Speech Freedom

20/08/2026

THERE ARE ONLY A FEW TICKETS LEFT for my Working with Teens and Adults with Selective Mutism training sessions.
Session 1: Thursday 3rd September 10-12.30 BST
Session 2: Thursday 5th November 10-12 GMT

This course consists of a 2.5 hour teaching session, followed up two months later by a 2 hour Q&A session, all for a single fee.

Suitable for professionals, and teens & adults with SM and their families.

Aims
•Understand SM in Teens and Adults
•Understand how to develop a Challenge Lifestyle with them
•Understand the support they will need to go through this process
•Get a toolbox of PRACTICAL strategies and ideas
•How to make adjustments to the environment so their needs are met

Testimonials
“Thank you Susannah for helping my 20 year old twin daughters get through University with their Selective Mutism. Susannah has shared her amazing techniques which my daughters now incorporate into their daily life to increase their confidence and achieve any goal. Susannah has proved that anything is possible.”

"The training was enriching. It has re-shaped my approach working with young people with Selective Mutism to effect positive change in their lives."

Two linked interactive training sessions for professionals, teens and adults with SM and their families.

19/08/2026

DOES YOUR YOUNG PERSON STRUGGLE WITH ACCEPTING THEMSELVES AS AUTISTIC?

Perhaps they reject it altogether.

Perhaps they don't want to talk about it.

Perhaps they understand that they're Autistic but struggle with what that means for them.

Or perhaps you're wondering how you can support them to develop a more positive, neuro-affirming understanding of themselves.

I'll be running a free webinar on Sunday 13th September 7-9pm:

SUPPORTING AUTISTIC YOUNG PEOPLE WITH SELF-ACCEPTANCE

We'll explore ideas and approaches that can help Autistic young people develop greater self-understanding, self-acceptance and a positive Autistic identity.

This webinar is designed to provide useful information and practical ideas in its own right.

It is designed for parents/carers and NOT young people themselves. It is also not designed for professionals although you're still welcome to attend if that is your remit.

I'll also give an overview of GROVE's Being Me programme, for anyone who would like to learn more about how the programme supports Autistic young people with understanding themselves, developing a positive Autistic identity and, ultimately, moving towards self-acceptance.

There'll also be opportunities to ask questions about the topic and about the programme.

🎥 A recording of the presentation will be emailed to everyone who books and will be available to watch for 14 days.

Book your free using the link in the comments.

19/08/2026

Have a look at the comments on the original post too

Well that was horrifying😡—
Let’s make sure it doesn’t go unanswered!

For those of you who watched The Great ADHD Myth? tonight and are as angry as I am, you can now complain to Ofcom as well as Channel 4.

I’m not going to tell anyone what they should say because your complaint needs to be yours. What I would recommend is focusing on anything you felt was materially misleading or likely to cause harm, and being as specific as you can about why. That part’s particularly important because those are things Ofcom can actually consider under the Broadcasting Code.

I’m still genuinely furious that ADHD children, adults and families who already spend so much of our lives trying to be believed have just had to watch a national broadcaster present ADHD as though its legitimacy is still up for debate.

There are absolutely conversations to be had about diagnosis, medication, education, environment and support. But that is very different from giving controversial minority views this much weight while failing to properly represent or challenge them with the actual scientific consensus.

And the harm doesn’t end when the programme finishes. We’re the ones who then have to deal with people questioning our diagnoses, parents being made to feel guilty, children being dismissed and accommodations being treated as unnecessary.

So if you do complain, I’d suggest explaining what you saw, why you thought it was misleading or harmful, and what impact you think that kind of framing can have.

I know a lot of people won’t have the spoons to write a formal complaint from scratch, so I’ve put together a template letter you can use as a starting point and adapt however you want.
I’ll attach that, along with the links for Ofcom and Channel 4, in the comments.

We raised concerns before this aired and most of us got the same stock response. Now we’ve seen what they actually chose to broadcast and for me at least, it was more harmful than I could have anticipated.

——-

P.S I’ve written all of this very fast and I’m well past being able to proof read my own words, so if anyone notices any factual errors please let me know.
—-
Edit: I had to update the template letter as it was over the max word count.

18/08/2026

Sometimes I can’t tell whether I should push or protect.

And I think that might be one of the hardest parts of SEND parenting.

Because there isn’t a little gauge above their head telling you what’s happening.

Is this anxiety that needs gentle exposure?
Or is their nervous system genuinely screaming I cannot do this?

Is this avoidance that we need to carefully challenge?
Or have they already used every scrap of energy they had just getting through the day?

Is this a skill they can learn, if I encourage them to keep trying?
Or am I repeatedly asking them to do something that is genuinely beyond what they can manage right now?

Do I push a little?

Do I accommodate?

Do I insist?

Do I let it go?

Do I help?

Do I stand back?

And the particularly difficult bit is that the answer can be different for the exact same child on different days.

Something they managed perfectly well yesterday might be impossible today.

Sometimes protecting them from every uncomfortable feeling can make their world smaller.

But sometimes pushing through genuine overload doesn't build resilience at all. It just teaches them that when they say “I can't”, nobody believes them.

So we make the call.

Again and again and again.

Usually with incomplete information, while trying to predict the consequences of whichever option we choose.

And inevitably, sometimes we get it wrong.

Perhaps that's the bit people don't always see when they watch a SEND parent step in — or, equally, when they watch us encourage our child to keep going.

We're not necessarily being overprotective.

We're not necessarily pushing too hard.

We're constantly trying to work out which one our child needs from us in that particular moment.

And there really isn't a gauge above their head to tell us.

Tales of a SEN Parent

18/08/2026

ooh. This looks useful

Breaking barriers, building connections Welcome to the ND360 Hub, a UK wide directory of trusted professional who offer services or products to neurodivergent children or adults in education or employment....

18/08/2026

How do you know when to step in and help?

I wrote the other day about how we manage eating out as a family when some of us are adventurous eaters and some of us have ARFID or a very restricted range of foods.

There is no expectation to try anything. Nobody comments on what anybody else eats. The food arrives, everybody eats what they want and if someone is still hungry afterwards we can stop for a safe food on the way home.

I said then that so much of parenting is knowing when to step in and when to stand back.

Someone quite rightly commented that this is actually really hard.

How do you know?

I could have written an answer at the time, but I think these things are always easier to explain when I have just lived through them.

And today I did.

Number Four and I bathed the pony, which was lovely, and afterwards we needed to trim his tail because it was getting long enough for him to stand on. We also decided his mane had reached the point where it needed a little tidy.

I showed her what I wanted her to do.

She is dyspraxic and one of the things I notice with her is that translating a verbal instruction into a physical movement can be really difficult.

I can say, ‘Hold the scissors at the same angle as his neck.’

I know exactly what I mean.

She doesn’t necessarily know what that instruction should feel like in her hands.

So I showed her.

She had a go.

Then I showed her how to cut upwards into the ends of the mane to soften the very straight line we had created.

She had another go.

And she didn’t do it quite how I had shown her.

This is the point where my brain started shouting.

No. No. Not like that.

Give me the scissors.

I know how to do this.

I can make it right.

Except I didn’t.

I stood there feeling increasingly itchy and fidgety and slightly irritated and reminded myself:

It’s hair.

It will grow.

The pony does not care.

Nobody is in danger.

Nothing disastrous is going to happen if his mane does not look exactly how I think it should look.

This was not actually a situation where Number Four needed me to regulate her.

It was a situation where I needed to regulate me.

Because there were two neurodivergent profiles standing beside that pony.

There was Number Four, whose dyspraxia makes translating instructions about movement difficult.

And there was me, whose brain was extremely keen for the job to be done ‘properly.’

My discomfort did not mean she needed to stop.

My urge to take over did not mean she needed help.

And that, I think, is part of the answer to the question about knowing when to step in.

Sometimes I ask myself:

Is this unsafe?

Is somebody distressed?

Does this actually need intervention?

Or is my brain simply uncomfortable because it isn’t being done the way I would do it?

If it is the last one, sometimes the work belongs to me.

I have to stand back.

I have to tolerate the slightly wonky mane.

I have to let another person learn through doing rather than through me repeatedly correcting them.

And yes, it is hard.

Sometimes I get it right and sometimes I get it wrong.

Today, I think I got it right.

The cost was a few deep breaths and a slightly twitchy mother standing beside a pony desperately trying not to grab the scissors.

Number Four got to do it herself.

And the pony still has a perfectly respectable mane.

Emma
The Autistic SENCo
♾️

Photo: The mane in question. Not quite what I wanted but it’s clean and trimmed.

17/08/2026

What Comes Before Body Doubling?

Body doubling is great.

But it assumes something quite important has already happened.

The person knows what they are supposed to do.

They understand the task.

They have some idea where to start.

Yesterday Number 2 and I spent quite a long time planning parts of his year out.

He is currently thinking that he may go to university next year to study Classical Studies, unless another plan comes along that takes his fancy. For now, he wants a year to travel, meet people, do different things and work out a little more about what he wants.

So we sat down together and worked out how you actually plan a trip.

Not just, ‘Where would you like to go?’

But:

How much is the flight?

How long are you going for?

Where will you stay?

How much will that cost?

How are you getting to the airport?

Does the incredibly cheap 6am flight remain incredibly cheap when you realise you have to get to London the night before and pay for somewhere to stay?

What does the whole trip cost, rather than just the exciting number you first see on the airline website?

We researched, compared, talked and narrowed things down.

He now has a trip to Paris booked. We have researched Athens and he may go with a friend who is half Greek and speaks Greek. Australia is being discussed because he has a friend with somewhere to stay there.

But the important bit for me isn’t actually the travelling.

It is the learning happening underneath it.

Because I can’t simply say, ‘You’re 18 now. Go and organise your year.’

Knowing how to do these things doesn’t suddenly arrive with a birthday.

For many neurodivergent young people, this is part of the hidden curriculum.

How do I book a flight?

How do I compare costs?

How do I open a bank account?

How do I find a job?

How do I manage money?

How do I book a driving test?

How do I work out what needs doing first?

How do I make a decision when there are hundreds of possible choices?

We sometimes assume that by 16, 17 or 18 young people should simply know.

But somebody has to teach the skills.

And I’m not convinced we do that particularly well in schools.

Interestingly, I did teach many of these things through Functional Skills because the curriculum naturally lends itself to real-life English and maths.

Planning journeys. Reading timetables. Comparing prices. Working with money. Filling in forms. Communicating with people.

*Actual* functional skills.

Yet many young people can go through school without ever really being explicitly taught how to navigate the practical business of becoming an adult.

Number 2 and Number 3 have both described PSHE to me as feeling rather repetitive around what not to do.

Don’t smoke.

Don’t drink.

Don’t have s*x.

There is obviously more to PSHE than that, but I do wonder whether we need far more of:

Here is how you actually live independently.

So this year, that is part of what I am going to do with Number 2.

Not do everything for him.

Teach him how to do it.

We do it together the first time.

We talk through the decisions.

I model the thinking that sits behind them.

Then next time, he has more of the knowledge to do it himself.

And then body doubling becomes useful.

Because sitting quietly beside someone while they complete a task only works if they actually know how to complete the task.

Sometimes the support needed before independence is teaching the things we assumed they already knew.

Emma
The Autistic SENCo
♾️

Photo: Number 2, Hubbie, Number 4 and Number 3 in a car park in London on Friday

16/08/2026

The kid was able to tell me that it’s hard to take a bath when my breath smells like coffee because I breathe on them when I help them in the bath, and the bathroom is small and so smells are more concentrated. So: some problem solving later and I wore a mask to help them with the bath.

This is the solution we agreed on. I could have tried several others: brush my teeth, eat something that smells different, light a candle or other scent in the bathroom itself, take a shower instead of a bath so the running water carries it away, kid do the bath by themself without my help, etc, etc. This is the one we came up with and agreed to, so that’s why it’s the one I can tell you about. But the problem you’re having or the solution you come to might look different, because different people’s problems and solutions will always look different.

There were four other problems we preemptively solved and there were two that popped up unexpectedly through the bath. And as we have been for the past several weeks, pretty consistently—surprisingly consistently—we were able to work through them.

I can’t always predict what the problems will be. I don’t *have* to. I remember a time when it was 100% me guessing what might be making things hard, trying things out, seeing if they helped, giving up or taking a break to reset so many times. I couldn’t have dreamed of this day 4-5 years ago, that we could completely calmly have a conversation about what was making it hard and what would make it easier, because even the thought of something hard meant the kid going into panic mode and all “conversations” were held at a scream.

But here we are. Clean and bathed 🥰

[image description: a selfie of me, a person with a fluff of blue/green/purple hair and smiling brown eyes and a blue/green/purple paisley-print mask covering the lower half of my face. End description.]

14/08/2026

14/08/2026

(Hint: they all skip the same critical foundation. And once you see what it is, you'll wonder how you missed it for so long.)