This week is World Autism Acceptance Week. To help us mark the week, we wanted to explore the misconceptions that reading and writing are not fun and that autistic people are not creative. Those misconceptions have both been smashed by Arc Oakbridge School in Birmingham, which supports children and young people who are autistic.

Around 50% of the children at Arc Oakbridge School have become published authors or poets. There have been at least 18 pieces of their work published in anthologies; ten pupils were featured in the Power of Poetry – Into the Unknown while five short stories created by students at Oakbridge feature in Interger, where stories are inspired by numbers. Three pieces have been published in Imagine UK Verse. 

These pieces of writing – whether they are stories or prose- have been created by  young people who historically would never have put pen to paper. They have been carefully and sensitively written by children who would tell you they ‘hate English’ and they ‘hate writing’.

They are children for whom their mainstream school experiences have been very negative, where attempts have been made to teach them the nuances of our complex language and how it fits together in large and noisy classrooms and in environments where they have struggled to grasp concepts integral to our language; words that sound the same but are spelled differently? Phonics? Not pronouncing all of the letters in a word?  Those are difficult concepts to grasp and a less than optimum introduction to them can have disastrous and long-term effects. That’s before we consider they will all have had gaps in their education, leaving them in some cases behind their peers and in many cases embarrassed by this.

At Oakbridge the team have worked hard to break down those barriers to a loving relationship with English and with reading. They have begun with making sure the teachers and team working with the children truly know them. That they know their likes and dislikes and therefore can make English relevant to them. In short, they have built relationships with the children.

The school embraces and encourages English from the ‘Drop Everything and Read’ sessions each day to taking part in the Kedleston Reading Competition and Kedleston Writing Competitions. They are involved in Little Wandle, use Read Write Incorporate and are involving pupils in creating a calm and peaceful library. They also work with Accelerated Reader. All the while, encouraging children to read the things that interest them.

There is a real focus on literacy and on making it relevant and enjoyable. One child would only engage in Shakespeare through Manga comics, for example. As a result of this personal approach, two of the children who have been published are those who have a diagnosis of Pathological Demand Avoidance. Another has significant dyslexia. Barriers of ‘hating English’ have been well and truly smashed for them! They are falling in love with literature and reading.