The Middletown Centre for Autism Podcast

We talk with Deirdre O’Shea about educator burnout and why so many teachers are running on empty while being asked to deliver major change. We explore how space, compassion, and neuroaffirming practice can protect both staff wellbeing and autistic pupils’ experience of school.

Break time can look like freedom from the outside, but for many autistic students it can feel like the most demanding part of the day: unstructured social rules, sensory overload, and nowhere obvious to recharge or recover. In this episode, we're joined by Jenny Gibson, a researcher at the University of Cambridge, to get specific about why play matters and what schools can do to make playtime and lunch time genuinely inclusive.

In the latest episode of the Middletown Podcast, we chat to Elaine McGoldrick and Aoife Munroe about how they have adapted the SPACE Framework for an education setting. The framework is a neuroaffirming guide for professionals that are supporting autistic people. They share practical tips founded in the framework to guide educators to better understand and support autistic experience.

In the latest episode of the Middletown Podcast we chat to Niamh Mellerick from AsIAm about their recent report focusing on consent and sex education in Ireland. They collaborated with the Dublin Rape Crisis Centre and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland to learn more about how autistic people learn about and understand consent. Niamh shares their findings and practical ideas to support an understanding of consent for young people.

In the latest episode of the Middletown Podcast, we chat to Dr Amy Pearson about her research on autistic people’s experiences of relationships. She and her team at Durham University created a guide to help autistic people recognise healthy and unhealthy relationship traits.  
Find out more about the Autistic Guide to Healthy Relationships here: https://www.durham.ac.uk/news-events/latest-news/2024/04/autistic-guide-to-healthy-relationships/