A Free Facebook Live Public Event – Flipping the Autism Narrative – Neurodiversity in the Public Schools – Part 3

A conversation with a neurodiversity-affirming speech therapy team about their mission to reconstruct autism services on a PBIS campus and how they have radically flipped the social skills training narrative for autistic students on its ableist head. This is the third in a three-part series about how one school speech therapy team is reconstructing autism services in the public school system.

Look for these related Facebook Live Events: 

Part 2 (July 14, 2022): “A conversation with a neurodiversity-affirming special education team” – Julie talks with the special education coordinator and special education teacher from one of her campuses about how we have collaborated to slowly, but surely reconstruct neurodivergent student services on a PBIS campus.

Part 1 (July 8, 2022): A conversation with a trauma-informed mom & a neurodiversity-affirming therapy provider about their mission to reconstruct autism services on a PBIS campus.

Bio: Christie Leday has been a licensed and practicing SLP-Assistant for the past twelve years and currently works within the school public setting, grades K – 12 where she serves several autistic and other neurodivergent students. Christie previously worked in Home Health where she served multiply disabled children. Christie prioritizes relationship building and is passionate about supporting her students’ emotional well-being and sense of safety. She firmly believes that “children do well when they can”, so are no expectations for “whole body listening” or complying for compliance sake in the speech room. In her free time, Christie enjoys being in the company of family and friends, traveling, eating good food and exploring her creative side.

Bio: Kim Rawls has been working as a Speech-language Pathologist Assistant for almost 5 years in various public charter schools where she has worked with children in kindergarten through 12th grade. She graduated from the University of Houston- Clear Lake with a bachelor’s degree in psychology as well as earned a certification as an SLP-Assistant from the SLP-A Certificate Program at the University of Houston. Upon graduating with a Bachelors of Science in Psychology, she worked four and a half years as a social worker for a small nonprofit foster care agency where she discovered her love of speech therapy. Kim is a mother to two children, including a 22 month old and a 3 month old. She is passionate about working with children, especially those who are autistic. She believes in getting to know her students and connecting with them personally in order to better understand and help them with their communication needs in their lives. As an SLP- Assistant, she strives to provide neurodivergent-affirming therapy that is research-informed as well as sensitive to the cultural differences of her students.

Bio: Julie Roberts, M.S., CCC-SLP is a late-diagnosed Autistic speech-language pathologist practicing in public schools. On January 11, 2018, Julie founded Therapist Neurodiversity Collective to support her vision to serve Autistic and other Neurodivergent people and their families by advocating for an industry-wide sea change in therapy provider services centering on Neurodiversity-Affirming Practices, Neurodivergent, and Autistic Social Justice and Human Rights.

Event by Therapist Neurodiversity Collective and The Public School Neurodiversity Collective