A Parent's Perspective: Barriers to Education & Embracing Monotropism

Tuesday 13th May 7-8:30pm

About this Webinar

By sharing my lived experience as an Autistic person, parent to two neurodivergent children and an Early Years/Primary teacher with over 20 years working in SEND settings, I am offering a space to discuss why so many Autistic and neurodivergent families are struggling in the education system and experiencing mental health difficulties - burnt-out parents and burnt-out children. We will explore if an understanding of the theory of monotropism could help at home/school and through professional practice by reframing the deficit-based medical model of Autism and adopting a neuro-affirming approach. 
 
I have lots of signposting and resources to share about this. 
 
 

(This presentation has been inspired by last week's new DFE campaign about school readiness and a new attendance campaign in UK. We need to dismantle ableism and embrace neuro-affirming practice!)

Further info: 
 
Website: https://autisticrealms.com 
 
 

Related work: 
Challenges for Autistic and Neurodivergent Families Navigating the SEND system 
Autistic Burnout: Supporting Young People at Home and School 
 
Relevant reading: 
Edgar, H. (2023). Embracing Monotropism and Supporting Young People To Help Prevent Autistic Burnout 

 
Recent events: https://www.autism.org.uk/what-we-do/autism-know-how/conferences/speakers-profiles/helen-edgar 
 
https://ylb2025.vfairs.com/en/presenters-page 
 
Coming out soon (I have contributed to educational sections): 
Hartman, D. et al. (2025). The Neurodiversity Affirmative Child Autism Assessment Handbook  

More About Our Speaker:

Helen is an Autistic advocate, published author and consultant. She is a parent to two neurodivergent children, both of whom have alternative provision provided via EHCPs. She is late identified Autistic and a former Early Years/Primary teacher and worked for 20 years in SEND Early Years / Primary settings near Birmingham in the UK (primarily with those with profound and multiple learning disabilities). Helen is currently working with Thriving Autistic and GROVE Neurodivergent Mentoring and Education. 

Helen regularly delivers neurodiversity-affirming educational training and workshops for those supporting young people who may be experiencing barriers to education and Autistic burnout. Helen is also contributing towards Spectrum Gaming's project to create educational resources about Autistic Burnout. Helen's writing and resources have been shared widely across many charities, organisations, NHS trusts, local authorities and school settings.  

Website: Autistic Realms (www.autisticrealms.com)

Twitter: www.twitter.com/autisticrealms FaceBook: www.facebook.com/autisticrealms

Blue Sky: https://bsky.app/profile/autisticrealms.bsky.social,

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/helen-autistic-realms-827273254/,

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/autisticrealms/ 

Important Information - Please Read

Who is this webinar for?

SWAN webinars are safer, autistic-led and autistic-only spaces for all autistic women and non-binary people.

SWAN is inclusive of all autistic women non-binary people, including those who are exploring if they are autistic, who self identify as autistic or are clinically diagnosed (private or NHS)

SWAN webinars are for over-18s who are living, studying or working in Scotland.

If these descriptions do not match you, we ask that you do not attend our webinars unless they are specifically stated to be open to non-autistic individuals.

Visit our website for details of all SWAN events and activities: swanscotland.org

Accessibility

We aim to make our webinars as accessible as possible. You are free to participate as little or as much as you feel comfortable - talk, join in the text chat, stim, bring your pets along, or just watch and listen with your camera on or off.

We currently use Eventbrite and Zoom as tools to enable us to run these online groups. They do have pros and cons and can be a bit stressful to navigate sometimes, so please allow yourself plenty time to get logged in before the group starts - it's fine to join a bit early as you'll just see a virtual 'waiting room' screen until the group starts and the host lets everyone in at once.

When registering to attend, please do use the name you feel most comfortable - this does not need to match your ID or other documents.

Remember to check when joining the meeting that your zoom screen name also matches the name you wish to use in the group. You have control to change that to the name you want and also to add your pronouns if you want to - you can change this in your zoom account settings any time and you can also edit while you are in the waiting room before the meeting starts (or during the meeting).

Closed Captions are available in all meetings and you can control whether you want see them or not during the meeting.

If you have any questions or need any help accessing this online session, please get in touch: info@swanscotland.org