Nelle Frances Autism Education Consultant & Trainer

18/03/2026

Autism Sensory Workshop MARYBOROUGH Q 26 MARCH 2026. Nelle Frances’s training is a fusion of lived experience and research-informed knowledge, providing you with a complete profile of autistic neurology.

The training focuses on sensory-triggered behaviours. You’ll gain a totally new perspective on Autism, which will promote richer relationships with your students / clients / children.

The Sensory Detective® Workshop is regulation-first training. It provides:-
- deep dive into autism neurology
- meltdown physiology & management
- sensory agitation = meltdown
- practical support strategies that translate across classrooms, home environments, therapy spaces, community and workplaces.

This workshop is designed for everyone supporting, educating or loving an autistic person! It's an engaging, full-day session packed with loads of great strategies including specific techniques for de-escalating challenging behaviours and meltdown.

DETAILS
* 26 March 2026
* Carriers Arms Hotel, Maryborough Q
* 9:00am to 3:30pm
Register now: https://tix.yt/H9Y

(Pay online, on Invoice or with NDIS funds) DISCOUNTS for Teams of 3 and Teams of 5

05/03/2026

Autistic "behaviour" HAS NEVER BEEN the problem. It's the nervous system communicating distress.

And yesterday as the "DRAFT National Guidance For best practice in inclusive education for autistic students" was released for consultation, Nelle did a happy dance! ❤️

She couldn't have written it any better herself! Congratulations to the team of Guidance Authors!!! Love your work. Read full article here https://tinyurl.com/4uywp7at

26/02/2026

Autism Sensory Detective Training Workshop Maryborough QLD for: Teachers, Early Learning Teachers, Allied Health Therapists, Support workers and Families.

Nelle Frances is delivering her popular autism workshop in MARYBOROUGH QLD on 26 MARCH 2026.

Nelle's training focuses on sensory-triggered behaviour. Her Sensory Detective Workshop® is an immersive experience allowing you to view autism from the inside out. You’ll gain a totally new perspective on Autism, which will promote richer relationships with your students / clients / children.

The Sensory Detective® Workshop provides the missing information behind:
• behaviour that escalates unexpectedly
• students who perform well, then crash
• pbsp's that look good but don’t translate to life
• adults labelled “unmotivated” when they’re overwhelmed
This is regulation-first training — explained clearly, practically and across the lifespan. It provides:-

- deep dive into autism neurology
- meltdown physiology & management
- sensory agitation = meltdown
- ability to establish supports

This is an engaging, full-day session packed with loads of great strategies including specific techniques for de-escalating challenging behaviours and meltdown.

DETAILS
📍 Carrier's Arms Hotel, Maryborough Q 4650
📅 26 March 2026
🕘 6-hour immersive workshop

REGISTER NOW https://tix.yt/H9Y (Pay online, on Invoice or with NDIS funds)

***this video was filmed when 'Aspergers' was still in our vocabulary***

Workshops at end of March typically fill quickly, as autistic needs seem to escalate at this time. (Ask Nelle why this is, during the workshop).

22/02/2026

I just had to share this - so true! ⭐️

22/02/2026

This ⭐️💖

20/02/2026

Unlike chillies, there is no such thing as "mild" autism. "Mild Autism” is not mild.
“Mild” describes autism VISIBILITY, not impact!

A large proportion of my Level 1 and Level 2 autistic ADULT clients are:
• unemployed or unable to sustain employment
• experiencing housing instability or homelessness
• involved with child protection or the justice system
• teen parents without adequate supports
• estranged from their family supports
• unable to manage finances and daily living tasks
• unable to advocate for their own medical or mental health care
• socially isolated, misunderstood or chronically burnt out

If this is “MILD” we need to seriously question what long-term harm removing Autism Level 1 & 2 from NDIS will have. And the flow-on costs to Tax-payers.

19/02/2026

Brilliant article from AS.Social

“An open casting call for support workers, agency executives, and anyone else who thinks they're qualified to manage autistic lives.

Here's the thing about auditions: they're supposed to go both ways. In the neurotypical world, you sit across the desk. You hold the clipboard. You ask the questions. You decide who gets the job, the funding, the "support." We're flipping the script.

These three questions aren't for us. They're for you. Pass this test, and maybe—maybe—we'll let you in. Fail, and please see yourself out. The door is that way.

Before We Begin: The Rules
No buzzwords. "Person-centred," "compassionate," and "differently abled" will be met with immediate disqualification.
No deflections. "It depends" is not an answer. We know it depends. Everything depends. Answer anyway.

No performative empathy. If you start crying about how much you care, we will assume you're making it about you. Because you are.

Ready? Good. Let's begin.”

Full article: as.social/blog/auditions-open

These three questions aren't for us. They're for you. Pass this test, and maybe—maybe—we'll let you in. Fail, and please see y

19/02/2026

Autism Sensory Detective Workshop, Maryborough Qld

**Suitable for Professionals, Allied Health, Educators, Families & Supports**

Generally, professionals working with autistic people are highly skilled.

But many are working from the wrong starting point.
We’ve been taught to look at behaviour.
To teach skills.
To increase expectations.
To measure progress through performance.

And yet escalation, meltdown, shutdown, anxiety and burnout continue.

What if the problem isn’t effort — but load?
In this workshop you will gain:
• a shared language across disciplines
• a way to see “nervous-system load” in real time
• clarity about what to prioritise
• practical strategies that reduce escalation
• renewed confidence that when regulation is prioritised, progress happens

Most importantly, support teams leave aligned.

That’s where the MAGIC of sustainable change begins.
If you’re ready to stop asking autistic kids and adults to perform through their overload — and start designing environments, supports and expectations that actually WORK — this workshop is for you.



To book: https://tix.yt/H9Y

19/02/2026

When talking about disability, strengths don’t get funded. Support needs do.

The proposed I-CAN planning process is being framed as a positive shift — a 3-hour, strengths-based conversation led by NDIS planners, rather than clinicians.
On paper, that sounds respectful.

In practice, it will change what gets seen — and what gets funded.
I’ve reviewed a sample I-CAN assessment. It highlights interests, personality, goals and participation first … then uses structured ratings to determine “support intensity”.

Here’s the problem we *FAMILIES already understand:
* people with disability (especially autistic people) present at their best
* parents often minimise struggle because we’re proud of our children
* participants will focus on what they CAN do — because they’ve spent a lifetime being told they can't.

But funding decisions are not based on STRENGTHS.

They are based on the support required to maintain quality of daily life.
If the I-CAN assessment relies on:
• long interviews most participants can’t tolerate
• planners without ANY disability training or lived experience
• self-reporting during masking, fatigue or shutdown risk
• strengths framing without capturing the cost of effort

… support needs will be UNDERESTIMATED... and underfunded. I believe that is the Governments plan.

That isn’t empowerment.
That’s measurement bias.

A strengths-based approach will ONLY work when it also measures:
* the scaffolding, supervision, prompting, recovery time and environmental adaptation required for those strengths to EXIST.
Otherwise, independence is way overestimated — and funding disappears.

* Families know this.
* Providers know this.
* Participants LIVE this.
If your child, partner or you could NOT sustain a 3-hour assessment conversation…
that matters.

Because capacity shown in a meeting is not the same as capacity across a week, a month, a life.
And tell me — does a strengths-first planning model PROTECT disability support, or risk losing it?

If you answered, “LOSING SUPPORT”, I urge you to send an email to your local MP and also the Mister for Disability, Jenny McAllister briefly stating why you’re against the use of the I-CAN assessment to decide support needs. I will also post her email address in the comments section.

18/02/2026

Autism isn’t four times more common in boys.
It’s four times more visible in their childhood.

New large-scale Swedish data (2.76 million births, 35+ years of follow-up) show something critical:

Girls and women don’t “have less autism.”
They are diagnosed later.

Childhood data still show a ~4:1 male-to-female ratio.
But by adolescence, that gap narrows dramatically.
By early adulthood? The ratio approaches parity.

This is not a biological disappearance.
It’s a diagnostic delay.

The study identifies what many clinicians working on the ground already see:

• Camouflaging and social mimicry
• Misattribution to anxiety, eating disorders, depression or personality disorders
• High psychiatric comorbidity preceding autism identification
• Sex-insensitive diagnostic thresholds
• Evolving diagnostic practices over time

What does this mean in practice?

It means girls are not “less autistic.”
They are often more exhausted.

When masking is layered on top of sensory overload and executive load, the nervous system compensates — until it doesn’t.

By the time many females are diagnosed, they present with:
• burnout
• chronic anxiety
• identity confusion
• relational trauma
• functional collapse

We must stop interpreting late diagnosis as “milder autism.”

What we are often seeing is delayed recognition of long-standing neurodevelopmental difference — shaped by systems that were calibrated around male presentation patterns.

This Swedish data reinforces what many of us have observed clinically for decades:

The question is not whether females are autistic.
It is when the system finally notices.

If we want to prevent adolescent and adult burnout,
we must refine diagnostic literacy,
expand phenotype awareness,
and centre sensory and executive load — not just observable behaviour.

11/02/2026

Sensory Detective Workshop, Maryborough Q

FOR: Psychologists, PBSP's, OT's, Speechies, Educators, Parents & Support Workers

What you will gain:
• a shared language across disciplines
• a way to see nervous-system load in real time
• clarity about what to prioritise
• practical strategies that reduce escalation
• renewed confidence that when regulation is prioritised, progress happens

Most importantly, support teams will leave aligned. That’s where the MAGIC of sustainable change begins.

If you are ready to stop asking autistic kids & adults to perform through overload—and start building environments, supports and expectations that ACTUALLY WORK —this workshop is designed for you! To book: https://tix.yt/H9Y