NATINA Workshop Links

Welcome!

I’m so glad you came to my presentation today – here are all the resources you’ll need for the workshop today (and more!).

Workshop Activity One – Do Now!

On the tables are a selection of quotes from the students I interviewed for my research. Chose a quote, and consider what you think this student is experiencing at school. Think in terms of challenges, or “pain points” about what barriers, large or small might be holding them back from fully engaging in the classroom?

For example, thinking about the student who said “It’s like I don’t have to put in effort just to exist.”. This student is possibly feeling “overwhelmed” or is having to mask routinely and is just plain “exhausted”.

Whatever it is that comes to you, put it on a post it note on the table or on Miro, and see how many others you can come up with – one per post-it.

You might come up with one big barrier, or get right into the task and come up with many potential stressors that this student faces during a typical day at school. There are no wrong answers – and you may have to stretch your imagination a little, or read in situations you have experienced with another student.

Here is the link to our interactive Miro Board. Miro is a wonderful tool, but it is tricky to navigate on a mobile device, so only use it if you have a laptop. If you don’t have a laptop, or don’t feel confident using Miro yourself, you have two options, either;

1. Team up with a group and have someone who is a confident user act as a scribe for the group, or
2. Go OLD SKOOL with pens and post-it notes. We have plenty of supplies at the front of the room, just wave and we will pass them around.

We only have a few minutes for this task officially, but keep your Miro window open and jot down others as they come to you.

Further Links

Here is a link to the Gamechangers League website – whipping that into shape is my summer job, so please bear with me.

References

Negative first impression judgements of autistic children by non-autistic adults (Boucher et al., 2023)

Non-Autistic (allistic) adults rated children for likeability, Autistic children are rated less favourably than allistic children. These judgements persisted over time.

The Role of Adversity and Stress in Psychopathology (Dohrenwend, 2000)

Parvalbumin interneuron activity in autism underlies susceptibility to PTSD-like memory formation (Al Abed et al., 2024)

Mild stress induces PTSD-like memory formation in mouse models. The formation of these memories exacerbates core autistic traits. Hyperactivation of the prefrontal cortex and altered parvalbumin interneuron firing makes autistic people susceptible to forming PSTD-like memories. Mouse Models of Autism encoded PTSD-like memories 24 hours after a stressor, showing a relationship between comparatively mild stressors and onset, severity and duration of ptsd-like symptoms. Treatment by recontextualisation reduces the impact on autism symptoms in mouse models. _{Note from Lara – this study discusses the traits and severity of autism traits as pathology. Like many Autistic people, I do not acknowledge that the traits that an Autistic person might display that are visible to observers while the Autistic person is dysregulated or distressed, are not inherently autistic traits, but traits of distress. A happy, well-regulated Autistic person that is getting their needs met may never exhibit stereotypical “autistic traits”.}

Deconstructing the Gestalt: Mechanisms of Fear, Threat, and Trauma Memory Encoding (Maddox et al., 2019)

Traumatic Memory Encoding

Methylphenidate triggers retinal oxidative stress and mitochondrial dysfunction under physiological conditions but has beneficial effects in inflammatory settings (Sanches et al., 2025)

…both brain and retina of ADHD animal model are characterized by a basal pro-inflammatory status, including elevated levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines, reduced levels of anti-inflammatory mediators and increased glial reactivity, thereby highlighting inflammation as a critical feature of ADHD (Sanches et al., 2023).

And finally, please click here to answer a short feedback survey about my workshop today, where you can request further resources. If you can’t tell, I love talking about my research and am always open to opportunities to share it.