Annual professionals' conference 2025: Speakers' blogs
Tanya Adkin
Helen Edgar
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What is your talk at the Professionals’ Conference about?
Our talk is called Neuro-affirming research into practice – monotropism in the classroom and beyond.
We propose to focus on understanding monotropism, an autistic-created, neuro-affirming theory that offers a holistic understanding of meeting the needs of both autistic (and ADHD) experiences. Drawing from autistic culture, we'll explore how this theory provides insights into many autistic experiences, examine practical strategies that align with a monotropic perspective, and develop additional neuro-affirming support strategies through this lens. The session will be relevant to all children and young people within mainstream education and alternative settings, and those with learning disabilities and without.
Why is that subject important to you?
Helen: As an autistic person, a parent to two neurodivergent children and having also worked as a teacher in SEND settings for 20 years, I have seen the impact of the current education system not meeting the needs of everyone - despite the good intentions of so many teachers. The issues we have are systemic and we need radical change; however, I do believe teachers can make a difference in their individual classrooms. Developing a greater understanding of the neurodiversity paradigm and affirming theories about autism is a great step in the right direction.
Tanya: As a neurodivergent individual, a parent to neurodivergent children and a professional with over 20 years of experience, embracing neuroaffirming research has profoundly transformed both my practice and personal perspectives. This shift has deepened my understanding of neurodivergence, fostering a greater appreciation for difference and a more authentic sense of acceptance. By challenging outdated narratives, I am passionate about sharing this knowledge with other professionals to promote more inclusive and affirming practices.
Who will find your talk useful?
This talk will help you gain a greater understanding of the neurodiversity paradigm and why we need change. We will provide practical strategies that align with an affirming monotropic theory of autism to help you develop additional support strategies that can make a real difference and support children's wellbeing and academic outcomes.
What is one thing you would like more people to understand about autism?
We need to embrace the neuro-affirming theory of monotropism to support the wellbeing of autistic young people and enable them to thrive in their own unique ways.
Lee Chambers
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What is your talk at the Professionals’ Conference about?
I will be talking about the intersection between autism and allyship, and how we can partner and come together to create a better future for both neurodivergent individuals and wider society.
Why is that subject important to you?
The conversations in some parts of the neurodiversity community have become very ‘us and them’, but neuroinclusion benefits everyone and it is much easier to tackle the systemic barriers and challenges that people face when we come together and allies play a role in accelerating and facilitating positive change.
Who will find your talk useful?
Everyone from practitioners to parents, leaders to changemakers. We can all be allied to and be effective allies to others.
What is one thing you would like more people to understand about autism?
That while it can be very challenging, it’s much more of a difference than a disorder, and every autistic individual has something unique to bring to the world.
Tim Chan
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What is your talk at the Professionals’ Conference about?
How non-speaking autistics can be included in decision-making and how they can self-advocate for equal treatment.
Why is that subject important to you?
As a non-speaker, I have spent much effort in understanding autism, especially autistic people with complex communication needs, with a view to advocating for this cohort.
Who will find your talk useful?
Personal narratives provide ways to connect with other people, non-autistic, neurodivergent and autistic. Sharing my perspective will help everyone understand us better.
What is one thing you would like more people to understand about autism?
Autistic minimally/non-speaking people (like me) are beset by sensory processing and movement issues that affect their communication, impacting their ability to engage with others. Please understand that our external behaviour is not indicative of aloofness or disinterest, as we would love to participate at our own pace.
Charli Clement
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What is your talk at the Professionals’ Conference about?
My talk is about the crossover and clashes of autism and co-occurring chronic illness. This is an experience much more common than many understand and causes differences to our internal and external experiences of our bodies, minds and of society. I will discuss some of the ways physical health and chronic illness can impact life as an autistic person (and vice versa!) including support strategies to use when working with multiple disabled individuals.
Why is that subject important to you?
Being both autistic and chronically ill is a common but extremely under-discussed experience. It impacts every aspect of us - communication, sensory needs, how we access healthcare and more besides. It's a subject that every professional needs to understand, as aspects of autism and chronic illness combine, clash and intertwine, and one cannot be separated from the other.
Who will find your talk useful?
I will be talking in a way that any professional should be able to benefit from, but particularly those working in healthcare settings or education. I want to give people a starter understanding of the ways being autistic and chronically ill influences life and the way this is not just in terms of our internal experiences, but the way we are impacted by issues such as ableism, medical misogyny and the double empathy problem.
What is one thing you would like more people to understand about autism?
How often we are affected by differences to our internal senses - interoception, proprioception and vestibular - because most people only discuss the five external senses. We can be hyposensitive or hypersensitive to these senses just like the external ones, and this might impact things like our signals when it comes to thirst, hunger or toileting (interoception) or our ability to know where our body is in space (proprioception) for example.
Catherine Crompton
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What is your talk at the Professionals’ Conference about?
I’ll be talking about the NEurodivergent peer Support Toolkit (NEST), a suite of materials we co-designed with neurodivergent young people and the adults who support them to facilitate peer support in mainstream secondary schools.
Why is that subject important to you?
We know that peer support can be really useful for a lot of different groups, including autistic adults. NEST is one of the first studies showing that it can be useful for neurodivergent young people too. Neurodivergent young people can find school difficult for lots of reasons, and through this study, they were directly involved in creating the materials to facilitate support in schools.
Who will find your talk useful?
This talk will be useful for people who work in education and social care, service commissioners, researchers and clinicians.
Corinna Laurie
Dr Irina Roncaglia
Joanne Neill
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What is your talk at the Professionals’ Conference about?
It will cover how transdisciplinary approaches and methodologies can enhance and support transitions for autistic young people both in and out of schools, at the beginning of their educational journeys and experiences. Transdisciplinary teams do this by working together to better understand autistic young people and working collaboratively with them. They identify barriers and difficulties young people may experience with day-to-day tasks, cognitive, emotional and social development and their overall wellbeing. The talk will include strategies and toolkits successfully used to support pupils with transitions at National Autistic Society schools.
Why is that subject important to you?
Transitions and transdisciplinary approaches are key clinical features in our schools and are themes that can accompany autistic individuals throughout their lives. It is vital people understand that simply putting steps in place to prepare autistic children and young people for change and add predictability can make a significant difference to ensuring transitions are successful, enabling independence into adulthood. As National Autistic Society employees, we strive to ensure we “put autistic people’s wishes front and centre, while also meeting their need to have control over their lives, ambitions and achievements.” National Autistic Society’s Moonshot Vision
Who will find your talk useful?
We hope that autistic individuals, families/carers and professionals from different disciplines and backgrounds will find our talk interesting and useful, as well as highlighting an area of support and collaboration which could be better integrated in educational services.
What is one thing you would like more people to understand about autism?
That transitions of any kind may negatively impact on an autistic person, restricting opportunities for growth and development. However, with the right adaptations in place, this is achievable. That supporting autistic individuals within our schools requires openness, genuine curiosity and bias awareness, to be able to really co-create and collaborate in a community/society that works for autistic people.
Kelly Mahler
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What is your talk at the Professionals’ Conference about?
My talk will be all about interoception, our eighth sense. Interoception is about how our body uniquely feels. It allows us to experience a variety of internal body signals, which is different for all of us, but could include sensations like a racing heart, sore muscles, dry mouth, warm feet, empty stomach or pulsing head. These body signals provide important clues about how our body feels, our emotions and what we ultimately need for regulation, comfort and health.
Why is that subject important to you?
Interoception is one of the hottest topics in neuroscience right now. It is shedding light on the diversity of the inner felt experience. For example, how one person’s body feels when they are hungry or anxious is likely different from the next person’s. And when we can understand our bodies, we can be empowered with knowledge to meet our body’s needs. When we combine interoception science with reports from autistic people’s lived experience, this information is helping to update the supports we might use and moving them towards being more affirming and meaningful.
Who will find your talk useful?
Interoception is an everyone thing. Most people can benefit from learning more about interoception on a personal level. This talk will also be for any providers wishing to remain on the cutting edge of practice and support in ways that align with the most current science and autistic voice.
What is one thing you would like more people to understand about autism?
Many times, autistic people have experiences that can derail interoception. They might have their inner experiences dismissed, invalidated, misunderstood, gaslit or behaviourised. Many autistic people report reduced trust of their own interoceptive sensations because of these experiences. Interoception work is about helping everyone, including autistic people, to understand and trust their unique inner feelings and explore what their body uniquely needs for success and thriving in the world. More importantly, interoception work also provides a framework for supporters to be more curious and validating of a person’s authentic experience in the world.
Liz O'Nions
Professor Joshua Stott
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What is your talk at the Professionals’ Conference about?
Autism in mid and later life and particularly the experience of autistic adults in accessing and using healthcare services.
Why is that subject important to you?
Despite autism being lifelong and affecting important age-related outcomes like mortality and health, older people have long been neglected in autism research and clinical practice. We want to change this and conduct research with and for this group to inform practical improvements in the support we as healthcare professionals and as a society provide to autistic adults, particularly in mid and late life.
Who will find your talk useful?
Anybody interested in the lifelong implications of autism, but especially all health and social care workers, particularly those working in primary care. This is because healthcare for autistic people is nearly always provided by general health and social care services, not specialist autism services, and many people attending these services are older. We think that small adaptations to care can make a huge difference in service accessibility and outcomes, and want to encourage people to think about this.
What is one thing you would like more people to understand about autism?
We think it’s crucial that people understand the double empathy problem; ie the idea that when people with very different experiences of the world interact with one another, they struggle to empathise with one another. This places the responsibility for change firmly in the systems that we work in rather than pathologising the autistic individuals seeking care and allows us to think about how we design neurodiversity affirmative systems.
Dr Freya Rumball
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What is your talk at the Professionals’ Conference about?
I will be talking about the historically neglected area of trauma experiences and PTSD for autistic individuals, covering what we know about assessment, support and treatment, and what further research and exploration is needed in this area.
Why is that subject important to you?
I have always been interested in understanding experiences for neurodiverse individuals, so when I completed my PhD in PTSD, I was surprised to find so little research exploring autistic individuals’ experiences in this important area of mental health. For over 10 years now, our research has focused on improving understanding of trauma and PTSD in autistic individuals; advocating for a broader definition of trauma, focusing on an individual's subjective experience.
Who will find your talk useful?
I hope the talk will be useful for informing professionals working with autistic individuals in recognising features of PTSD in autistic adults and prompting referrals for trauma-focused therapies where PTSD is present. As well as being of interest to autistic individuals and their networks, providing information that can be used to advocate for access to appropriate support and treatment for traumatised autistic individuals experiencing PTSD symptoms. For those working in research, the talk will highlight key gaps in our current knowledge and areas where further research is required.
What is one thing you would like more people to understand about autism?
That various events/experiences could be interpreted as traumatic and possibly lead to the development of PTSD symptoms for autistic individuals. We need to be routinely screening and asking about difficult life experiences to ensure people can access the right support in a timely manner.
Holly Sprake-Hill
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What is your talk at the Professionals’ Conference about?
My talk is all about supporting our autistic sensory needs. Our autistic sensory experiences can be intensely joyful, deeply distressing and everything in between. They provide colour and spice to every encounter with the world outside and inside of our bodies in a way that can be difficult for non-autistic people to understand. My talk looks at how autistic sensory preferences and sensitivities influence the way we interact, live our daily lives, and impact our mental health and wellbeing, and how other people can support us when we need that extra help.
Why is that subject important to you?
People all depend upon their senses to understand the world, so understanding more about the sensory world is EVERYONE'S business! Sensory needs are not just about it being too noisy or needing a fidget toy. Teaching your child or children in your care to understand and advocate for their sensory needs is just as important as looking after their physical health and mental health.
Who will find your talk useful?
Anyone who wants to demystify sensory sensitivities and comforts. It will help parents, carers and professionals understand that we can all make a positive difference, not only to autistic people's sensory needs, but also maybe their own.
What is one thing you would like more people to understand about autism?
That the way I present as an autistic person may not be the same as another autistic person you know; of course I don't, I've had different life experiences and I'm an individual! Think beyond the stereotypes you've heard about and meet us, without judgement, as the brilliant autistic individuals we are.
Caroline van Diest
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What is your talk at the Professionals’ Conference about?
We'll begin by considering types of trauma experienced and aided by Eye Movement Desensitisation and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy. Autistic individuals will receive information about the benefits of EMDR. Therapists will be encouraged to reflect upon their practice and consider possible adaptations (if necessary) to aid the access, engagement and outcomes of EMDR therapy for their clients.
Why is that subject important to you?
It's really important to me that all neurodivergent people have access to this effective therapy that can be so helpful to them. Understanding that this is beneficial for different presentations that often are not labelled trauma - but are experienced as such - is valuable knowledge, increasing choice for clients. Enabling therapists to understand neurodivergence and adapt accordingly, without losing the fidelity of the model, enables a high standard of therapy provision.
Who will find your talk useful?
I offer relatable teaching to support the opportunities for accessing therapy that can be really helpful for potential recipients (people with anxiety, depression, low self-esteem, trauma and a range of mental health needs) and for therapists to build their confidence working with neurodivergent individuals, enabling better access and outcomes for therapy.
What is one thing you would like more people to understand about autism?
That taking the time to be curious and understand an autistic person's experience and ways of communication and experiencing the world without judgment would enable them to be able to connect better with others and would promote better engagement in therapy and quality of therapy.
