Chantelle O'Connor Speech Pathology

28/11/2025

29/04/2025

Thinking about this quite a lot.

I'll be speaking on it at Yellow Ladybugs conference in 5 weeks.

I feel like it's a topic that we don't talk about near enough.

Fawning costs us in self-advocacy skill development. Big time. It's rough getting to adulthood and not knowing how to speak up for yourself. Missing those essential skills puts as at such risk.

I don't want that for our kids.

K?

Em 🌈

19/03/2025

17/01/2025

This is so important!

Learning the NT ‘language’ and communication styles is useful…but being forced to learn them to mask (or masking without realising for years of your life 😜) is harmful.

'But what if someone WANTS to learn how to mask so they can use those skills when they need to?'

My answer to that would entirely depend which kid/adult you're talking about. Are they the one on top of the pile? Or are they buried underneath?

I would suggest very, very different things for these two individuals. And their wellbeing would be my priority.

Yes?

Em 🌈

17/01/2025

"People are always looking for the single magic bullet that will completely change everything. There is no single magic bullet. Progress is about bridging the gap between what we observe and what we can imagine — one careful step at a time."

-Temple Grandin (from her book Thinking in Pictures)

17/01/2025

Love this from Baby Guru Nutrition!

There are a range of reasons why kids may have the lunchboxes they do. As a feeding therapist, I am often trying to reassure parents that it's ok to pack lunchboxes with the 'known' foods their child can eat (rather than the foods they think are expected by other people).

School is a hectic place for little nervous systems to navigate, it's essential we support them with lunchboxes that fuel them with whatever they are comfortable to eat. Hopefully without judgement from others!

Baby guru went to a short course during school holidays and this was her lunchbox. It’s beige, very beige. Very boring.

I’m a nutritionist. Will the facilitators think I am a bad mum for not providing a fruit? Packaged yoghurt? Where’s the colour? Shouldn’t there be at least a carrot stick?

Well, you know what…that’s no one else’s business.

She had three types of fruit WITH breakfast. Dinner is brown rice and quinoa and fish and coleslaw and cucumber.
Arvo snack will be crackers with avocado.

What your kid’s lunchbox looks like is no one else’s darn business. We need to look at what a child eats over the whole day, the whole week, as a whole and not a single meal or lunchbox. And take the pressure off 🥰

13/01/2025

Great Resource from I CAN Network Ltd for ND kids starting high school 🤩

⭐️NEW RESOURCE (FREE): The Neurodivergent Students' Guide To Starting High School ⭐️

A message from our Founder/CEO Chris Varney:

From the personal experience of our team, we know that starting high school can be a significant transition for autistic and other neurodivergent students.

For this reason, we are very excited to share a new resource: "The Neurodivergent Students’ Guide To Starting High School", a free, downloadable graphic novel for young people.

DOWNLOAD HERE: https://icannetwork.education/neurodivergent-students-guide-to-starting-high-school

This guide, developed in collaboration with the Department of Education, Victoria, was created by our autistic/multiply-neurodivergent mentors who remember what it was like to be that student on the cusp of such a major change.

Please share this guide with any young people in your networks who might benefit from it.

YEAR 7 ONLINE GROUPS....AND MORE

For neurodivergent young people who might want additional support and encouragement as the new school year begins, our I CAN Online team will be running weekly "Year 7 Groups" during Cycle 1 (February 10 - March 28th), along with dozens of other groups for young people ages 7-22.

Full details can be found on our website: https://icannetwork.online/

~ Chris

19/04/2024

26/03/2024

16/03/2024

NeuroWild resources are fabulous!
Em generously has a number of her resources available for free on Teachers Pay Teachers 😁

Heyyyy.

I put this resource together today.

I’m hoping it will be useful in helping adults identify and appreciate all the things that may be contributing to overwhelm and diminished mental capacity in our ND kids.

Because the first thoughts when a neurodivergent kid is having a hard time should not be ‘uncooperative’, ‘non compliant’, ‘disruptive’, or ‘disobedient’.

There are so many other factors at play.
And kids do well when they can (Dr Ross Greene).
In other words, this kid is doing as well as they can with the resources that they have.

I would love for adults to assume that there is a really good reason for all behaviour. And when our kids are properly supported, their ‘challenging behaviour’ happens waaaay less frequently.

I’m hoping this resource helps.
Because we are all doing our very best.

This is free on TPT.
If you search Neurowild and filter by free, you’ll find all my free stuff. And you can set up a free, non-teacher account.

What do you think?

Em 🌈