Wednesday Webinars Series - 23.09.26 - 09.12.26

Autism and Managing Worries Autistic children and young people are more likely to experience anxiety than their non-autistic peers. This heightened anxiety is not a flaw in the child, but a natural response to environments that are often unpredictable, sensory intense, socially complex, or misaligned with autistic ways of processing and communicating. Autistic anxiety may also be experienced more frequently or more intensely. Within a neuroaffirming framework, anxiety is understood as information, a signal from the nervous system that something feels unsafe, overwhelming, or uncertain. Managing worries is not about eliminating anxiety or teaching children to tolerate distress. It is about recognising triggers, supporting emotional expression, and adapting environments and expectations so that autistic children experience safety, predictability, and belonging. Supportive approaches may include structured routines, visual supports, and gentle regulation strategies. Tools such as worry time or worry containers, worry jars or worry notebooks, can be helpful when used flexibly and respectfully, ensuring that children are never pressured to express worries in ways that feel unsafe or unnatural. This training will: Build understanding of common worries experienced by autistic children and young people. Explore respectful ways to support children to communicate and express worries using speech, visuals, AAC, behaviour, or alternative methods. Develop understanding of concepts such as worry time and worry jars as optional, supportive tools rather than required tasks. Encourage approaches that help children release or hold worries in ways that preserve dignity, agency, and emotional safety.

Sensory Activity Schedules Supporting Regulation as a Foundation for Learning Autistic children and young people often process sensory input differently. These differences are a core and valid part of autistic neurology. When sensory demands exceed a child’s capacity, dysregulation may occur, affecting attention, engagement, emotional wellbeing, and participation. Sensory activity schedules are not behavioural tools; they are access tools. They support regulation by intentionally incorporating sensory experiences that help a child maintain or return to a state in which learning, interaction, and everyday participation are possible. This training explores: What sensory activity schedules are and why they support autistic regulation. When sensory breaks are most helpful across the day. Where sensory activities can take place across home and school environments. Participants will consider: Types of sensory activities that may calm or alert, depending on an individual child's sensory profile. Frequency and duration of sensory breaks as flexible guides, not rigid rules. Resources that are accessible, respectful, and responsive to individual needs. Sensory regulation needs are anticipated and planned for, not reacted to once distress occurs.

An Introduction to Gestalt Language Processing: Honouring Natural Pathways of Language Development Gestalt language processing is one of two natural and valid ways people develop language. In contrast to analytical language development, which builds language word by word, gestalt language processors acquire language in whole "chunks" or meaningful phrases. These chunks, often referred to as echolalia, are not meaningless repetition. They are a deeply meaningful and essential part of language development for gestalt language processors. Many autistic children may demonstrate traits associated with gestalt language processing, although individual language development pathways vary significantly. This includes both speaking and non-speaking children. Within a neuroaffirming framework, echolalia is respected as communication, not extinguished or reshaped prematurely. This webinar will explore: Analytical versus gestalt language development. Autistic language development across spoken, minimally speaking, and non-speaking children. Supportive, respectful practices that honour gestalt language development. Considerations for AAC that align with natural language processing styles. Autistic children do not need to change how they process language in order to belong. Our role is to listen differently.

When School Feels Too Much: Understanding and Supporting Emotionally-Based School Non-Attendance

Emotionally Based School Non Attendance (EBSNA) is not a matter of defiance, avoidance, or poor parenting, it is most often a deeply human response to distress. For many autistic children and young people, school environments can present sustained challenges: overwhelming sensory demands, social pressures, uncertainty, and the effort of masking authentic selves. When these demands exceed a young person's capacity to cope, absence from school becomes a form of communication, an indicator that something within the system is not working for them. A neuroaffirming approach invites us to move beyond "getting the child back to school" as the sole goal, and instead reposition our focus toward understanding, safety, and connection. Autistic students are not broken systems to be fixed; they are individuals navigating environments that may not yet be designed with their neurology in mind. Emotional distress, anxiety, shutdown, or withdrawal are not problems in isolation, they are meaningful, embodied responses to lived experience. As trusted adults, whether at home or within educational settings, our role is to become curious, not corrective. What is the young person telling us through their distress? How can we reduce demands, increase predictability, and create environments where they feel seen, safe, and valued? This may involve adapting the school day, rethinking expectations around attendance, offering flexible pathways, and, crucially, removing the burden of masking. Research and lived experience consistently remind us that relationships are the cornerstone of re-engagement. When a child feels psychologically safe, understood, and respected in their neurodivergence, their capacity to participate grows. Progress is rarely linear, and success should be measured not by attendance percentages alone, but by wellbeing, trust, and a gradual rebuilding of connection to learning. EBSNA calls for compassion, collaboration, and courage, from families, schools, and systems alike. By listening deeply and responding thoughtfully, we can ensure that education becomes something children can move towards, not something they feel they must escape.