SD: Hi Rosie, congratulations on making the Top 50 shortlist, how do you feel about the recognition?

RC: It’s been very humbling, to be honest with you. I’m a very passionate educator and I feel my role in my school is a lot about autism advocacy.

And in South Australia, we’re the first state that has a national autism inclusion teacher in every single primary school. This is the third year now that I’ve been in [the role]. So, I feel like it’s almost allowing what we’re doing in our state to be [showcased] worldwide.

We’ve all been invited to go to the awards ceremony in Dubai  and that’s where we’ll be meeting all the other educators from across the world. It’s going to be a really great opportunity to advocate what autism inclusion looks like in South Australian schools.

I’ve had Emily Bourke, our Minister for Autism, come to Playford Primary School two years ago when I was just starting out in the role, and I gave her a tour [of] what we have been implementing at our site. She was really blown away by that…

[Teachers across SA are] building on ideas [around] what we can do to best support students with autism in their classrooms, as well as providing parents with information about what they can do at home to support their children, as well as simple things like transitions in the morning…

What I do is I make transition support plans for teachers, and then with consultation of parents. It really can help set them up for success as they come into the school and start their day, as well as having a sensory room space for children to be able to play in during lunch break time, so they’re not overwhelmed by sensory stimulation and they have a place they can go to.

From being able to have all these great things that have been implemented over the last three years, and be able to be recognised with this Top 50 global prize, it’s really exciting and incredibly humbling.

But also, when you get given something that doesn’t have much direction and you make it your own – and I have now made it my own. 

Where does your passion and interest in supporting neurodiveregent children stem from?

Recognising other students in my previous schooling that never really had any support networks in place. You just see their behaviour become what they’re known for, not what their unique skills and amazing strengths and interests are.

I just feel like there needs to be teachers that these students can have and say, ‘You know what? They made the biggest difference for me to be able to be myself and to thrive and be supported’.

So, I’ve always wanted to be that educator for my students and really fortunately, in my role, I’ve had a few students that have had behavioural challenges and … some have made such great behavioural choices because they’ve had the right things in place to support them.

When they are diagnosed with autism, if you’re reading through what they need, if they’ve got sensory seeking behaviours, simply having a wobble stool instead of traditional stool, having tactile fidgets to be able to use and touch [can make such a difference].

Having a ‘first and then’ chart. So first you do 10 minutes of your learning, then five minutes with your fidget tool or a movement break, and then increasing that … seeing that be so effective with students has really made the difference, and parents’ feedback has been incredible.

From my own schooling experiences, seeing students get lost in that system, it really just made me feel that we need educators to make sure that every child can be heard and not be seen by their behaviour – more so be seen by their uniqueness and what their needs might be.  

I just see strengths in children, and I think sometimes strengths get masked by behaviours. I think the education world can be quite negative because people see behaviour but [don’t] look past the behaviour and also look at what that need is…

We’ve heard a lot in the last few years around the importance of teachers’ establishing really structured scripts and routines in the classroom to help with behaviour management. Is this approach something you support in your school when working with neurodivergent students, and especially those on the spectrum?

I definitely think it is. They thrive off routine, structure, predictability, so that’s something I do really feel is important. I do think sometimes some students need individualised learning plans as well.

Routine and structure typically does work well for all students, because it actually decreases that cognitive demand...

How have the support measures you’ve put in place impacted students’ academic progress?

For students that have been known for having some behavioural problems, it’s taken them away from their learning.

Whereas with [introducing] structure and routine-type tasks, they are more proactive, they are more engaged, they are more academically challenged, and they’re getting the right sort of work needed for them.

Kids could be bored as well, and might not have the right level of challenge, but I also do ‘interoception’ and that’s proven to also help emotional regulation.

When a child is regulated they’re able to then focus and be in their active learning zone, so a lot of the educational achievement has really come from the decrease of behavioural challenges and the increase of engagement within learning practices.

Fantastic. Was there anything else that you’d like to mention? 

I just wonder if other states are going to follow South Australia’s lead through the same thing that we’ve been doing here, because [the autism inclusion strategy] has been really successful, and I do think a lot of advocacy needs to be done in schools, especially as teachers do find behaviours are becoming quite challenging.

If teachers were able to be provided with some of the professional development (that we have in SA), I think it would be really beneficial.

So I guess my wondering is, why just South Australia?