Since I moved from research back to working in education, my job role has changed a few times (although I only changed employer once). Throughout those changes, one constant aspect was I ran some kind of individual sessions with young people on the topic of autism awareness. These sessions emerged organically when I was working in a secondary school as a personal coach (which was in fact the job title of a pastoral worker then) and additional needs coordinator. At first, I had no idea where the sessions would take my work, but they soon became a significant part of the support provided to young people on the autism spectrum.
Over the years and with my job changes, autism awareness evolved and so did my own awareness of the theme. Since that timid start, I completed a few qualifications and developed strategies to respond to each young person’s needs in their quest to understand their neurodivergent uniqueness and the neurotypical world they inhabit. To a certain extent, I systematised an approach while still keeping it an open-ended dialogue. In the past year I have taken some time to take stock, reflect about what I have learned so far and decided to put together a book telling that story, sharing my journey with those young people and their experiences with autism in school and college.
The book is starting to take shape and I made a firm decision to publish it. Although this is a heavily a personal decision and the story itself is in itself a personal perspective on a widely discussed and studied arena, I knew I needed to come back here to share it. Inclusive Thoughts was my quiet companion throughout my phd studies, which became my public voice after completion and had gone silent for too long.
So, there you have it. I did a thing. I started writing that book!
