Our exclusive film screening, trips to Australia and our ... Content/CRAE_Newsletter_Spring_… · After the film, director Morgan Matthews, gave us some insight into how he came

issue 8 editor: liz pellicanospring/summer 2015

Our exclusive film screening, trips to Australia and our 5th birthday party... Read more inside.

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In January this year, we hosted Emma, a secondary-school student

on the autism spectrum for her work experience placement. Here

is what she had to say about her 1-week placement: “During my

time at CRAE I had the opportunity to try many new and interesting

activities and better understand the work carried out at a research

centre. Amongst other things, I got the chance to transcribe

interviews, analyse research papers, look through some very old

archive files, observe and take part in an activity for a research

project, and even attend a CRAE meeting! I mostly worked in an

office (an environment I wasn’t used to, but found I really liked) but

also spent two days at the library, which was a completely different

CRAE Work Experience

On Tuesday 3rd March we, together

with Ambitious about Autism, hosted a

preview screening of the film X+Y and

a Q&A with its BAFTA winning director,

Morgan Matthews. The event was a huge

success: it was completely sold out and

we had more than 250 people through

the doors on the night.

X+Y follows Nathan, an autistic boy with

a passion for maths, from childhood

through to his training to represent Great

Britain in the International Mathematics

Olympiad (IMO) in his teenage years.

Nathan, who finds it difficult to connect

to others around him, feels isolated from

his mother and teachers, but finds solace

in the logical world of mathematics. With

help from his tutor, Mr Humphreys, it

becomes clear that he is good enough to

represent his country. The training, which

will determine if he will represent his

country, takes Nathan to Taiwan, where

he meets and connects with his Chinese

competitor, Zhang Mei.

After the film, director Morgan Matthews,

gave us some insight into how he came

to make the film, which was inspired by

his acclaimed 2007 BBC documentary,

Beautiful Young Minds. Matthews spoke

of the responsibility he felt to be true

to the young people he met during

the making of this documentary. He

talked about how Daniel, on whom the

character Nathan was based, strongly

identified with the character, and felt as

if he was speaking Daniel’s own words.

Many audience members, including

autistic people, spoke of how impressed

they were by the portrayal of Nathan

as a young autistic person. One person

said that it was “the best depiction of

autism full stop”. Another, however, was

concerned that Nathan was portrayed

as a non-autistic child locked inside an

autistic one. Matthews addressed this

concern by drawing on the conversations

he had with Daniel, who had explained

that he had always felt strong emotions

inside but only learned how to express

them later in life.

Overall, the film is a must-see. It

highlights the potential strengths and

challenges associated with autism and

the challenges of raising an autistic child

– all beautifully portrayed by a star-

studded British cast.

X+Y: A free CRAE film screening

At CRAE, we offer young autistic people the chance to experience working life as part of our team...

and equally fascinating experience.

The people I worked with were very

helpful and friendly. They made sure I

felt comfortable in my work environment, so that despite

my being nervous, I could not have asked for a more enjoyable

work experience placement.”

We loved having Emma working with us, too!

If you know someone who might like to have their school work

experience placement with us, please email us at [email protected]

that failures of the system, particularly

delays in decision making by local

authorities, were preventing successful

transitions to adult services. One staff

member explained, “So we’ve got a

guy and he’s going to be leaving in the

next week and the placement has just

broken down. It was identified before

Christmas but wasn’t agreed and it

still wasn’t agreed by the local authority

after 7 months. And now it’s not

happening.” For this

young man and

for others in our study,

having a say in their

future lives – even

as adults – appeared

inconsequential.

It is our duty to promote these young

people’s right to have a say in their

education and in other decisions that

affect them. The results of our study show

that it is possible. We now need to listen.

You can read more about our My Life at

School project here: bit.ly/LifeAtSchool

crae newsContact us: [email protected]

inside crae

Children should have their say, whoever

they are, whatever their needs. But for

many children and young people with

special educational needs and disabilities

– including autism – decisions may more

often than not be made for them, not

with or by them.

In a project funded by the Office of the

Children’s Commissioner, we sought to

understand the realities of the lives

and experiences of young people with

SEN and disabilities – the good and

the bad – of growing up in school.

We engaged with more than 80 children

and young people, over 100 teaching and

care staff, and more than 30 parents in

17 different residential special schools

across England.

Overall, although

many missed their

families, the

children were happy

in their current

schools, felt part of

the community

engendered by the

schools and felt looked after and treated

well. This is important to recognise. Many

of the schools also appeared to be doing

an impressive job of eliciting children’s

views. But we also found areas in which

young people’s views either were not

elicited or were not listened to.

The first area related to entry to

residential schools. One young woman

with autism told us that she had “none,

no choice at all. They just said, go to this

school, so I got in a taxi one morning

and they brought me to school … I was

scared.” Many parents noted that there

was too much bureaucratic ‘red tape’

involved in getting their child into the

school that they felt best fit his/her needs

– which often meant that young people

were simply unable to have a voice.

The second area related to exit from

these schools. Staff repeatedly noted

My Life at School

Autism down-underCRAE’s Research and Communication

Officer, Lorcan Kenny, started 2015 by

travelling to the University of Western

Australia in Perth to work on an exciting

research project

looking at young

people’s transition

to adulthood.

While in Perth,

Lorcan followed up some

of the families who were involved in Dr

Liz Pellicano’s research over 12 years

ago. As part of the visit, he found out

how they have been getting on at

school, at home and in some cases, in

their lives after school. Lorcan said that

hearing about these young people’s

experiences, from the things that have

gone well (and not-so-well) for them

over the years was a “great privilege”,

and has already been back in touch

since landing back in the UK.

Growing up and leaving school is a

difficult time for any young person but

can be particularly challenging for those

on the autism spectrum. This research

will help us better understand more about

these young people’s life chances and

opportunities, as well as the factors that

hinder or help the transition to adulthood.

We look forward to sharing the results of

this study soon!

UCL-IOE merger December was an

exciting month for

CRAE as our host

institution, the

Institute of Education (IOE), merged

with University College London (UCL)

to create London’s largest university.

Here at CRAE, we are looking

forward to working with our UCL

colleagues and capitalising on

these opportunities in the very

near future!

Havingyour say

CRAE turned 5!Last year saw the 5th

anniversary of the opening

of CRAE. In December, we

held a party to celebrate

5 years of CRAE and to

thank those who initially made

CRAE possible, including especially our funders,

The Clothworkers’ Foundation, Pears Foundation

and Kirby Laing Foundation.

We are also incredibly

grateful to all those

who continue to make

CRAE possible, including

the wonderful staff

and students on our team and the amazing

support of the autism community (i.e., YOU!).

We have made a great start in our first 5 years.

But there is still so much to do to enhance the

lives of autistic people and their families. We

very much look forward to working with you all

in these efforts in the years ahead.

We are continuing to work with Jake on

some public engagement projects (which

includes some short films!) - more on

that soon!

Congratulations!

Congratulations

to Cathy and

Eilidh who are

now Dr Manning

and Dr Cage after successfully

passing their PhD vivas just before

Christmas last year! Cathy has taken up

a Research Fellowship at the University of

Oxford and Eilidh is a researcher with the

national disability charity, Scope.

Congratulations to CRAE’s

Director, Liz, and her

husband Marc, who are

expecting their first baby

in May!

Conferences

It has been a busy year already for the

CRAE team as Themis and Anna travelled

to Amsterdam to present work at the

International Convention of Psychological

Science and Lorcan flew to Philadelphia to

speak at the Society for Research in Child

Development’s (SRCD) Biennial meeting.

On top of all of this, many of the CRAE

team will be travelling to the International

Meeting of Autism Research (IMFAR) in Salt

Lake City, USA – both to share the work

we have been doing at CRAE with autism

researchers from around the globe and

to hear about the latest development in

international autism research.

We’ll keep you posted!

news

crae news Visit us at crae.ioe.ac.uk@CRAE_IOE facebook.com/crae.IOE

Hellos and goodbyes

Last November we

welcomed Abigail Croydon

to our team at CRAE

who is working on the

Medical Research Council (MRC) funded

study, Seeing the World Differently. She has

previously been involved in other research

at CRAE, evaluating a tool to assess

children’s skills in face recognition, the

Cambridge Face Memory Test for Children,

and in looking at SEN children’s experience

of being schooled away from home.

We are also very excited to tell you that

Robyn Steward will be joining CRAE in

May 2015 as a Visiting Research Associate.

Robyn is a renowned autistic advocate and

author and will be working both on making

research accessible to young people and

adults as well as helping to give young

people the skills to advocate

for themselves. Robyn is

also keen to look at the

perspectives of people on

the autism spectrum about

research topics that are important to

them and how these perspectives can be

heard by the scientific community.

Sadly we said goodbye

to Dr Jake Fairnie who

was working on a project

with Dr Anna Remington

examining whether

autistic people have increased

auditory capacity. Jake’s contributions to

CRAE went far beyond his work on this

project. He contributed hugely to our public

engagement activities and enthusiastically

supported other projects

at the Centre.

CRAE news

We need you! Here at CRAE, our research totally

depends on the wonderful participants

who take part in our studies. We are

currently looking for people of all ages,

with and without autism, to help us out!

If you, or anyone you know, might like

to be involved please give us a shout

([email protected], 020 7331 5126) and we’ll

tell you about the studies. Thanks!

CRAE is a partnership between the UCL Institute of

Education and Ambitious about Autism, the national

charity for children and young people with autism.

Its aim is to “enhance the lives of autistic people

and their families” by improving the research evidence for effective interventions,

education and outcomes for those on the autism spectrum.

Autism moduleAre you keen to learn more about the

science and practice of autism? Then we

have just the course for you!

CRAE has just launched a new post-graduate

module in Autism: Research and Practice. It

is designed for anyone who wants to learn

about the most up-to-date autism research

and apply scientific knowledge to everyday

practice and thinking about autism. The

module consists of 10 weeks of face-to-

face sessions (April – June) and a school-

based practical session in conjunction with

Queensmill School. For more information,

drop us an email at [email protected]