A girl diagnosed with autism will help other children and parents to understand the condition through a new Salford project.
Hayden Larder was told she was autistic at the age of 16.
Her mum Helen encouraged her to draw and tell stories about her life when she was growing up, to help her understand the complicated emotions she was experiencing.
These cartoon characters were set into postcards the pair produced together to help teachers and doctors realise what she was going through.
‘Postcards from Aspie World’ include images of a young person telling an adult that they can’t cope with friends coming to visit, or saying that things are ‘too loud, too bright, too confusing’.
Now 25, Hayden has joined forces with Salford nursing and social work lecturer Dan Redfearn to create a training pack which will be published later this month to help families adjust after a child has been diagnosed with autism.
Hayden had already worked with Dan when he was a nurse specialising in autism years before.
Dan said: “A lot of the problems that Hayden experienced growing up – as is often the case with people who have autism – were simply misunderstandings.
“For example, if a teacher tells a pupil to look at them, they believe that the child isn’t listening if they aren’t doing so. But for autistic pupils, looking at people in this situation can be distracting.
“Teachers may not understand this and label the pupil ‘difficult’.
“Helping people understand that difference is really important.
“There is a real absence of good quality training enabling staff to effectively support people with autism, and I’m hoping this will fill that void and provide a useful tool.”
Helen said: “It’s surprising how much misunderstanding there still is around autism, and a lot of young people growing up with the condition really suffer as a result of that.
“Dan has done an amazing job of producing this training package, based on the idea that people can learn effectively from looking directly at the experiences of a real person.
“We hope this training resource will make a difference by helping staff in all kinds of organisations think about their working practices, so autistic people have better opportunities.
“Hayden and I are both proud we played a role in developing this pack.”
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