Podcast Show Notes
Episode 1:
Welcome! Today we get a brief introduction to the show hosts Bridget Young and Jack Gibbs.
Bridget is the Head Teacher of the Holmewood School (THSL). Whilst she is neurotypical, she has dedicated much of her career to advancing her learning and creating best practices and frameworks to get the best out of our autistic students. Jack is a teacher at THSL and has a diagnosis of autism, ADHD, OCD and dyspraxia (DCD) alongside motor and verbal tics.
As 1/100 people are diagnosed as autistic globally, we are now at a point where the world is ready to move on from just knowing autism exists, to understanding and accepting it. As a specialist school for autistic individuals, THSL needs to do better than awareness and acceptance, we need to deliver programmes specifically for the autistic learner. As there is no guidebook on how to do this for our niche, we have created our own way of working, which is what will be covered, amongst other things, on our podcast.
So, what exactly is pedagogy? No it isn’t to do with feet…it is the method and practice of teaching, especially as an academic subject or theoretical concept.
Neurodiversity refers to the concept that certain developmental differences are actually normal variations of the brain and people who have these features also have certain strengths. Neurodiversity commonly refers to those who are autistic, have ADHD, dyslexia, dyspraxia (DCD) etc.
Dr. John Biddulph lectures in autism and is autistic himself, describes autism as multi-dimensional rather than a spectrum. Thus showing that the language around neurodiversity should, and is, changing. At THSL, we have moved away from language such as Autism Spectrum Disorder and high-functioning autism, as it points to deficits rather than strengths.
We tend to refer to our students as having ‘subtle but significant differences’ - a term taken from ‘Social Thinking’ created by Michelle Garcia-Winner and Dr. Pamela Crooke (https://www.socialthinking.com/).
Today we are going to show the ND Support Framework by using it alongside the example of travelling and travel training. How did you manage to learn to travel? Most neurotypical individuals learn through osmosis from their parents/carers, as well as making mistakes and learning from them. But this isn’t always possible for neurodiverse individuals. Here’s where the ND Support Framework comes into play:
Step 1 - Explaining the relevance of the topic:
As many neurodiverse individuals have barriers to osmosis learning, like anxiety, attention and focus challenges, literal understanding and social communication. The key to teaching autistic individuals is ‘buy in’ through special interests, or a means to get to a special interest in the case of travel.
Step 2 - Explicit teaching:
Spell it out. Don’t assume prior knowledge, social understanding or understanding of unspoken rules. Minimise or if needed, fully explain, analogies. Think about all the possible sensory/noise issues that could be encountered e.g. noise, crowds, smells on the underground to help with preparedness.
Step 3 - Practise the skills in a safe environment:
Putting the theory into practice and being able to experience things that can and will go wrong in life. Whilst starting off with as much help and support as possible, the aim is to reduce to allow independence. Failure is a key part of this, for example, travelling in the wrong direction, getting the wrong bus or train or allowing the student to miss their stop if they hadn’t noticed. Then allowing them to start to course-correct, all with the safety of a familiar person with them.
Step 4 - Generalising the skills:
How would this skill work in other environments? This is where you step away and allow the student to completely prepare for a trip from start to finish on a new route. But still being present and gradually increasing that independence to solo travel if possible.
Step 5 - Respond positively to success and failure:
Create an understanding that failures will happen, but it isn’t always your fault - train strikes, diversions, missed stops etc. all add to this. When celebrating success, ensure the praise is measured, as the successes of travelling are part of life too and we don’t want to create a false expectation for the future.
We hope you enjoyed our first episode and hope you look forward to the next!
If you have any questions or comments, please do reach out at podcast@thsl.org.uk.
Episode 2:
One of the criteria for this diagnosis of autism according to the DSM-5 is “highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus”, which can paint autism in a negative light. We want to discuss that not everything should be seen as a deficit, when the pleasure and passion an autistic person’s interest can bring and the subsequent connections that can be made by engaging with those interests.
Is building relationships with Neurodiverse (ND) individuals difficult considering they have a difficulty with social communication and interaction? Well, relationships are difficult to build regardless of being neurotypical or ND, but there is the misconception that an autistic individual either can’t or doesn’t want to form relationships, which isn’t true. It’s about finding the right way for them to be able to build relationships and to further encourage them to build healthy relationships.
There is a common misconception that those who are autistic lack empathy, but it is more of a double empathy problem (Dr Damien Milton). Both parties will misunderstand each other's thoughts and feelings, behaviours and differences; which means it’s not just the autistic individual's problem. An autistic person may struggle to read between the lines, deal with preconceptions of autism or manage sensory distractions. A neurotypical person may struggle to form a positive impression of an autistic individual, may not recognise or understand their point of view (or understand autism at all) and not recognise the sensory issues present. Therefore it is easy to understand why difficulties can arise - “without commonality all minds are blind to each other” and we therefore should all be considering all difficulties when building relationships.
We find that sometimes empathy isn’t shown within the school because all of our students are autistic and therefore the knowledge and understanding of each other’s needs is inherently there. They understand the differences and difficulties so may not react to others so much, which allows everyone else to carry on with their day. We also have less of a double empathy problem as all staff are aware of everyone’s diagnosis as well as being highly trained and engaged with autism practice.
Examples of relationships built in the school:
When Jack was working with a year 4 student, he found himself on the wrong side of what our therapists called a ‘split’. The student had formed a strong attachment to one member of staff and on the opposite end, despised Jack. He later found out that it was because his hands were too hot when providing sensory hand massages. The student eventually told this to Jack, so the massages stopped and were replaced with chats. This led to building a great relationship with the student, despite not being able to keep up with his ever-changing and unshared special interests.
Step 1 - Explain the relevance:
A lot of our students have had some sort of trauma around education. The vast majority of our students have come to us after having been bullied and grow to feel a sense of belonging at Holmewood. We create this by taking the time to really build relationships with each student and maintain consistency. This means you need to be willing to put a bit more time into these individuals as this will pay dividends.
Step 2 - Explicit teaching:
Autistic people don’t usually deny their own needs, values and interests. So they will typically come to a relationship in a more authentic way. This means they are less prone to adapt their preferences to external influences, which means it is important to not underestimate being yourself when building these relationships. Staff should feel ok to talk about their own strengths and barriers to help the young people feel empowered to discuss theirs, which in turn will help to further build relationships.
Step 3 - Practise the skills in a safe environment:
The person who built the relationship is the safe environment for the autistic individual. Especially if you’ve been working with them from a young age. You want them to be able to have this experience to show them they can build relationships, and be encouraged to build relationships elsewhere. This is where the staff/adult needs to recognise when to move away to allow this to happen elsewhere, which should actively be encouraged.
However it is important to remember that boundaries are important to have in place despite building closer relationships with these individuals.
Step 4 - Generalising the skills:
Important to remember that not everything is positive throughout these journeys, but this is indicative of relationships the world over. These ‘blips’ are important to demonstrate and work to move forward, thus modelling relationships that can occur elsewhere. This means that having and maintaining that relationship with the young person during these difficulties is incredibly important.
Step 5 - Respond positively to success and failure:
There’s a fine line between success and failure. It can be tempting to pull the plug on a relationship quite quickly if it doesn’t seem to be working and allow a different person to try instead. But relationships take time, so you need to find the right balance, before deciding to move on - not a simple task. If the growth isn’t there quickly or tapers off after a longer period of time, then it may be best to see if another adult is better able to grow the relationship. This links back to the beginning of the episode where we spoke about the double empathy problem; as ND individuals may not ‘package’ their conversation as expected, so additional chances or tries may be needed to start to build that relationship. Or you would need to change your perception of relationships and how they are built in order to better engage and connect with an ND individual.
If you have any questions or comments, please do reach out at podcast@thsl.org.uk.
Episode 3:
Safe environment is physically safe and emotionally safe. Relationships are paramount in supporting young people to feel safe. A safe place is where everyone is included and feels comfortable and confident to be themselves. This is a place where a person feels a sense of belonging, connection and community.
Step 1 - Explain the relevance:
Easier to think about environments that wouldn’t be safe for autistic individuals. If the school isn’t considered safe, it can become a dangerous environment for them. Other day-to-day environments, although not as frequently visited, can also feel dangerous. So it is even more important to ensure a school environment is safe. In some mainstream settings, they have some provisions set aside for autistic individuals to be able to use as a safe space, but this can sometimes become merged with the ‘unsafe’ school outside due to noises, harsh lighting, overstimulation etc. So how do we actually create a safe environment that is conducive to learning and growth in neurodiverse people?
Step 2 - Explicit teaching:
How to create a safe environment that is conducive to learning and growth. Gretchen Reuben states in order to be happy you need to focus on feeling good, feeling bad and feeling right in an atmosphere of growth.
Feeling good - do more of what brings joy, love, fun, connection or an interest, which a school can have an influence on and teach that times of less joy and fun will move to enable more joy and fun to come. But there has to be a time of transition to allow for each student to feel emotionally and physically safe in order to be able to experience more joy. It is also important to understand that there won’t always be feelings of safety, even if the environment is conducive to this.
Feeling bad - do less of what brings us anger, anxiety, resentment, guilt, boredom and irritation. This is the toughest of them all as anxiety can often come from unavoidable activities. Whilst some students come in and adapt well to the school, there are many who find school riddled with anxiety due to previous placements. It is therefore important to acknowledge that we can’t always stop doing everything that makes you feel anxious, but the environment is as such to provide tools to help shift that perspective slowly over time.
Feeling right - ensuring our lives reflect our values. Autistic individuals typically have a strong value system and care deeply about justice and fairness. We have a fairly bespoke programme and this can be quite tricky with some of our students who want to see an outcome physically, which isn’t always possible. We use Restorative Justice, where both parties are able to speak through their side of the issue. This approach supports each individual to understand each other’s perspective. It is important to understand each student’s needs and how they may react to any given situation or consequence given in the wrong way or wrong time.
Creating an atmosphere of growth - feel a sense of learning, growth betterment, mastery and fixing things. This is a place where the individual can advocate for themselves.
Step 3 - Practise the skills in a safe environment:
Particularly during the pandemic, there was a lot of homeschooling going on, or we have students at home waiting on a place at Holmewood. Whilst this may feel safer to the student at the time, it is not preparing them for the future. Those who are autistic need additional help and support from school, so being home won’t prepare them for friendships or working with others. Whilst there is opportunity to work from home nowadays, it would mean that they would miss out on a lot of socialisation outside of work. In order to help get our students to a place where they want to attend Holmewood, we provide a variety of opportunities to come into visit and attend the school before being offered a place. This involves the student at each stage and helps them start to be their own advocate too.
In the school, it is about praising the achievement - in the right way for the student - to help them recognise that despite the fact there may be anxieties, they still managed to complete a task and that offered the opportunity for growth.
Step 4 - Generalising the skills:
Supporting neurodiverse people in creating their own safe environment. We realise that what we have created at Holmewood is a bit of a ‘bubble’ as the world isn’t yet fully made for neurodiverse people and whilst this is changing, we need to prepare our students for the world outside of Holmewood. We have found that the longer the student is with us, the more resilience is created and in turn, more of our students are attending mainstream environments moving forward.
When it comes to these transitions, we will provide links with local colleges, help with seeing the campus and know the course. Our staff will initially take the student to college and be there to support them. As time goes by, that support is gradually lessened, with the end goal being that students are able to attend on their own.
It is important to be aware that mentioning the next steps or future can be triggering to the students and it is about knowing them and how best to approach these topics with them. We need to also work to instil confidence in them and to understand their diagnosis in order to help them to understand the support they may need to request moving forward too.
Step 5 - Respond positively to success and failure:
If someone ‘fails’ it is about showing - at the correct time - what the appropriate response would be as well as giving appropriate praise when they have achieved the goals too. It is important however to be aware that some students will respond badly to a positive reaction if they had previously failed. It is about knowing your students and responding in the best way for them.
If you have any questions or comments, please do reach out at podcast@thsl.org.uk.
Episode 4:
Bridget recently had a visitor who mentioned they thought it was great to see how happy our students are. This was further backed up by Bridget’s observation of a Food Tech lesson in which she saw the same - why could this be? It could be that the majority of our students have come from bad experiences within education in other settings and have found that Holmewood is much more open and understanding, with a like-minded cohort of students.
Step 1 - Explain the relevance:
Why is it important for our students to be happy at school? Especially as autistic individuals? Anxiety can be a barrier to happiness and is a word mentioned a lot around the school from students, parents and colleagues. This anxiety can mask the happiness of the students, and if you work with them, the happiness can show back through. So again it is about understanding each individual and using the correct strategy to get the best from them to allow that happiness to shine.
Step 2 - Explicit teaching:
The book titled "Autism, How to Raise a Happy Autistic Child" by Jesse Hewittson, provides a greater understanding of autism and offers strategies for creating a happy and supportive environment. They emphasise the importance of individualised routines, visual timetables, and preparing for change in promoting happiness at home.
The role of sleep and nutrition in creating a happy environment is important. These can be challenges faced by autistic individuals and suggest strategies such as using melatonin for sleep and implementing a balanced diet.
Step 3 - Practise the skills in a safe environment:
Bridget and Jack highlight the importance of creating a safe home environment where the child or young person can be themselves and develop resilience. They stress the need for structure, routine, and visual supports in promoting happiness at home.
Step 4 - Generalising the skills:
The speakers emphasise the importance of self-awareness and self-advocacy in achieving happiness in different environments. They discuss the transitions from targeted support to independence and the role of peer relationships in promoting self-advocacy.
Step 5 - Respond positively to success and failure:
Happiness is a constant work in progress and that failure in an activity does not necessarily affect overall happiness. They discuss the importance of reaching out to trusted peers and adults for support and problem-solving.
Overall, the discussion highlights the importance of understanding, acceptance, and support in promoting happiness for autistic individuals. With practical strategies provided and insights for creating a happy and inclusive environment at home and in school.
If you have any questions or comments, please do reach out at podcast@thsl.org.uk.
Episode 5:
Bridget and Jack discuss the importance of motivation in engaging autistic young people. They explore the relevance of motivation in education and the challenges faced by neurodivergent students in social engagement and understanding.
Segment 1 - Explaining the Relevance
Autistic children may be intrinsically less interested in social engagement, affecting their understanding of others and their actions.
Education is a social process and a process of socialisation, but neurodiverse students may be less motivated by social elements.
Segment 2 - Explicitly Teaching the Topic
Intrinsic motivation is the motivation to engage in a behaviour for the inherent satisfaction of the activity, while extrinsic motivation involves engaging for external rewards or to avoid punishment. The goal is to foster intrinsic motivation in students by finding their interests and passions and linking them to learning.
Segment 3 - Practising the Skills in a Safer Environment
Flow state, where individuals are fully focused and engaged in an activity, can be achieved by sparking interest and providing opportunities for growth and accomplishment. Extended periods of focus and movement breaks can help students enter flow state and improve executive functioning.
Segment 4 - Generalising the Skills
Generalising skills involves applying them to new environments. Students become more self-aware and motivated when they find their passion and pursue it after secondary school.
Segment 5 - Responding Positively to Success and Failure
Failure should be seen as an opportunity for growth and problem-solving. Motivation can be fostered by pairing extrinsic rewards with intrinsic rewards, providing targeted praise, and encouraging self-reflection on accomplishments.
Motivation is a complex and individualised process. It is important to understand and support the intrinsic motivation of neurodivergent students to help them succeed and find fulfilment in their education and future endeavours.
If you have any questions or comments, please do reach out at podcast@thsl.org.uk.