“If the only thing you remember from me speaking today, is that Autistic experience is…oooh shiny thing! [picks something up from the conference floor]… there’s these weird shiny things on the floor, and they’ve been distracting me…what was I saying?”
This is what it can be like as a neurodivergent academic and trainer: distracted mid-sentence by shiny things on the conference floor! Luckily, it got a good laugh from the packed room of educators from across Kent and Medway, and I demonstrated that even adult neurodivergent people still get easily distracted!
But perhaps that’s exactly the point. In a room full of teaching professionals learning about neurodivergent pupils, what better way to illustrate authentic Autistic experience than by being authentically Autistic? The laughter wasn’t mocking – it was recognition, understanding, and a moment of genuine connection that no amount of PowerPoint slides could have achieved.
This happened at the July 2025 Autism Education Trust Kent: Mind & Body Conference in Maidstone, where I (Chloe), Ben, and Jessica from Aucademy CIC were invited to speak on topics related to the trust’s theme of Mind and Body: The experience of the neurodivergent pupil.
The Power of Neurodivergent Voices in Professional Spaces
There’s something uniquely powerful about neurodivergent people speaking to professionals about neurodivergent experiences. It’s not just about representation – though that matters enormously. It’s about the authenticity that comes from lived experience, the insights that can only emerge from having navigated the world with a neurotype that doesn’t match societal expectations.
As we sat at our speakers’ table near the front, largely all neurodivergent, I was struck by how different this felt from traditional academic conferences. We weren’t performing neurotypicality for the comfort of our audience. We were being ourselves – stimming, getting distracted, needing movement breaks, using our authentic communication styles – and in doing so, we were modelling what it actually looks like to be neurodivergent in professional spaces.
Autistic well-being: What works? – Dr Chloe Farahar
I spoke about the mental health, Autistic, and trauma needs Autistic pupils may be likely to experience, and importantly, the things that are most likely to improve our well-being, namely support to foster a positive Autistic identity, culture, community, and space.
My Session Outline:
- Working definition of Autistic.
- What well-being concerns do Autistic people have?
- Why do typical therapies, e.g., CBT, not always work?
- Challenges of using typical therapies, e.g., CBT, to improve Autistic wellbeing
- Therapists and their challenging behaviours.
- Adapting CBT – does it work? Limitations of therapies and studies
- Neurodivergence in context – it’s relation to ACEs/trauma
- Adaptations needed for neurodivergent people who have experienced ACEs/trauma
- Importance of Autistic identity, culture, community, and spaces for wellbeing
- Autistic profile building and boundary setting
Standing there, speaking to educators about why conventional approaches often fail Autistic young people, I found myself drawing on years of research but also decades of lived experience. The data tells us that Autistic people have significantly higher rates of mental health difficulties, but the lived experience tells us why: it’s not our “autism” that’s the problem, it’s a world that consistently tells us we’re wrong, broken, or need fixing.
While lots of Autistic people struggle with mental health concerns following adversity/ies, there’s evidence that our lives can be better when we are supported to foster a positive Autistic identity, culture, community, and space. This isn’t just academic theory – it’s what we see happening in real time when schools and families shift from trying to make Autistic young people appear less Autistic to supporting them to understand and embrace their neurotype.
The room was engaged, asking thoughtful questions about how to implement these approaches in their settings. But more than that, they were listening – really listening – to what we were saying about the importance of accepting and celebrating neurodivergent ways of being rather than trying to eliminate them.
A World for Difference – Emma Kluibenschadl
We loved meeting Emma of STAK.life CIC (Stefan’s Acts of Kindness). We shared a speaker’s table near the front, and were largely all neurodivergent. It was a joy to be around other neurodivergent people, educating a room full of engaged education professionals from across Kent and Medway for the Autism Education Trust’s yearly conference.
Emma spoke about the amazing work that STAK.life CIC have been doing to make “A World for Difference” following the passing of their wonderful Autistic teenage son Stefan. Emma’s presentation was deeply moving, but also practically focused – showing how tragedy can be transformed into meaningful action that changes systems and saves lives.
There’s something profound about sitting alongside other neurodivergent speakers, each of us bringing our own experiences and expertise to the same goal: helping educators better understand and support neurodivergent young people. Emma’s work reminded us all why this matters so much – because every young person deserves to feel valued and supported for who they are, not punished for how their brain works.
Situational mutism, and the persistent drive for autonomy: Thinking about anxiety – Ben Usher-Barrass
Aucademy CIC are very proud of our Ben of Autisticality, who presented in person, with support from Jessica Chudasama-Alloway, for the first time on his experiences of situational mutism. Ben prepared an AI-cloned voice and slide show of his experience of anxiety-driven situational mutism, starting by introducing himself and slides with mouth words.
Watching Ben navigate his presentation was a masterclass in accommodation and self-advocacy. He knew his limits, planned accordingly, and used technology to ensure his message could be heard even when his voice wasn’t available. This wasn’t a compromise or a lesser version of presenting – it was innovative and thoughtful, and ultimately more accessible.
When he came to sit back at our neurodivergent speakers’ table, he was visibly shaking from exposure anxiety and using his voice, but he was pleased that he did the presentation. The courage it took to share such personal experiences with a room full of strangers, especially when communication itself is a source of anxiety, cannot be overstated.
An attendee spoke through tears about how important it was for her to hear his experiences, as it helped her understand her young person better. This is the power of authentic neurodivergent voices in educational spaces – they create bridges of understanding that no amount of theoretical knowledge can match.
The PDA Experience – Jessica Chudasama-Alloway
Jessica spoke about their experience of PDA (Persistent Drive for Autonomy), bringing yet another dimension to our understanding of neurodivergent experiences. The diversity of our panel wasn’t accidental – it reflected the reality that neurodivergence isn’t a monolith, and that each neurodivergent person brings their own unique combination of traits, strengths, and support needs.
Jessica’s insights about the drive for autonomy and how it manifests in educational settings provided educators with practical strategies for supporting PDA pupils. But more than that, they offered a window into the internal experience of someone whose nervous system is constantly scanning for threats to their autonomy.
The Ripple Effect of Authentic Representation
What struck me most about this conference was how much the educators were interested in our authentic neurodivergent perspectives. They weren’t just politely listening – they were actively engaging, asking follow-up questions, and seeking ways to implement what they were learning in their own settings.
There’s something powerful about a room full of teaching professionals seeing neurodivergent people as experts in our own experiences rather than subjects to be studied or problems to be solved. It shifts the entire dynamic from “how do we manage these difficult behaviours?” to “how do we create environments where neurodivergent young people can thrive?”
Building on Success
Aucademy CIC have talked at two conferences now for Autism Education Trust, once in 2024 with Graysen and Chloe, talking about the diversity of Autistic experience, gender, and sexuality, and now Ben and Jessica on anxiety, mutism, and persistent drives for autonomy, and Chloe on Autistic well-being and what works.
Each conference builds on the last, creating a growing network of educators who understand that neurodivergent young people don’t need to be fixed or cured – they need to be understood, supported, and celebrated. We appreciate the very neuro-affirming approach of the Trust, and hope to work with them again in the future.
The Unconventional Continues
As I picked up that shiny thing from the conference floor, I wasn’t just getting distracted – I was demonstrating that neurodivergent brains work differently, and that’s not a bug, it’s a feature. Our attention might be captured by unexpected things, but that same capacity for noticing details and making unexpected connections is what makes us valuable contributors to any team or classroom.
Educators left with new understanding, new strategies, and perhaps most importantly, new perspectives on what it means to be neurodivergent in educational settings.
And maybe that’s what unconventional academic and training work looks like – not following predetermined scripts, not pretending to be someone we’re not, but showing up authentically and trusting that our genuine selves have something valuable to offer.
After all, if we want educators to accept and celebrate neurodivergent young people, perhaps we need to start by accepting and celebrating neurodivergent educators and trainers too.
What Autism Education Trust Kent: Mind & Body Conference attendees had to say about Aucademy speakers’ sessions:
✨ Takeaways
- Most feedback centred on stimming, identity, and new communication methods.
- Over 60% of respondents are SENCOs, highlighting a need for whole-staff CPD on these themes.
- Next step: design engaging CPD modules – complete with student voices, role-plays, and resource toolkits – to embed these insights in daily practice.
| What three things have you learnt from your session? | What, if anything, do you hope to do differently now that you have completed this training? How will your role benefit from the training? | Any comments, observations, suggestions you would like to leave for Aucademy? Including any additional sessions you would find useful? |
| Autistic experience, learn their profile | Listen more attentively | Excellent! |
| Different viewpoint, adapting environment, link of trauma | Create links between older and younger neurodivergent students | |
| What’s important for autistic | Improved tutorial programme in our SRP | Thank you |
| Validate feelings, different forms of anxiety, what happened to you this week rather than how do you feel? | Develop staff understanding and adapt my own practice in the classroom. | |
| Diff sensory experiences, CBT not helpful for autistic people, stimming | Consider what we can change for wellbeing | |
| Trauma based training needed. Don’t stop stims. Collaborative opportunities for autistic students | Don’t stop stims | Trauma training |
| Affirming what i believe in | Support my work as a play therapist | Loved it x |
| Deeper knowledge of stimming, greater work on boundaries, and “What happened to you this week.” | Genuinely, nothing! | I can’t wait to steal you both to speak at my school! |
| Language we use, making autistic safe spaces, challenging staff to have a greater understanding | Take things back to a whole staff CPD | Loved the training thank you. I would like to read the chapter from your book |
| About finding a different way to communicate Boundary setting Difference between stim and harm | Plan for different communication methods | Masking and stimming |
| Neurodivergent burn out vs depression, that processing of sensory environment is why people react differently. We treat autism by teaching how to be autistic -!: Everybody’s weird, you just have to find your group of weird. | N/A | |
| New terminology, how CBT doesn’t always work, helping people with ASC to share experiences with similar people | more talking and encouragement to be themselves | Possibly come and help some of our students |
| Importance of autism identity, seeing stems as soothing and supportive, teach how to be autistic | I would like to adapt my practice to fully focus on identity and celebrating all amazing autistic abilities | It was fantastic |
| Listen to young people experience trying to fit in Neurotypical world. Be Curious Is it well – being or distress? | Understanding of YP experiences … not the same as mine. | More more more |
| Hyperphantasia, aphantasia, processing is the difference | Feedback to school | |
| I loved the research element and young voices who were shared | I work in a SEN provision and I’d like to focus more on a pupil voice and young voice. I’d also like to focus on stimming and making sure that other adults allow them too | I would like to receive training in school. I would like to share information with my secondary school boys who i work closely with who are autistic. |
| 1) masking is the quiet under the radar child… And also, the clown. 2) autistic Vs mental health 3) alternative way to ask ‘how are you feeling’ – I struggle with this question and enjoyed hearing alternative suggestion | Move out of education and into supporting young people in a different way. | I’d welcome more training, more opportunities to learn and will watch the setting boundaries video. |
| Learn autistic profiles (either as an adult trying to support or as an autistic person about themselves) Identity is very important – knowing yourself and also knowing others that have similar experiences I found the clarification very helpful that sensory “difference” underpins the observed “differences” linked to being autistic | Find a way to help students to learn their autistic profiles in a large secondary school | Dr Chloe Farahar’s authentic advocacy of the autistic experience was both powerful and extremely informative to a non-autistic person. |
| 1) How I can reword things better to make someone feel more comfortable 2) How exhausting masking is and what that would look like for a pupil 3) collecting more of pupils voice and how I can do that | As a very new to role (Pupil Support Manager) I want to be able to challenge and work with staff to better support the children in our care. And let them know it’s ok if they are not feeling like talking today or working today it’s about forming the connections/relationship with the pupil and the way we do things now that will progress dynamics in the future. | Absolutely amazing content, I can only imagine how hard and demanding it is on all of you to provide us with such informative training and realist views. It was very inspiring thank you |
