We’d love to introduce a school EPQ project from an autistic young woman, Aimee Lloyd who writes about the experiences of her sister, friends and other autistic girls as well as herself at school. AGN did not take part in this research and is not affiliated with it but it’s great to be seeing the subject talked about in secondary school.
Biography
I am a Y13 student, hoping to study psychology at university next year and then go on to be a clinical psychologist. I have had anxiety since primary school and had a lot of a support from an amazing psychologist who then helped me to get my autism diagnosis. I’d like to help girls like that in the future too. As part of my A levels, we were asked to write an EPQ, a project on any subject. I wanted my subject to be something to do with autism and girls. At the time, my sister was not able to attend school and just found out that her anxiety was linked with autism too. I decided to write a project looking into girls with autism and how mainstream schools are not well adapted for them. I had lots of help from families in this group so wanted to share my finished project here.
Dear Aimee, Congratulations! I have enjoyed reading your excellent EPQ and you have produced powerful evidence to share that I truly hope will make a difference. I work with autistic children and young people who have found school overwhelming and they all have similar experiences to those you have described. It is very frustrating because small changes can make a great difference. As you have so brilliantly explained, there needs to be more awareness of the challenges that autistic children face every day in school and changes made to make their school day less stressful and overwhelming. Only then will we see a reduction in the numbers of autistic children and young people out of school. Your work is excellent and I hope this EPQ is seen far and wide. Well done!
Hi Aimee,
I’m very impressed that you have written this. Well done.
My daughter is 12, neurodiverse and has school anxiety. So much of your writing mirrors her life so thank you. I’m going to show it to her as it can be very isolating and I’m sure she will appreciate that she is not alone in her problems.
I’d also like to point you towards Trevor Cottrill and his books on neurodiversity as they may help you if you ever write more on the subject.
Good luck with whatever you choose to do, I’m sure you’ll be brilliant.
Aimee this is amazing! Your project was so well researched and executed. I hope you continue on to make the changes for Autism for the better. We need more people like you! From AuADHD Mum and Daughter