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Autistic Teachers and your Adar

EnglishTeach

Hello people, I am looking for autistic secondary teachers to share their experiences with me please!

I started to think I was autistic when I did a year as an LSA before commencing teacher training and learnt about autism in childhood and it all seemed distinctly familiar! Teacher training was a nightmare, for the first time in my life I felt properly autistic but I survived and I enjoy teaching for the most part... but one of the things I am really struggling with is how other teachers talk about kids who are undiagnosed, but to me, are clearly autistic. It's not complimentary and when I recognise myself in those children beneath the layers of masking, it's pretty triggering - it hurts.

They are kids like me, they survived school, mostly kept below the radar and for the most part did well academically but socially found school traumatic and went on to live their lives thinking they were not 'quite right' and spent a life time beating themselves up for this until they finally have that moment (hopefully) and realise that 'it's not all them'. My neurodiversity radar is pretty hot - for autism and adhd. I am drawn to these kids because they make sense to me and we know that we tend to flock together! But when I have flagged up the traits that I have observed with heads of year, I get shut down. I even reported one on our safeguarding platform as the girl was self harming due to anxiety with no underlying cause identified, which would have been seen by most of the school's senior leadership team. But nothing. I also find this deeply traumatic because I know what that child will go through in terms of self perception and self esteem in their life but we know that it doesn't have to be this way.

Until my diagnosis (privately obtained as the 3 yr NHS waiting list was too long given that I felt I might be able to do more to help these kids if I could wave an official diagnosis in people's faces) last week (adhd & asd) I felt unable to put my opinion on the line, however I do not think I should have to disclose my diagnosis just to try and get these kids helped. It should be enough that someone has spotted something, cares enough to do some reading and wants to flag suspicions to parents so they can sleep easy at night, knowing that they have done all they could. Any teacher should be able to spot the signs but because they are looking through a NT lens, all they see are the problems and defiance and attitude :-(

I will of course go out on a limb and contact parents with some information and my observations if I have to but I would much rather do it with the support of the school because if the parents should react negatively, I'm on my own and my professionalism could be questioned because I haven't gone through the right channels. BTW our SEN department seem to operate on a rule, that unless they hear the same thing from multiple teachers, they just think the 'problems' are limited to the one teacher/ subject and so they ignore me too. To be fair they are very stretched and that is how they prioratise to help the kids who struggle the most. But we are leaving kids behind and I'm frightened about what that could lead to... what will it take for someone to listen?

Although I've been blocked twice by one head of year, I have been supported by another which saw two girls get adhd diagnosis, another has been diagnosed as autistic but they had to start refusing school and ended up in special provision before this happened. I don't mean to say that I'll get it right every time, I am not a psychologist and I'm not trying to diagnose people but I think that I should have the freedom to contact parents with my observations and that my school should support me. 

Are their other secondary teachers out there who find themselves in this position? If so, how do you go about speaking to parents when you have a suspicion about a child? How have you made your school's senior leadership team more inclusive and improved education about neurodiversity? Did you have to disclose your own diagnosis (I want to do this but given my observations, I am very worried about not being supported - it feels like a hostile environment to me and I just don't think I should have to in order to be taken seriously).

Many thanks for sharing your experiences!

Parents

  • Hi, if - I suspect it is - your school is an academy then this is all too familiar. SENDCOs, from my experience, are not suitable for the role. They do a course but don't have a clue about the different conditions. The schools behavior policies don't reflect plausible reality for any child let alone people with ASD, ADHD, SEMH. 

    They don't realise or want to acknowledge how much input they can have into the support provided through EHCPs, and as always money becomes the barrier to support for these 'not for profit' organisations. 

    It takes the parents pushing to get conversations started which is where teachers observations should come in, the SENDCO should be the one who spear heads conversations but the teachers are the information gatherers, the intelligence operative as it were. 

    As for your diagnosis, it's upto you if you share this, In my work I have already shared my suspicion and that I am waiting for assesment. I done this so my 'quirks' can be mitigated when I say or do things that are not 'normal' it's a need to know basis as I don't see why everyone needs to know because I am me and that won't change

    hope this makes sense  

  • in reply to jammed81

    It does make sense, thank you. It really gets me that it's the clued up, middle-class parents who can speak up for their child who see progress/ get listened to. Kids who do not have that in-put to fight their corner are left to teachers to speak on their behalf and, unlike parents, we can be ignored. I have actually had to call a parent as I was trying to get an exam concession set up for their kid and me and the HOY were facing a silent wall from SEN, I knew and trusted the parent, so I said 'look, I say this, it goes nowhere... but if you say it, it will be picked up straight away'. They were bemused but I forwarded all the emails I'd sent previously, so they knew what to ask for, sent the email themselves and had the concession put in place within an hour of the email being sent. They got back in touch to say that they didn't know how I coped with that level of frustration!  Thank you, might take you up on that offer someday.

    It is a terrible burden. One of my tutees overdosed but fortunately was okay. I had my suspicions but it took for her to attempt to take her own life to get recognised and diagnosed. To say that I kick myself for not speaking up more aggressively is obviously an understatement. But then another girl that I had previously flagged started to really struggle and disclose suicidal thoughts. Again I flagged what to me were stand out ASD tells... no action taken... but recently I was listened to and finally the call was made home. She has a private diagnosis now booked in. 

Reply
  • in reply to jammed81

    It does make sense, thank you. It really gets me that it's the clued up, middle-class parents who can speak up for their child who see progress/ get listened to. Kids who do not have that in-put to fight their corner are left to teachers to speak on their behalf and, unlike parents, we can be ignored. I have actually had to call a parent as I was trying to get an exam concession set up for their kid and me and the HOY were facing a silent wall from SEN, I knew and trusted the parent, so I said 'look, I say this, it goes nowhere... but if you say it, it will be picked up straight away'. They were bemused but I forwarded all the emails I'd sent previously, so they knew what to ask for, sent the email themselves and had the concession put in place within an hour of the email being sent. They got back in touch to say that they didn't know how I coped with that level of frustration!  Thank you, might take you up on that offer someday.

    It is a terrible burden. One of my tutees overdosed but fortunately was okay. I had my suspicions but it took for her to attempt to take her own life to get recognised and diagnosed. To say that I kick myself for not speaking up more aggressively is obviously an understatement. But then another girl that I had previously flagged started to really struggle and disclose suicidal thoughts. Again I flagged what to me were stand out ASD tells... no action taken... but recently I was listened to and finally the call was made home. She has a private diagnosis now booked in. 

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