Description
Your Trainers
Jude Morrow TEDX speaker, author and founder of NTI will host alongside Evaleen Whelton Founder AUsome Training and Konfident Kidz.
Jude Morrow is an Autistic best-selling author, entrepreneur, philanthropist and keynote speaker from Derry, Northern Ireland. Jude travels the world to showcase through his talks that Autistic children can grow up to live happy and successful lives. Jude is a former social worker, and provides mentoring for Autistic young people and adults at transitionary stages.
Evaleen Whelton is an Autistic trainer, workshop facilitator, speaker, consultant, and founder of Konfident Kidz & Ausome Training. Evaleen was a speech and drama teacher prior to her discovery of being Autistic at 37.
Since then, Evaleen has organised and hosted autistic-led training, speaking events, and neurodiversity collaborations all over the world. Evaleen has trained teachers, parents, and allied healthcare professionals – to show that autistic social and communication skills are perfectly normal and should not be stigmatised.
Evaleen has authored the Konfident Kidz Konnect book series, as well as Standing Up for Myself, Embracing My Neurodivergence and the Include program.
Module 1: Intro to Autism: The Autistic Perspective
What You Will Walk Away With…
- A sense of hope for the future, not despair.
- That being Autistic is not only perfectly normal, but absolutely okay!
- How you can develop the right mindset toward autism and Autistic people to have better outcomes at home, school, work, and in the wider world.
You may be learning about Autism for the first time – it is easy to fall into a negative space. We understand that!
What the trainers want you to achieve in this session – is an attitude of staying away from deficits – and championing the strengths Autistic people have.
If you feel , like Evaleen and Jude that the narrative around autism is far too negative and often that explanations don’t feel right for the person in your life then join us for an insightful, informative and life-changing session.
Module 2: Autism & Anxiety – An Inside Perspective
How often do you hear the inside perspective on Autism and Anxiety?
Both Evaleen and Jude experience anxiety and share their experiences with you as two Autistic people. Evaleen has also extensively researched this area and will break down many of the myths around anxiety and Autistic people as well as providing you with strategies to alleviate anxiety for Autistic children and adults.
Jude shares a perspective that is not often heard and that is one of an Autistic child growing up in the school setting, feeling different and often treated differently and misunderstood even by the best intentioned people around him. His talk is full of insights, tips and things to watch out for when you have or work with Autistic children and teens.
Autistic People tend to be anxious by nature – Jude and Evaleen ask, “why is this?”
Professionals, teachers and others will lead you to believe that autistic people are anxious because we “lack social skills, communication skills and lack understanding”.
This could not be further from the truth. The reason autistic people are anxious by nature, is a profound one, and it doesn’t come from any of the “reasons” outlined above.
Jude and Evaleen will take you into the core of their existence and explain the profound link between autism and anxiety.
Content:
- An Autistic perspective on autism
- An Autistic perspective on anxiety
- what anxiety is
- how anxiety manifests
- how anxiety begins
- what we can do to lessen anxiety
Anxiety is a human response to feeling unsafe in our environment. Unfortunately the environment in which Autistic people exist is not analysed often enough and causes for our anxiety is often blamed on “autism”. In this webinar Jude and Evaleen explain what the environment is like for Autistic children and adults. They hope to shed light on many misconceptions and to update your understanding around Autistic people.
Module 3: Autism & Trauma
Why are we even talking about autism and trauma? What we are beginning to see quite clearly from most current research is that levels of trauma are higher in the Autistic population than in the general public. “Autism training” and “autism courses” which are designed without Autistic input can mean that there is actually very little real and meaningful understanding of autism. Unfortunately trauma responses in Autistic children and adults are not always recognised. They are often misinterpreted as “Autistic Behaviours” but there is no Autistic behaviour only human behaviour. When trauma responses are ignored then this can lead to even more trauma for the Autistic person. When we view Autistic behaviour as human behaviour we begin to see a very different picture to that painted by misinformed professionals who are basing their ideas on outdated ideology.
Being Autistic in itself, is not traumatic. What is traumatic – is the constant worry and anguish that we are meeting the expectations of those around us. Often these expectations are based on non-autistic goals, non-autistic ways of communicating and thinking. But Autistic people are Autistic and placing non-autistic expectations on us can lead to us feeling very bad about ourselves. It can in some cases be quite traumatic when we are misunderstood and feel unaccepted as we are.
In this empowering session, we will discuss why autistic people young and old experience trauma. We will look at how professionals and parents, with their hearts in the right place – may even be inflicting trauma without realising it, and how families, professionals and groups can work together to reduce traumatic life-experiences for Autistic people.
We will cover:
- How trauma informed their own life-experiences and practices.
- How self-acceptance will always help autistic people overcome trauma.
- That well-meaning practices may be causing subtle harm.
- How to recognise trauma
- How to build meaningful relationships with autistic people young and old using trauma-informed practice and steps.
Module 4: Understanding Autistic Children
When parents and professionals hear the words “autism” or “autistic”, there is always a sense of fear, why is that?
Professionals, teachers and parents are often railroaded into “training” or “workshops” that seek to bring about behavioural change in Autistic children.
When interventions designed to “support” Autistic children, are more for the benefit of those around them, you must ask yourself – is this morally and ethically correct?
Evaleen and Jude have both been there, through the “supports” that actively seek to suppress rather than embrace, both in childhood and adulthood.
Professionals and parents always have an inherent good nature, and will always want what is best for their Autistic children/clients. However, the vast majority of what people know about Autistic children comes from……MARKETING COMPANIES.
The world we want, is to have parents and professionals embrace and respect Autistic children exactly as they are! That there should be no restrictions on how a child should “play”, “communicate” and “socialise”. Autistic people play, communicate and socialise autistically, and there is absolutely nothing wrong with that.
This Session on understanding Autistic children is ideal for parents of Autistic children, school staff and young people as well as mental health professionals. You will learn the reason why Autistic people like us, tend to have poor mental health outcomes and how you can play your part to reverse that.
Jude and Evaleen will take you into the core of their existence and explain the profound link between being Autistic and having poorer mental health outcomes, and how each and every one of you can take immediate steps to make the life experience more fulfilling for Autistic people everywhere.
