Help needed! I may be going to do a talk in a secondary school!

[HecateGoddessOfTheNight]

I am not quite sure how it's happened

My dad is doing some work in a secondary school. One of their pupils, who happens to have autism, was beaten up in the playground

The school want to raise autism awareness.

My dad pointed them in my direction.

I thought they might want some general information, advice on maybe organisations and stuff like that.

Just got back in and my husband tells me the head phoned. He seems to be wanting me to go in and hold some sort of bloody assembly!

So. What would you want other children to know or to understand?
Do you have any resources you could link to that I could use?
Anything?
Actually, preferably details of a speaker I could send instead!

Bump. Anyone?

um just had a google, and this has a lot of links to resources about teaching kids with autism www.autism-pdd.net/testdump/test15359.htm

ooh, thank you. I've been googling autistic speakers, autism talks in schools, all that sort of thing and come up with sweet fa

There is a fantastic woman with autism who goes into schools and gives talks I know to staff. She comes in, ignores everyone socially, but is amazing in her lecture.

Not the dubious Ros Blackburn, I hope.

dubious?

Yes, why dubious? I've not seen her, only heard from other teachers.

I've seen her myself, about 6 years ago, but her authenticity was rather brought into doubt on a thread here. An old school 'friend' remembered her clearly at school being very high functioning and barely noticeably quirky. Certainly not in nappies! She makes a bomb out of her talks. I'll see if I can find the thread.

www.mumsnet.com/Talk/special_needs/209639-ros-blackburn-is-doing-a-talk-in-stevenage?pg=1 This was the one.

to be fair, could be the authenticity of the poster on that thread which is dubious rather than RBs...

True.

OP was by my sister on that one, and run by the charity i suport, but this was before i came onboard.
Intresting it says she was dx at 1!! I have many friends with servely autistic kids but they were never dx at 1! 2 yes :)

HecateGoddessOfTheNight I would be tempted to do the sensory over load thing, where you get them to flash light, sit on uncomfertbale chair, rub arms with rough material, make loads of noise, add some smells aswell. Might not be possible.
I would consider doing "a day in life of a child with autism", so go though all the things they do from getting up till bed in evening, and all the things that NT children find easy, so "get uniform on" becomes "put uniform on in the same order as every day, find socks too difficult, uniform itchy, small mark on shirt makes it impossible to wear" you get the idea.

Would the talk be done across the school or for a particular year group(s)?

Is there any way you could get the school to ask the staff/children prior to the assembly to write one fact of what they already know/think they know about Autism, and one question they would like to know the answer to. It may help with how you approach the talk. You could develop a power point with this info stating myth, or for some but not all with Autism.

Lisa D's idea is good and could be developed. Though you'd have to be careful that you don't cause your own sensory overload.

The school want to raise autism awareness due to an incident relating to a serious attack of a child with autism (bullying), is bullying part of an ongoing problem in the school?

I think it would be important that you included information on bullying; that children with SEN are more likely to be bullied than those without, they may also be prone to bully themselves due to a lack of social rules/understanding, teachers are more likely to ignore the bullying of children with SEN as they take up a lot more adult time than the average child.

These are old but interesting chapter/book on bullying if you can get hold of them:

Whitney, I. Smith, PK. & Thompson (1994). ?Bullying and children with special
Educational needs?. In Smith, PK. & Sharp, S. (eds). School Bullying:
Insights and Perspectives. London: Routledge.

MacLeod, M & Morris, S. (1996). Why Me? Children talking to Childline about
bullying. London: Childline.

Hi Hecate.
not read all the posts for apologies if this has been said but i would 1st find out how long you're expected to talk for.
Then I would do a power point presentation, direct and to the point, explaining how people with autism see the world around them and how the students can help them feel better about themselves...
Don't get too much into facts and figures, these age kids have pretty short attention spans at times! And make it fun and eye catching if possible. Also plan it in easy stages, bite sized bits of info and if possible get them to join in- ask questions, open up a discussion etc, keep it simple.

Good luck, you'll ace it I'm sure.

I have got no clue what he (the head) wants from me.

I thought I was going to talk to him and give him some pointers.

I was out when he called. My husband tells me he thinks I'm going to do an assembly

I am not an expert on autism (no matter what my dad thinks!) I am an expert on my two children and how autism affects them.

Yes, it's quite a rough school and apparently the few children on the spectrum get a hard time

I like all the ideas and links, all really helpful.

I really hope he doesn't want me to speak, tbh. First of all, I was bullied so badly at secondary school that I tried to top myself! And to this day, 20yrs later, I shake when I see groups of teens. plus, I am still really fat and I can just imagine how they'll react to that!

But. If there are children with autism in that school who are being thrown to the wolves, and there is any chance I can do something to help change that, I have to.

Hecate, you're a brave woman! My concern would be where the sn kids would be while you're giving this talk. Will they be there, in amongst their peers...or excluded from that particular assembly? It sounds like you're being used as a sticking plaster to staunch a big wound.

Really this is something that should be tackled in small groups and tolerance of difference should be the topic maybe, not a particular disability.

I know hardened, experienced teachers who get nervous about speaking in assemblies. Don't get pushed into anything you don't feel comfortable with.

Will return when I've found an amazing link I've just remembered.

Found it -

well if your in herts im happy to help :) Im used to talking to groups and work with teens at the mo too :)

I'm not (any more - used to live in Hemel) sadly. However, I'd love to pick your brains at length for any tips you have - hell, transcripts of your talks would be wonderful!

I would hope that the children with autism aren't there, but tbh I don't have much info atm. I will be speaking to the head next week. He's given me his home number, so he's very serious about this. Thanks for the link too.

I have been thinking about this and I think they would do well to do an assembly on bullying. What is a bully, examples of bullying, how does it feel, etc. Because the issue here is bullying, not autism - although raising awareness is a good thing too!

But if they took these children out of the school - what would the bullies do? They'd just target someone else for some other reason. So it's bullying that needs addressing.

I would agree that bullying is perhaps more of an issue here than autism. Though that is not to say Autism awareness wouldn't go amiss.

It is interesting that a child is beaten up in the school, but it is the fact that the beaten child has autism that appears to have been picked up on by the school and is the issue that the school wishes to address. Physical violence comes quite high on the bullying continuum and is usually preceded by other forms of bullying, which could suggest that this incident wasn't the first this particular child had been subjected to.

The Bullying Continuum

Social banter
Hurtful teasing
Mean, subtle body language

Aggressive physical behaviours, e.g. pushing, shoving, kicking
Malicious gossip, e.g. online bullying, chat rooms
Sexual, gender, racist, religious harassment
Social exclusion ? in person, electronic
Mobbing
Hazing
Extortion/bribery
Phone, cyber abuse
Damage to property
Physical violence
Use of weapons
Criminal act
Murder

I agree minx, and I want to point this out to the head, but I have to do it in a way that does not cause my dad (who is working there) any problems. Tact is not my strong point so must think carefully.

could you duck out of it by supplying information or even a powerpoint presentation to the head, but suggesting that he adapts it as appropriate and gives the talk, given he knows the relevant children/issues?

good idea. I'll start work on that so when I call him on thurs, it's good to go

How did your talk with the head go Hectate?