Cambian : The Forum School welcomes Dr. Rita Jordan

Dr Rita Jordan fascinated the team with her knowledge of Autism and learning difficulties. Rita has not always been an expert in this field, she stumbled into the 'Autism World' when setting up a childcare group to support children with learning difficulties approximately 30 years ago.

Since then, Rita has had a massive influence in the field of Autism and what exactly 'Autism' means. She spoke with passion when recollecting past experiences and explaining what she has learnt over the years.

Rita helped the staff team make sense of the reasons behind some of the struggles a person with autism may experience such as processing time, facial recognition, communication and the difficulties with regards to expressing emotion or understanding the reason behind certain behaviour.

Not only did Rita express her knowledge of autism, she also gave us a fascinating insight into how the 'autistic' mind is structured. She explained the importance of adapting our approach to support people with autism to make sense of all aspects of everyday life, along with some of the tools and teaching methods she has used over her vast career. A message that she clearly portrayed was 'if they can't learn the way we teach, we teach the way they learn'.

Thank you for joining us, Rita, we look forward to you visiting again in the coming weeks!