Girls and Autism – Educational Family and Personal Perspectives edited Barry Carpenter, Francesca Happe and Jo Egerton
Students and staff at Limpsfield Grange are delighted to have contributed two chapters to the international publication “Girls and Autism” which came out in March 2019
Our other publications include M is for Autism and M in the Middle our two novels.
Staff and students at Limpsfield Grange are delighted to have been included in an anthology looking at the best ways to support autistic girls in educational settings published in 2019.
‘The school leads on research nationally in the field of female autistic spectrum disorder’
Play A/Part – Research Project
Playing A/Part is an interdisciplinary project, exploring the identities and experiences of autistic girls and adolescents through creative and participatory research. It is a collaboration between the universities of Kent and Surrey, involving academics in drama, media arts and psychology. Funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council, the project team includes a steering group of autistic women and a multidisciplinary advisory board.
By offering participants (aged 11-16) the opportunity to take part in a range of creative participatory activities, the project aims to gain insights into how autistic girls and adolescents experience themselves and their world. The research team are evaluating how creative activities affect self-awareness and wellbeing. The creative tools include improvisation, puppetry, storytelling and collaborative media production.
Limpsfield Grange is a partner in this research project, and will participate in each year of the four year study.
https://playingapartautisticgirls.org
Quality of Life Project
We are proud to be founding members of the Quality of Life Network, a group of schools investigating the factors that impact on the quality of life experienced by autistic children and young people and their families. Each term we use the Quality of Life Autism survey with students and their families to find out about their satisfaction with their lives. We use the data from these questionnaires in school to design our Wellbeing, Achievement, Communication and Independence curriculum and to offer support to our community of families.
Our data also feeds into the Quality of Life Network, who along with the Institute of Education identifies trends and themes that give us a growing national picture about autistic quality of life.
Kings College London – Research Project into the causes of Social Anxiety in Autistic Young People
Limpsfield Grange participated in a research project with King’s College London to explore the range of factors contributing towards anxiety in young people with autism. Social anxiety is one of the most common and disabling mental health problems in young people with autism, which has a significant impact on school performance and opportunities to form important peer relationships. Our participation in this research project enabled us to improve our understanding of social anxiety in young people with autism, and develop better interventions to target social anxiety at Limpsfield Grange as part of our Wellbeing Achievement Communication and Independence curriculum.
“Limpsfield Grange has been the kind host to a research project from Trinity College Dublin investigating gender differences in autism spectrum disorder. The study focuses on social language traits as a subtle index for distinguishing how girls with autism are unique from their male peers. The students and mothers who participated were interviewed about their lives, and completed several problem solving and storytelling tasks. The study will gather participants from across the UK, Ireland and United States to offer a more complete, international view of the unique nature of female autism. We hope the project serves as a first step in directing more appropriate supports and diagnostic criteria of autism for both genders.Many, many thinks to the students, staff, teachers and community of Limpsfield Grange for all their support and huge role in this research!”