The Unasked Collection #2
Am I so different? with Dr. Joanna Grace PhD
Joanna Grace is an autistic international sensory engagement and inclusion specialist, researcher, trainer, author, TEDx speaker and founder of The Sensory Projects.
The Sensory Projects run on the principle that with the right knowledge and a little creativity, inexpensive resources can become effective sensory tools for inclusion. She is working nationally and internationally to promote inclusion. Her work focuses on people whose primary experience of the world, and meaning within it, is sensory, for example people with profound and multiple learning disabilities or people with later stage dementia.
Joanna also delivers training days nationwide and also offers consultancy and resource writing services to organisations looking to improve their inclusive practice.
She has many published books and articles regarding sensory engagement work and one of the lead authors on the Core and Essential Service Standards for Supporting People with Profound and Multiple Learning disabilities.
Am I so different?
I was once a special school teacher. My class had many autistic students within it. Some had co-occuring conditions that meant they attended special school but for others they were in my class because the mainstream environment was not accessible to them. It was rare for my students to use mouth words. Over my years as a teacher I met many autistic students who stimmed in unusual ways, got suddenly very distressed over seemingly invisible things, self-injured, injured others. These were students about whom no one would have said “Oh you don’t seem autistic”.
I am autistic. Back then when I was in class I was undiagnosed, I knew, but I hadn’t sought a formal diagnosis. When I did the phrase “You don’t seem autistic” or the classic “you don’t look autistic” was a common response to my ‘coming out’ as autistic.
But am I so different from my students whose autism was so obvious to everyone?