‘Lack of support for teachers and SNAs overwhelming’ Carlow parents at local event 

“THE lack of support for teachers and SNAs is overwhelming to be honest,” said Louise Burnett of Autism Heroes, after running a sold-out workshop about supporting autistic learners in the classroom.

She started the organisation because of her personal experiences with autism: she has two sons aged 11 and four with the neurological condition. She was “devastated” upon returning home to Ireland from Australia by the lack of understanding and training in school settings. She organised a coffee meeting for parents with autistic children and was surprised when nearly 30 people showed up.

“The shock of how poor the services are in Ireland was why I started Autism Heroes in October 2022,” explained Louise.

The organisation has raised thousands of euros for autism supports in the community over the past few years through events such as the springtime gala dinner.

Jessie Kelly, a deputy principal at a school for autistic children in Dublin with almost 12 years’ experience teaching autistic children, hosted the workshop on 29 January in the Woodford Dolmen hotel. Jessie runs the Instagram page ‘Inspired by Autism’ and spoke at Autism Heroes’ first event on World Autism Day. Louise said she was “delighted to have her back”.

She spoke to the 80 parents, teachers and SNAs in attendance about theories of total communication and emotional regulation, but the biggest take for all attending was how few non-verbal autistic students in the area were using augmentative alternative communication (AAC) devices to help them in the classroom. Many people asked for more sessions like this one, especially about AAC devices. 

“We’ve already locked in our next session,” said Louise.

“Teachers and SNAs are trying so hard to support these children; they all deserve to have the knowledge around autism. You can imagine the level of knowledge that’s needed, especially now because autism therapy and the way we look at autism is changing rapidly. I’m still learning, and I’m nearly 12 years in at this point,” she noted.

The next event is the third annual Autism Heroes gala dinner on 28 March in the Woodford Dolmen Hotel. This year’s theme is ‘Every name has a story’ and each table will be named after a child the organisation supports, with a picture and information so that the diners can get to know them.

Sorcha Rice and Aideen McLaughlin will speak at the event about their personal experiences with autism and raising autistic children.

“We really want to bring hope. It’s a really big thing that I believe in, and I think our families needed,” said Louise.

All of the money raised will go to supporting families and help the organisation to put on more workshops like the one in January.

The goal of the event, said Louise, is to see people leave with a “little more understanding” of autism than they came in with.