What To Do When School is The Problem

An Evening with Aaron Yorke, exploring school attendance struggles and practical, acceptance-base ways to support children and young people. What to Do When School is the Problem An evening with Aaron Yorke exploring school attendance struggles, neurodivergence and what we can do when school stops working. What happens when an autistic or neurodivergent child begins struggling to attend school? What do you do when anxiety increases, mornings become increasingly difficult, attendance starts falling, or a young person reaches the point where they simply cannot go in? During this one-hour talk, Aaron will explore what may actually be happening when a child or young person begins struggling with school attendance. Drawing on his experience supporting autistic and neurodivergent children and young people, Aaron will explore: • What school attendance problems are and how they can develop • Why autistic and neurodivergent young people may be particularly vulnerable • How to recognise when a child is struggling rather than simply refusing • Anxiety, distress, shutdown, burnout and avoidance • What may be happening when a child suddenly stops attending • Why increasing pressure to attend can sometimes make things worse • How acceptance-based support can help us understand the child’s experience • Practical ways to support a young person when school is no longer working for them Rather than beginning with “How do we get this child back into school?”, Aaron will encourage you to consider a different question: “What is making school so difficult for this child, and what can we do differently?” One Hour Q&A and Practical Advice Session Following the talk, there will be a further one-hour question-and-answer session This will give parents, carers, and professionals an opportunity to ask Aaron questions, discuss real situations, and explore practical ideas that may help the children and young people they support. Who is Aaron Yorke? Aaron Yorke is an academic author, autism and neurodivergence specialist, and the founder of Accepting Behaviour. For many years, his work has focused on supporting autistic and neurodivergent children and young people, particularly those who are struggling with school, anxiety and accessing education. Aaron created the ACCEPT Approach, an acceptance-based approach to supporting autistic children and young people. He developed his work through years of practical experience with children and families, particularly when more traditional approaches had not worked. At the heart of his approach is a simple belief: before we try to change a child’s behaviour, we need to understand what is happening for them. Aaron is also the author of A Humanistic Framework for Supporting Autistic Children and Young People: An Introduction to the ACCEPT Approach, published by Routledge. The book brings together his practical experience with ideas from humanistic psychology and explores what acceptance can actually look like when supporting autistic children and young people. Alongside his writing, Aaron continues to work directly with children, families, schools and local authorities through Accepting Behaviour. Much of this work involves young people who are struggling to attend school, sometimes after months or years of increasing anxiety and distress. This direct work is central to Aaron’s approach. His ideas have not developed from theory alone. They have grown from sitting with children who cannot leave their homes, talking with exhausted parents who do not know what to try next, working alongside schools and professionals, and seeing what happens when we reduce pressure and start listening to what a young person is communicating. On school attendance, Aaron is particularly interested in changing the question we ask. Instead of immediately asking, “How do we get this child back into school?” “Why has school become so difficult for this child?” His talks are therefore practical and informal. Aaron draws upon his professional experience, his writing and real examples from his work to help parents and professionals think differently about what may be happening when a child begins struggling with school. Most importantly, Aaron wants parents to leave feeling they understand their child’s situation a little better and have practical ideas for what to do next.