autism,
• 8:51
  then the stores not accommodating for one out of a
• 8:53
  hundred people, walk through those doors.
• 8:55
  That's not good. You know, that there's a duty of
• 8:57
  care of anybody in a public service, right?
• 9:00
  So so my question is like, and if you apply it to the school
• 9:03
  and education board, how far away from being like nirodha
• 9:07
  vertically, friendly is the education system.
• 9:13
  Quite a way. Lastly you can say that Miles
• 9:16
  and Miles Away. Yeah.
• 9:16
  The billions of honestly. Yeah, I think it's compounded as
• 9:20
  well by the fact that a lot of children with and special needs
• 9:25
  and disabilities are currently in mainstream schools because
• 9:28
  special schools are kind of low. Yeah, I think it also goes back
• 9:33
  as well to you and the training that we get in your diversity
• 9:37
  within our initial teacher training.
• 9:40
  It's No, this is the thing. That's why I designed the course
• 9:46
  I have so many people like yourself who like, and this is
• 9:49
  not me trying to someone cause nothing to worry about.
• 9:51
  But people like so many people like yourself come.
• 9:52
  It's me. They say they asked me the same
• 9:54
  same question. They want training.
• 9:55
  They want to know more and they want their in fact more deep
• 9:56
  inside. So this is why I was like, oh
• 9:58
  maybe I'll create a book and I can just hand that out and then
• 10:00
  I was like, all the books not as notice like Hands-On.
• 10:02
  So I thought I might make a video of me explaining those
• 10:04
  things. It could be a bit more, kind of
• 10:05
  like Express the inexpressible. So I did that exact thing
• 10:09
  because I had I literally sat down Is the council?
• 10:13
  I local console and they were like, oh we have like, you know,
• 10:15
  did you train an awesome? Like yeah, I could do and they
• 10:17
  like all we don't know anything about it.
• 10:19
  I thought. Oh my God.
• 10:20
  Like it was just like, just mind-blowing.
• 10:22
  And we have a huge, special abridge school here on the
• 10:25
  island where I live. We have a bridge school here and
• 10:27
  it's a massive like a 4 million pound developments a fantastic
• 10:30
  school. But you know, still there's
• 10:34
  still stuff in there that don't really know but I mean, they're
• 10:36
  working every day and they kind of like it's a Hands-On job and
• 10:38
  they're doing a great job, but I feel like there's still like,
• 10:40
  there's so much more work that needs to be done.
• 10:41
  In educating the staff, who are educating the kids and I don't
• 10:45
  know how we do that, but this is my question to you, then what
• 10:47
  we, how do you think it could be tackled?
• 10:49
  Like, how would you if you like, you know, the Lord or the king
• 10:52
  of all education right now in the UK?
• 10:55
  And I'm going to give you a Magic Money Tree that the gates
• 10:59
  of dup, they give you a magical energy and then they said to
• 11:02
  you. All right, so if we let's fix
• 11:04
  it, well what would you do? I would initially probably
• 11:08
  improved initial teacher training, I think every single
• 11:11
  teacher that comes into the workforce, needs to have done a
• 11:14
  placement in a special school everybody and it's currently not
• 11:18
  compulsory, it's not compulsory, I only did one because I chose
• 11:22
  to specialize in my girlfriend did the same thing.
• 11:25
  So my girlfriend has a first-degree owners and
• 11:27
  childhood studies and development in autism right now,
• 11:30
  she was going to do a PhD in it but we wanted to have a kid
• 11:34
  instead. So what?
• 11:36
  You're breaking that was and but she knows, she loves this kind
• 11:39
  of stuff. And she said the same thing.
• 11:40
  She voluntarily went to do the placement in the bridge school
• 11:44
  here and it's actually eventually got a job there and
• 11:45
  they keep asking the school back, but what YouTube is now,
• 11:47
  so we don't need to but she was good at her job and that's why
• 11:50
  they want a backward, you know, she did the same thing, you
• 11:52
  know? Like if everybody had like a
• 11:54
  little bit of time there that it was just open their minds a bit
• 11:57
  more. And that, I mean, you just
• 11:59
  nailed it, I think so. But is it, you know, nothing
• 12:02
  treats you better than experience, right?
• 12:04
  So that's what you want. Oh My just like that.
• 12:07
  You blow my mind. That was awesome.
• 12:09
  I also think as well, the portrayal of autism in the media
• 12:12
  needs to be vastly improved and way more inclusive, a hundred
• 12:17
  percent. Did you see my, did you see my
• 12:19
  video on the circle? Did you see that?
• 12:22
  Yes I did, I did so I'm trying I'm trying I'm trying my best
• 12:26
  right? Because they offered me that you
• 12:27
  know they pay me a bunch of money to go on the show and do
• 12:29
  the same and I tried and we like we're going to do it.
• 12:31
  We're going to show the world like, you know, twenty four,
• 12:33
  twenty four, seven autism, right?
• 12:35
  And then they pulled Because I want to play it safe and I
• 12:38
  thought Mike, you know, then we're never going to get past
• 12:40
  this barrier if they keep doing that and the way they treated me
• 12:44
  as well as rubbish but a friend of mine Shabazz he was on it and
• 12:48
  and I've spoken about today and he was like oh man you know this
• 12:51
  channel for all like Rosie like oh we got all this diversity,
• 12:54
  you know we're you know Jon Snow and Jeremy corbyn and I was
• 12:58
  like, okay great you know they put themselves out there is this
• 13:01
  channel. It's very diverse but then when
• 13:02
  it actually comes down to it, I've had nothing but negative
• 13:06
  Dance with them and and I don't know how to challenge that.
• 13:09
  I mean, one thing I do know is I'm part of a, what did a summit
• 13:14
  in MIT with a company called the ruddiman foundation and they
• 13:17
  actually try to they campaign and change Hollywood's
• 13:22
  understanding and acceptance of their disability in Hollywood,
• 13:25
  right? So that's kind of on par with
• 13:27
  it. And I did consult with Netflix
• 13:29
  for a typical season 1 season 2 and 3 but in terms of like
• 13:33
  that's why some if you if you look at that.
• 13:36
  Netflix is a typical season. One Sam is like every single
• 13:39
  trait of autism going, right? But then if you get, yeah, and
• 13:43
  it's like, just like also combine numbers isn't it?
• 13:45
  If you look at season two and three, he kind of like he
• 13:48
  Mellows out a bit like when it's because like I had the chance
• 13:50
  that well, actually, I was working on with season 1 but the
• 13:53
  problem was, they'd already shot all the footage on season one.
• 13:55
  So I couldn't, we couldn't really edit that much.
• 13:58
  So backwards, I know. It was date was like an
• 14:01
  afterthought. I think they kind of.
• 14:02
  They were, they found me. They were like, so I did I did
• 14:05
  this because Consultancy with them, and it was really fun, you
• 14:08
  know, they were really do a nice guys.
• 14:09
  And but you know, it was funny because I'm I said, I'm like
• 14:12
  look you should go to make him into this like Sheldon character
• 14:15
  which we've got loads of rain man right.
• 14:17
  We've got green man. We just need real people and
• 14:19
  then so that's why he's Milling out of it because they're trying
• 14:21
  to really bring that character to life, but I absolutely think
• 14:25
  you're right. You know, you think about the
• 14:27
  more people watch Telly and they just go and they see like this
• 14:29
  this representation and they think that's it.
• 14:31
  I got it now and Rain Man. You know anybody who also drain
• 14:34
  man but it's not, you know it's and it's How'd you break that
• 14:37
  egg, you know, and it's hard to have to penetrate that media
• 14:40
  kind of. I'm going to do it though.
• 14:41
  I'm going to do it. My sledgehammer.
• 14:42
  Who are you frozen on me? Oh yeah.
• 14:45
  Okay, okay, I'm sorry. I anybody watching and I froze,
• 14:48
  I'm sorry. Okay.
• 14:50
  So what is your like, what's your goal, what?
• 14:54
  Like because. Like, I'm passionate about what
• 14:56
  I do and my goal is, I'm creating a charity right now and
• 14:58
  not some charity and more to come on that.
• 15:00
  But, you know, I have a huge goals or what I'm doing.
• 15:02
  Like, I want to try to smash down, but in terms of use a
• 15:05
  teacher, ER what or on our senko right now, like what is your
• 15:09
  goal? Like, what would you what are
• 15:10
  you trying to do it? Because we're all trying to
• 15:11
  change the world, right? And I feel that from you, like,
• 15:13
  I feel like you're passionate about it.
• 15:15
  And so anyone passionately say, okay, what's your goal, what are
• 15:17
  you, what are you working towards?
• 15:20
  I think that the top of my bucket list currently is, I
• 15:24
  would love to do a TED Talk. Hmm.
• 15:27
  I think that's, that's the top of the list because I think this
• 15:30
  whole thing about people that get it, and people that don't to
• 15:33
  blow my own trumpet, I think I get it.
• 15:36
  I think we need a job. Yeah, exactly.
• 15:40
  And I just think like he said it's so simple when someone says
• 15:45
  it to you, and I think as well as that for myself though, I do
• 15:51
  also want to make sure that like you were saying Netflix
• 15:54
  consulted you as an afterthought.
• 15:57
  I think that that should never be the case.
• 15:59
  We should listening to you autistic people to create
• 16:02
  provision for autistic people like me.
• 16:06
  No one knows what you need better than you and I appreciate
• 16:09
  that. Every autistic person is
• 16:10
  different and you can't speak for everyone, but I think that
• 16:14
  in itself is completely backwards.
• 16:16
  So think bunkers, I want to educate, but I also want to be
• 16:20
  able to give lend my voice to people, that might not have the
• 16:26
  opportunity to talk to people about it.
• 16:29
  That's awesome. I think it's really good.
• 16:31
  I think like, you know, having there's no, there's not enough
• 16:35
  outspoken teachers. Or like, professional working
• 16:38
  staff. There's not, there's not a lot
• 16:39
  of them. So maybe you could turn your
• 16:40
  Instagram into kind of like a place where people could talk
• 16:42
  and discuss ideas of topics with you about this specific genre
• 16:46
  because I think having that input with someone who's
• 16:49
  actually Champion it would be just, you know, so much better
• 16:52
  than this because you get all the time, you get like the
• 16:54
  counselors at the politicians who are champions of autism, but
• 16:57
  they don't do it, they just sign something, you know to say like
• 16:59
  yes I support this and it's nothing.
• 17:01
  It doesn't mean anything because it's so busy doing other than
• 17:03
  maybe they do want to do it but they're so busy doing other
• 17:05
  stuff. They don't do it.
• 17:06
  So I think I think what you're doing is a great service to the
• 17:09
  community and I think having people like you is going to
• 17:12
  change the lives of so many kids who come through your like
• 17:14
  classrooms and stuff I think and that to me is like you're
• 17:18
  already doing it. You know you're already already
• 17:19
  changing the world for so many people so I think thanks for
• 17:23
  that by the way. You know.
• 17:26
  I think you know if you can help Inspire other people to do it
• 17:29
  like to learn more about it and educate.
• 17:31
  I think that'd be great. Maybe you can make your own kind
• 17:33
  of like teaching plan and we could, we could chat.
• 17:36
  Together to the government may be.
• 17:37
  There you go. Who could do that?
• 17:38
  I did brief the European Parliament on autism and
• 17:41
  employment this year. Last year, I did.
• 17:44
  Wow. Yeah.
• 17:45
  So I do have I do have a lot of like political ties and stuff
• 17:48
  like that. And so so something we can look
• 17:49
  out. Anyway, Sophie this has been a
• 17:51
  great chart. I don't like boring want to
• 17:53
  death vote as talking about stuff, we might do.
• 17:55
  But as anything you'd like to say to the audience before we
• 17:57
  kind of depart, I think just keep educating people, don't be
• 18:04
  afraid to speak. Seek out about it, it doesn't
• 18:08
  matter how many people you talk to, you don't know how big the
• 18:12
  Ripple of what you say is going to have.
• 18:14
  So just keep talking about it and don't be afraid of of saying
• 18:20
  the wrong thing and not saying something because you're scared
• 18:24
  of saying it wrong, please say it in a safe space and allow us
• 18:29
  to help you I suppose. Well, wise words are wise words.
• 18:33
  Thank you. So Fierce amazing.
• 18:34
  All right, so I will leave links to You any links that?
• 18:37
  So if we want to share with me for public links, if she got any
• 18:40
  social media, if you want to get in touch or talk or reach out of
• 18:42
  see what she's talking about, I will leave all links in the show
• 18:44
  notes and inscriptions videos, and I will try and tag on
• 18:47
  Instagram if stuff is cool with that and they're so if anybody
• 18:49
  watching on the screen right now, you can just click a name
• 18:51
  and go straight through. Anyway, guys, it's been awesome.
• 18:53
  I'll see you next Saturday for another one of these bad boys.
• 18:55
  Hey guys, thank you so much for listening to this podcast.
• 18:57
  If you haven't already, please share this with anybody and
• 18:59
  everyone who you think can get some benefit from it.
• 19:01
  And also I know a bunch of you guys who haven't already.
• 19:03
  Subscribe to the podcast but listen so please go over and
• 19:06
  subscribe. Scribe to it now so you don't
• 19:07
  miss an episode. Also from hit me up on Twitter
• 19:09
  it's at the aspie world the th e ask me spie and then World wo
• 19:15
  rld so that is B World. Alright guys thanks.