| Name | Kirsty Marsden |
| Job Title and Organisation | Highly Specialist Speech and Language Therapist
Hill House School, Cambian Group |
| Introduction/Background (experience, qualifications, current work/research, etc.) | I qualified as a Speech and Language Therapist in 2009 and always knew that I wanted to work with young people with Autism and complex needs.
I started my career at Sure Start Children’s Centres and then started working at Hill House School. After a few years I then moved around to work at some of Cambian’s different schools in the South West. This enabled me to gain a lot of experience working with young people with Autism with a range of communication profiles. I then returned to Hill House and have been working here for the past 5 years. My work at Hill House School is varied and I use a range of techniques to assess the communication strengths and needs of the children we look after. We focus on creating an Inclusive Communication Environment where our students have access to a range of communication support systems at all times to help them to understand and express themselves. I have a brother with Autism, Epilepsy and learning disabilities so developing research, knowledge and skills for others is very important to me |
| What does the ACoRNS project mean to you? | The ACoRNS project is very exciting and brings so many opportunities to share knowledge, experience and research with other professionals and families about the excellent work that is being done to educate everyone about what is means to be autistic and how we can best support individuals with a diagnosis. |
| Areas of interest | I am passionate about supporting young people with Autism and learning disabilities to have a voice and be heard, using whatever means of communication they need to.
I am also very interested in supporting siblings to feel connected to their brothers/sisters and creating networks to enable this to happen. |