Finding the Right School for an Autistic Child

In this episode of The All Kids Can Podcast, Kristy Haworth sits down with Michael Coles, a father, autism advocate, and host of The Deep Dive Podcast. Michael shares his personal journey navigating the school system to find the right environment for his autistic daughter. From experiencing discrimination at a private school that couldn’t meet her needs to finding a neuroaffirming state school where she is now thriving, Michael’s story is one that so many parents will relate to.

We also chat about the importance of advocacy, the role of key workers, and why inclusive education is integral to helping all kids thrive in education and beyond.

If you’ve ever faced challenges in finding the right school for your child, this is a must-listen! 🎧✨

What You’ll Learn in This Episode:

✔️ The challenges Michael’s daughter faced in a private school and why they had to leave
✔️ How they found a neuroaffirming state school that truly supports her needs
✔️ The role of key workers in helping parents navigate school transitions
✔️ Why collaboration between schools, therapists, and families is crucial
✔️ The importance of written communication and stakeholder meetings
✔️ How the right school environment can transform a child’s emotional well-being and academic success
✔️ Michael’s advocacy work and his podcast, The Deep Dive Podcast

Links & Resources Mentioned:

🔗 Michael’s Podcast – The Deep Dive Podcast on YouTube 

🔗 The Deep Dive on Instagram

Connect with Us:

📸 Instagram: @allkidscaneducation
📩 Email: info@allkidscan.com.au

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate the podcast, and share it with a friend who might find it helpful! 😊🎙️

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Check out our Phonics Club for families to access high quality structured phonics lessons at home with additional live monthly support.

www.allkidscan.com.au/phonicsclub

Transcript

Michael Coles: The All Kids Can Podcast Chat - 2025/02/06 10:58 AEST - Transcript

Attendees

Kristy Haworth, Michael Coles

Transcript

Kristy Haworth: Okay, welcome back to Your Kids Can podcast. I'm excited today to have Michael Coohl's here. He's a 50-year-old autistic. He was diagnosed with PDD NOS when he was three. You'll have to tell us briefly about that, when I finish this bio.  and then diagnosed in 2010 with Asperger syndrome and then rediagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in 2017. So, Michael is the host of his very own podcast, The Deep Dive Podcast, which we'll hear about later on. because he's currently exploring ways to help other autistics live a fulfilling life, which is absolutely awesome.

Kristy Haworth: So, Michael is on with us today because he has a daughter who is 7 years old that was formerly diagnosed with autism in May 2023. His daughter has had a diff difficult time in private school because of her autism and because she couldn't cope with the large class sizes. This led to the search for a new school which was understandably a huge challenge. they find In the end, Michael and his family found a truly neuroaffirming school and his daughter is now finally starting to find her feet, which is very exciting. but of course, she still has challenges, but the school that she's at now is able to deal with those challenges with ease. welcome to the podcast, Michael.

Kristy Haworth: I'm really looking forward to hearing your story because I know that it's going to be one that many families are going to be able to relate to.

Michael Coles: very much for inviting me. Mhm.

Kristy Haworth: That's such a pleasure. It's really lovely to have you on and thanks for making the time cuz I know that you're busy with your own stuff, too. You got a lot going on.  So let's have a little bit of a talk about your journey with your daughter. So you've faced some significant challenges in finding the right school environment for her obviously. But despite those obstacles, it sounds like you finally found a place where she can thrive.  But before we get to that, can you share a little bit with us about your daughter's experience prior to finding the right school when she was in this private school? what happened? what went wrong? What were the challenges? Yep.

Michael Coles: was the sort of the early learning center coordinator basically sort of noticed some of my daughter's sort of characteristics was a bit sort of unusual for them.  So what they sort of decided to do is basically sort of calls us in for a meeting and basically sort of recommended that we actually sort of engage a speech therapist and an occupational therapist to try and sort of work out what sort of support needs she actually sort of needed. So we did that and basically she did really well at that. but then sort of when we got recommended to go to a pediatrician which we basically sort of go through the normal pediatrician type of thing she did get referred to a psychologist and then sort of she got the assessment for autism and stuff like that.

Michael Coles: So, they did actually sort of went through to the teachers and all that type of thing to and all her sort of therapists that she was also engaging to try and sort of get those sort of characteristics that she actually had and try and sort of find out what she struggles with and all that type of thing. And then basically sort of like, she got diagnosed initially with ASD level three. So basically sort of was level three, but what the psychologist basically did was she needed to go to the pediatrician to be able to sort of confirm that and…

Michael Coles: the pediatrician thought because of her characteristics she wasn't quite as bad. So she got diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder at level two. sort of the higher end of the level two sort of spectrum where she does struggle with things and…

Kristy Haworth: Okay.

Kristy Haworth: Bye. All right. Yeah.

Michael Coles: stuff like that.

Michael Coles: With the sociality. she does struggle with the speech quite a bit and stuff like that, but her speech is a lot better now compared to what it was before with the health of the speech therapist of course and the occupational therapist. she does really really well with the speech therapist. We've got a wonderful speech therapist at the moment. and an occupational therapist at the moment, but we've gone through a few. But I know her occupational therapist has been really good. and just trying to sort of work and then sort of she got diagnosed and then what the school actually did was basically when we sort of got that report back to the school to sort of see how they basically can help.

00:05:00

Kristy Haworth: Yeah. Wow.

Michael Coles: Basically called us into a meeting and basically sort of said you have to find another school. We can't support you here.

Kristy Haworth: How did that feel?

Kristy Haworth: What was your response to that? Yeah.

Michael Coles: I think it was a bit of a cop out to be absolutely honest with you…

Michael Coles: I think because private school you do pay about top money for it we were paying you might like about just over $2,000 a term for the school you would actually expect that they would actually sort of support you in just one particular way but I think the management at this particular

Michael Coles: school was trying to sort of just do academics because I know for a fact that I did really well at school and I just did sort of with the support and with obviously support and all that type of thing you could actually really thrive at it…

Kristy Haworth: Four. It makes perfect sense to me.

Michael Coles: but sometimes you do have your struggles but then if you get the right support then you tend to thrive so I had that sort of meaning trying to sort of assume that that was going to be it but apparently it wasn't Because I think the they sort of tended to find it was far too hard for them. So does that make sense? Yeah.

Kristy Haworth: So they were really focused on the academic side of things and they didn't possibly have the training to know how to help your daughter. and also their focus of the school was different to remediation and it was more about helping those academic kids excel.

Kristy Haworth: So is that kind of like how it went?

Michael Coles: Yeah, we also found that her daughter got sent home from school when she basically couldn't cope and…

Michael Coles: also she got sent home from school. she got excluded from I was trying to think the extended classes or something like that sort of like the non-essential classes and stuff but she got excluded from that and she got actually sent home cuz I know sort of but it was like music and sort of craft and stuff like that or…

Michael Coles: art that she actually really enjoyed.

Michael Coles: So I think she got sort of sent home and then we had to sort of find a support worker to be able to sort of convey that type of thing because trying to sort of I was working full-time at that particular stage. I had to sort of resign from the job because of that all the stress and stuff like that that was caused by the school and also with the working situation as well. but I'll talk about that a bit later. So All right.

Kristy Haworth: Yeah. Yeah.

Kristy Haworth: Can I just say we've got to pause for a moment to recognize the difficulties that parents have when they have an autistic child on their own workload.  And often it is such a difficult thing to work full-time and then have an autistic child that requires that extra support and then you're getting phone calls from the school and you have to drop everything and go up or if you're having school refusal or in the mornings. You can't book anything for work in the mornings and then pickups as well. It's just so difficult. It's a little bit of a nightmare.

Kristy Haworth: So, I can see how that did lead to a little bit of what would you call it a breakdown that you had in terms of just not being able to work anymore?

Kristy Haworth: It was just too much. Okay.

Michael Coles: It was not just that,…

Michael Coles: it was also the fact that my work environment was extremely toxic at that particular stage as well because I think there was also no support and all that type of thing I know sort of like the parents at the school did actually support her and…

Michael Coles: really embraced her but the management sort of said no they sort of said it was too Well,…

Kristy Haworth: All right.

Kristy Haworth: So, she was getting sent home a lot. they were saying basically this is in the too hard basket. Go and find somewhere else to take her during the days for her education. so where did you go from there?

Michael Coles: we got sort of referred to an autistic school here on the Gold Coast, but the problem was basically we applied and we were hoping to sort of get in, but the problem

Michael Coles: got basically sort of said that there's no spaces at this stage and they had to go on a wait list but also we were trying to sort of go through many basically independent schools and private schools and stuff like that to and trying to get sort of like the right school for it. we also basically applied for out of catchment schools as well in the state school catchment. But I think we had to sort of also get a key worker as well to help us with that. Sometimes it was very stressful to sort of attend meetings and all that type of thing and just trying to sort of just work with the key worker because sometimes I do tend to struggle with my communication style as well. My communication style is a bit different than normal.

00:10:00

Michael Coles: So I was just trying to sort of convey that obviously with my wife and daughter as well. But obviously I think sort of some schools didn't have that sort of capacity to have until a certain age level grade two for example.  So, basically we had to sort of get from prep to grade one and we needed to find a school fairly urgently and we were in pretty much a no-win situation basically because, the school that we wanted to go to and stuff like that or, we heard that had a good reputation, they either couldn't support Alex or she had too high needs to do that at that particular stage.  So we were trying to argue against that and then we found our catchment school. I know it's a state school but we found that was really really eye opening for us.

Michael Coles: was actually really really good compared to what we were hearing initially cuz I thought that particular private school. They did have a better reputation and stuff like that ages and ages ago but the more and more we actually sort of interact with the school and more and more with the school we found that basically they don't sort of tend to basically sort of say it's too hard.  It's basically sort of like, we want to support your daughter to be the best you can be. And I think that's what you sort of need to have to be able to sort of get the right results for your daughter and son. Yeah. Exactly.

Kristy Haworth: So, you're saying basically they need to be willing to help. Is that what you're saying?

Michael Coles: And I think sort of like the deputy principal at our current school at the moment she had autistic children herself and…

Kristy Haworth: Yeah. Yeah.

Michael Coles: having that lived experience actually did help us quite to a degree and…

Michael Coles: she made us feel that she wasn't a square peg in a round hole. Yeah, exactly.

Kristy Haworth: Yeah. Yeah.

Kristy Haworth: So basically, she could make the adjustments. It wasn't one set way they were open to doing things differently depended on the child.

Michael Coles: And also they had sort of the spaces they had it in the state school.

Michael Coles: I know a lot of state schools have those type of spaces that it's business as usual and stuff like that. They have it sort of for every single classroom at that school which I think is really really good

Kristy Haworth: What do you mean?

Kristy Haworth: Is that like a chill out zone or…

Kristy Haworth: something? What is it?

Michael Coles: Yeah, it's basically a breakout zone just in case she gets stressed.

Michael Coles: So, I think sort of and also they have sort of rooms…

Michael Coles: where she can sort of still socialize, but it's in sort of like a quieter area, so to speak. So, I think it's sort of really good that our current school actually has that in place, which I think is really good as well.

Kristy Haworth: How did you find the school,…

Kristy Haworth: Michael? sounds like you went to a lot of different options and…

Kristy Haworth: you kind of got blocks at different places with weight out of catch.

Michael Coles: Yeah. And…

Michael Coles: then sort of like we got referred by key worker and…

Michael Coles: stuff like that to be able to sort of communicate. So a key worker basically helped us in that regard.

Kristy Haworth: That's excellent.

Kristy Haworth: And they had experience with knowing another child that had been there in a similar Okay.

Michael Coles: No. Yeah. not that particular school but I know they had sort of similar schools in that situation.

Michael Coles: And they sort of our key worker sort of guided us through that process.

Kristy Haworth: Yeah. that's excellent, isn't it, that you actually found somewhere where is she happy what's going on in terms of mental and emotional health?

Michael Coles: She's a lot happier. She's basically sort of at the school she was basically sort of said I asked her that did she have a good day? And basically what she's saying to me is basically said I had a really good day and stuff like that and I've made some new friends and basically I'm enjoying school work. I tell you what when she was going back to school this year she was actually really looking forward to it. She was actually a little bit of impatient to go back to school and I know there was a bit of a longer summer break than usual but she was really looking forward to going back to school which I sort of like this is finally working for us.

Michael Coles: It's sort of great to sort of like,…

Kristy Haworth: Yes, my heart is full for you…

Michael Coles: know that my daughter is basically looking forward to going back to school rather than sort of hating school.

00:15:00

Kristy Haworth: 

Kristy Haworth: because from On a personal note, I am absolutely in the same boat because my son had school trauma as well and then we ended up doing homeschooling through an online platform and then that wasn't working anymore and he wasn't thriving. he was shutting down. He wasn't wanting to leave the house. He didn't want to do anything. He didn't want to talk.  He wanted to sit in his room with the curtains down and it was like a flower without the sunshine and the water. That's kind of how I think it was. And the flower was just dying. And then since then we've found a school for him and his place in the world is now somewhere where he is growing now. He's got that sunshine. He's got that water and he's thriving.

Kristy Haworth: And from a parent perspective, there is nothing more that you want than for that to happen. So that's so exciting that she was really looking forward to going back.

Michael Coles: on a regular basis and…

Michael Coles: stuff like that. To looking forward to going to school and being involved in so many sort of having a full day at school and also sort of like being involved in all facets of the school rather than having just the essential parts.

Kristy Haworth: Yeah, what…

Kristy Haworth: what a difference the willingness of a school to make adjustments and accommodations and be understanding of a child can make on that child's development. that's huge.

Michael Coles: Exactly. right leadership and…

Kristy Haworth: And you had, the direct comparison between paying through the nose for a private school and then finding a really supportive school that is, just a mainstream school but just with the right leadership. Yeah.

Michael Coles: also right teachers as well because we also sort of have stakeholder meetings with our occupational therapists, our speech therapists and our psychologists and that's worked really well and stuff like that at the school as well cuz I know it's very sort of engaging.

Michael Coles: We keep in touch pretty much constantly with appointments and all that type of thing. If there's any issues at the school we can sort of talk to her her sort of support person at the school and also sort of her teacher but she's really sort of thriving at the particular school at the moment. We found this year we haven't had sort of as much communication but she's really enjoying things.  So it's kind of good that sort of that support sometimes we need a lot of support sometimes we don't need that much support but it all depends on how she's doing at the particular time. but basically we have meetings sort of at least once a term or once a semester trying to sort of work out strategy and stuff like that for the term also the year and trying to sort of work out how we're going.

Michael Coles: I think last year also we had a sort of a stakeholder meeting as well with all the sort of our stakeholders and basically sort of we all basically put together a little plan to basically sort of support a transition from year 1 to year two and I think that's quite important as well. It was the speech and the psychologist.

Kristy Haworth: So everyone's on the same page. So they all got together in a meeting with the school.

Michael Coles: Yeah. we have a sort of a regular meeting with those three stakeholders and also the school and all this also the school leadership as well.

Michael Coles: And it's I know sort of like in year one she was broken at the start of year one.

Michael Coles: By the end of year 1 she was really really thriving and basically they put plans and stuff like that in place when she actually started year one.

Kristy Haworth: Okay.

Michael Coles: But then sort of we had check-ins and stuff like that on a regular basis and then sort of they put supports in where they needed to. So if she was struggling in one sort of aspect, they actually sort of basically put in supports and stuff like that to sort of help her to thrive. So I think it's absolutely essential that we have those sort of supports in place right the way through…

Michael Coles: because if there's a challenge there, we could sort of nip that in the bud and sort of continue helping it to thrive.

Kristy Haworth: Yes. Yeah,…

Kristy Haworth: that's so important. I mean, it sounds very collaborative…

Kristy Haworth: what you're doing with all of those stakeholders and making those plans for how to best support her before things get too big. that's important.

00:20:00

Michael Coles: Yeah, you want to sort of basically make sure you get to them right away rather than sort of wait.

Michael Coles: And if there's sort of issues that the school sort of raises, they email us so I could actually sort of tell the relative therapists involved as well.

Kristy Haworth: Yeah. …

Kristy Haworth: great communication. So, what are some of the specific strategies that you're doing with her to did do with her to help with that transition?

Michael Coles: We did have meetings with the …

Michael Coles: firstly stakeholder meetings and then sort of when there sort of things come up with the occupational therapist, they work with her to be able to sort of deal with that and…

Kristy Haworth: Yeah. Yeah.

Michael Coles: then obviously the occupational therapist can contact the relatives people at the school to be able to sort of work with them as well.

Michael Coles: We keep them all in touch via email as well. So it's sort of like having sort of that sort of little chat as well so they can sort of they know…

Michael Coles: how to thrive. So its basically having that written communication is quite essential because they can have that on their files as well. So I think sort of it's really helpful to have that Yeah.

Kristy Haworth: Yep. That's a really good point.

Kristy Haworth: Having things written down and having that paper trail is just so important. no matter what environment your child is in, but if they do have those extra supports that are needed and we've got those stakeholders, it's great to keep everyone accountable through having everything written down. So, that's a really good point for parents to take on.

Michael Coles: And it's absolutely really important because if they sort of identify sort of like an issue they can sort of inform the people involved straight away and…

Michael Coles: they can sort of work through what they actually sort of need to do at that particular next session.

Kristy Haworth: Yeah. And Michael,…

Kristy Haworth: are you the one that drives all of this?

Michael Coles: Myself and my wife do so we try and sort of have a sort of a two-way conversation but it's more a collaborative approach within the school. So basically we sort of ask them questions try and keep them informed. I know it's sort of asking a lot of questions but then sort of like having that communication is really sort of fulfilling for us as well.

Kristy Haworth: Yeah. Because I know sometimes it's hard for parents to kind of drive things all the time because it's not only it's really time consuming, but also it's very difficult because sometimes it's one-sided and…

Kristy Haworth: sometimes you're pushing it up the hill which can be difficult for parents.  But then also I think that another difficult thing for parents when they're driving things like this is that they're not actually in the school to see what's going on and what strategies need to be put in place and what's working and what's not working and whether we need to tweak things or change things. But because you've got such good communication, you don't have that issue, right?

Michael Coles: Yeah. …

Michael Coles: my working style is basically just trying to communicate as much as possible. I know sort of sometimes to the point of being annoying, but it's,…

Michael Coles: of teachers can sort of embrace that. The right teachers do embrace that really well. So, I think it's sort of like,…

Kristy Haworth: Yeah. Yes.

Kristy Haworth: Yeah. Absolutely.

Michael Coles: essential for them to sort of know who we are and how and I think my daughter also had that teacher as a substitute when her original teacher was away last year.

Michael Coles: So she got to know my daughter really well and got to know how she worked in the classroom which I think is really good too.

Kristy Haworth: Yeah, having those familiar people around and the people that understand your child. and you brought up a really good point, sometimes you do get to the point as a parent as you feel like you're being annoying, but as long as you're being nice and as long as you're being respectful and as long as you're not being over the top, I mean, you got to be measured, right? You got to be very practical.

Michael Coles: Yeah, I mean, I always have a nice personality and trying to sort of work with the teacher instead of working against them and…

Kristy Haworth: So important.

Michael Coles: it's not just one-sided. you have to sort of listen to that…

Kristy Haworth: Yeah. Yeah.

Michael Coles: what their perspective is as well.

Kristy Haworth: And yes, and when we're advocating,…

Michael Coles: Yeah. Yeah.

Kristy Haworth: We just have to be that parent and we have to accept that and hopefully it's received well on the other end, which it sounds like it is in your case. Yeah. Yeah,…

Michael Coles: And I think it's essential to sort of have that, openness and communication and you just want to try and sort of like, you want the best for your child and that's sort of the main thing you want.

Kristy Haworth: absolutely. how's her academic progress changed since being in an environment where she feels safe and understood?

Michael Coles: So, her report card towards the end of her when she was at the private school, it was really poor. It was more an attack on her just, basically being herself, which I think sort of it was fairly subjective. They wanted to sort of mark her down just for being autistic and that's not right. Whereas, this school, it's sort of like, she's got challenges, but, she got really good marks. She got an achievement and we were happy with that. she was and I think with 17 she actually got a really good mark at it.

00:25:00

Michael Coles: which I think is really good sort of she's been accepted for who she is rather than sort of having to change her whereas the previous school was very subjective in terms of basically she's not doing well at all she's not doing great and stuff like that she doesn't belong to sort of some basically thriving at that school and having that support  there and basically just embracing her and just trying to sort of deal with her needs, which I think is really good.

Kristy Haworth: So, if there were parents listening and perhaps they've got a child that is in the situation where they're not at a supportive school, the school doesn't get autism, is just kind of like hard basket. that's not a word has just put your child in the hard basket and…

Kristy Haworth: sometimes it's hard to kind of move on and know what to do next. What would be your advice for parents if there's kind of sitting at that precipice?

Michael Coles: maybe just get a key worker and…

Michael Coles: I think that's the biggest support you actually need because without that key worker you'll be able to sort of like it's a stressful situation as it is you just basically having that key worker and having that support people there is definitely helpful. we got to actually sort of like when our local area coordinator within the NDIS actually suggested a couple things and…

Kristy Haworth: And how do you engage with a key worker?

Kristy Haworth: Yep. Yeah.

Michael Coles: we had got a really excellent local area coordinator from my daughter which is really really good.

Michael Coles: she was really supportive and she was basically sort of putting us in the right direction which is really really good to have that sort of support there and…

Michael Coles: also sort of just help us through that process as and sort of getting that support is really really essential because even it's so stressful for normal people. for autistic people it's even more stressful and you don't need that. Exactly.

Kristy Haworth: No, absolutely don't.

Kristy Haworth: I mean, things are bumpy enough. We don't need extra bumps, do we? Yes. You know what, Michael?  I think that your story is really inspiring. it was a really tricky one in the beginning and you got out of there and found a place where your child is now really thriving. And of course, we're always going to have that bumpy time, but it's really how the people around the child are able to understand why they're having a bumpy time, what we can do about that bumpy time, and how we can get over that bump and help them really continue to thrive.

Kristy Haworth: So, I'm really really happy for you and your family to have found that and I hope that it inspires some other parents if they are in that position where things are kind of dark and a bit tricky. There is the light at the end of the tunnel. Sometimes we just got to go through that tunnel and figure out where that light is.  Yeah. Perfect.

Michael Coles: a big shame that basically sort of some sort of schools within the private sort of sector don't have that inclusivity and stuff like that especially for autistic students and I think with more autistic students being diagnosed it's sort of like you need to have that support right through and…

Michael Coles: I think it's sort of like having that sort of support you can actually sort of really get good results out of Yeah.

Kristy Haworth: Absolutely. And I don't think it's just private schools,…

Kristy Haworth: too, because I hear horror stories from mainstream schools, too. It just really depends on who's running the school and how they're filtering down their education for teachers.

Michael Coles: And it also goes from area to area to area. It's different from area to area to area.

Kristy Haworth: Yeah. Yes.

Michael Coles: And I've heard sort of stories that basically sort of it's different if different schools in different areas.

Michael Coles: It's confusing enough and it's stressful enough to actually find the right school.

Kristy Haworth: And then along with having the key worker is it a matter of also just going into the school and speaking to the people that will be actually supporting your child potentially?

Michael Coles: Yes, that's correct. Yes. Yes. Yeah.

Kristy Haworth: 

Kristy Haworth: Because sometimes I feel like if you say, " what's that school like? That local school down the road?" And Joe Blogs will say, it's excellent. my child had such a good time." But that person's child might be completely different to my child.

00:30:00

Kristy Haworth: And so that's why it's so important to really go into schools and speak to the leadership team or whoever the head of inclusion is to really get a good gut feeling on whether they are going to be the right fit for your child to be in their care and their environment.

Michael Coles: Instead of you need that support as well.

Michael Coles: you need that sort of diagnosis to be able to help things as well. And I think sort of diagnosis is really sort of essential to get the right support in place.

Kristy Haworth: Yeah, that's very true. tell us a little bit about your work, Michael. What do you got bubbling on?

Michael Coles: So, I run a podcast called the Deep Dive Podcast, which is basically we've got over 5,600 subscribers on YouTube at the moment, which is really, really good.

Kristy Haworth: Yeah.

Michael Coles: So, yeah.

Michael Coles: So, I'm really happy with the results with that. we usually get about 2,000 views per episode, which is really good, especially on YouTube. I don't know what views we have. It's also available by the podcast platforms as well, but I got no idea how many sort of downloads we have on that podcast, but I know there's quite a few there.  But I know there's been a lot of sort of braceman and stuff like that obviously I've got a social media account the deep dive you as well which I share sort of some other things as well especially with the national autism strategy and all that type of thing.

Michael Coles: It was basically just a podcast last year, but I'm branching out into deep dive lives, which is basically sort of like, having a fun thing with, a special guest and stuff like that, and they can ask questions. And we also have the deep dive round table as well, which is basically a live discussion with, multiple people having a conversation in relation to one sort of subject. we had the national autism strategy last I think it was a couple weeks ago and…

Michael Coles: I know we're having a couple of deep dive roundts towards basically the middle of the year.

Kristy Haworth: That sounds awesome.

Michael Coles: So I'm just trying to branch out and all these type of things and I've actually just started with empower autism trying to sort of help people live their best lives as well.

Michael Coles: So that's how I've been able to sort of do that as well, just firstly through the podcast and also just trying to sort of do some advocacy work and…

Michael Coles: basically trying to support people with autism live their best life. And I think it's sort of really essential.

Kristy Haworth: I love that.

Kristy Haworth: That's so cool, Michael. I love what you're doing. so just quickly, what's the national autism strategy?

Michael Coles: The National Autism Strategy was released a couple weeks ago. It's the government's way to sort of try and sort of support people with autism. there's some good parts but there's not some good parts at the moment. there's some challenging things around it because how it's going to be implemented how is it going to be enforced that type of thing. It's not enforced at the moment. So it's not like the UK where sort of it's basically entrenched into the legislation. So we're just trying to sort of make sure that what are their positions and stuff like that.

Michael Coles: we have a federal election coming up pretty much April May this year. and then potentially there could be sort of like a new sort of government and senate and just trying to sort of work out different ways of which we can implement the national autism strategy because there's nothing with us without us. So I think some people before was making decisions and not having people with disabilities perspective actually met with it because they have struggles as well. But I mean with the right accommodations with the right sort of tools in place you can thrive.

Michael Coles: So it's really important to actually get this right.

Kristy Haworth: Yes, absolutely.

Kristy Haworth: Hats off to you, Good luck with all of your advocacy work and everything that you're doing with your podcast and your roundts and all of that jazz. if anyone wants to go and check you out. I'm going to go and put all of your details in the show notes, but I know that you've already mentioned also the deep dive. re on sta. you've got a website, Yes. Excellent. thank you so much for your time and your inspiring story and I'm really happy for your family and…

Kristy Haworth: I hope that there's not too many bumps in the road that don't have to be there from now on. Right. Yeah,…

Michael Coles: Yeah, sounds good.

Michael Coles: And thank you for the brilliant chat today. It's been really nice talking to you.