Empowering Advocacy: Neuro-Affirming Support for Your Autistic Young Person at School

By Helen Edgar (Autistic Realms), with David Gray-Hammond & Tanya Adkin

Navigating the education system as the parent or carer of an Autistic child can often feel like steering a tiny boat through stormy seas, it can feel impossibly hard and be exhausting. For many families, the challenge isn’t just the school system; it’s the lack of understanding, flexibility and genuine inclusion.

We hope our upcoming webinar “Empowering Advocacy: Neuro-Affirming Support for Your Autistic Young Person at School.” will provide some practical ideas to support you and your young person.

Why We Need This Conversation

Too often, Autistic children are misunderstood in school settings. Sensory overload is mistaken for challenging behaviour. Deep focus can be framed as inattention. Burnout and difficulties with attendance can be misinterpreted as laziness or blamed on parenting. The systems in place frequently prioritise compliance over connection and this means that they often alienate the very children they claim to support.

Families face long delays for assessments, battle confusing processes to try and get accommodations in school, and are frequently met with professionals who lack an understanding of authentic neurodivergent needs. Meanwhile, Autistic parents/carers advocating for their children are often dismissed, gaslit, or labelled as difficult and at worst accused of fabricating illness and also fined for their child’s non-attendance.

Key Concepts We’ll Explore

In this webinar, we’re bringing a neuro-affirming approach to educational advocacy rooted in frameworks like monotropism, the double empathy problem, and emotional and sensory queuing. These aren’t just academic theories they’re lived experiences we have as parents and professionals that help reframe needs through a lens of understanding and compassion.

• Monotropism, the tendency to focus deeply on one or a few interests, explains much about Autistic flow, overwhelm, and the difficulty many Autistic children experience with transitions. Understanding the theory of Monotropism can help us see distress not as refusal but as a response to incompatible environments and also gives space for us to focus on the strengths and joy of being Autistic which is so often denied young people in school settings.
  
• The Double Empathy Problem, coined by Damian Milton, reminds us that communication breakdowns are mutual, and that neurodivergent ways of being are not deficits. We need to question the educational systems that force children to mask, rather than adapting the environment to support them authentically.
  
• Environmental Changes & Meeting Sensory Needs, we’ll also explore how environmental changes (like flexible routines, sensory-friendly classrooms, and visual supports) can create spaces for Autistic young people to thrive, not just survive their education.

Shifting from Crisis to Connection

Our webinar is full of practical ideas and strategies to help you advocate effectively:

• Using lilypadding to support transitions in gentle, collaborative ways
• Reducing energy drain across home and school by prioritising meaningful rest and ways of regulating
• Communicating with schools using the “Three C’s”: Calm, Curious, Confused
• Grounding advocacy in legal frameworks.
• Framing requests for support as rights your child is entitled to.

Parental burnout, especially among neurodivergent caregivers is real. Advocacy should not be a battle, but in a system built on power imbalances, it often feels like one. We’ll explore how to sustain ourselves whilst pushing for change for our young people to give them the education they deserve.

A Space for Change

Whether you’re a parent, teacher, therapist, or ally, this session is designed to support you so you are:

• More confident in understanding young people’s Autistic needs at school
• Better equipped to advocate for accommodations and inclusion

You don’t need to know every answer to start advocating, you need to believe your child and believe in your right to be heard.

🎟️ Register now on Eventbrite:

Neuro-Affirming Support for Your Autistic Young Person at School

This webinar will be co-presented by David Gray-Hammond and Tanya Adkin (I will be supporting text chat and creating a free workbook and resource book for all ticket holders).

📅 Date: Wednesday June 11th 2025
🕕 Time: 6:00 PM – 8:30 PM BST
🌐 Location: Online (Zoom)
🎟️ Tickets: Register on Eventbrite

All attendees will receive access to a recording of the session, plus a free E-Book and workbook packed with neuro-affirming ideas. Hope to see you there! 

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