Dr. Fiona McCaffrey:

Middletown Centre takes a neurodiversity-informed and autism-affirming approach to our practices. This approach acknowledges that all students have a unique set of strengths and challenges, which in turn empowers school staff to provide support when they see a need. A neuro-affirming approach is child centred and allows for an immediate and shifting response to the needs of each child.

Like Mr. Douthart, I will skip a paragraph in the interest of time. Middletown Centre is an established leader in fostering the development of neuro-affirming practices in schools. We have built a versatile training infrastructure that provides parents and education professionals with a choice of online, face-to-face, real-time and recorded sessions, including a two-day international conference that is provided every two years. All are designed to enhance access to education through fostering a shared understanding across home and school. This approach has been successful across Ireland, Northern Ireland and worldwide, with 95,000 training places offered to teachers since our training programme commenced in 2007. The centre’s training model is rooted in evidence-based practices and is consistently evaluated as excellent.

The centre’s research and information division complements the work of its training division by making research accessible for a diverse population of users. Promoting neurodiversity and using the principles of universal design for learning, the centre produces a podcast, accessible research summaries, short videos and practical resources.

I will now hand over to my colleague, Ms Jill McCanney.