Special school teacher Siobhan Barnett shares what working with autistic students has taught her about autism

Every student starting teacher training should expect to learn about autism in their course, following the publication of the 2016 teacher training framework. I’ve been a teacher for 18 years and wish this training had been in place when I was studying. It would have made a huge difference to my early years in the classroom.

Almost straight after my initial training, I started teaching an autistic student, but I hadn’t been given the knowledge of autism or tools of the trade I needed to understand and help him learn. No doubt many other colleagues feel the same. To this day, I still reflect upon that student with a great sense of guilt, convinced that I did him a disservice through ignorance.

As recently as nine years ago, I taught my second autistic student and only fared slightly better in the classroom. I continued to make mistakes. For example, when I was taking her class on a school trip to the theatre, she had a panic attack when due to be seated in the circle and kept asking if we could sit downstairs. It had not occurred to me to book seats in the stalls and seat her at the end of the row so that she could take a break when feeling overwhelmed. If only I knew then what I know now.

Lessons I’ve learned about autism

When my own son and then my daughter were diagnosed, I had a crash course in autism. I have attended numerous courses and read everything I could on how to help autistic children to access learning, as well as the world around them. Over the years, I’ve learned a huge amount and wish I could share this knowledge with the teacher I was 18 years ago.

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