With news today regarding the rate of autism in N Ireland, we celebrate the autistic community at Specialisterne, which highlights the contribution autistic people make to N Ireland. The autistic community at Specialisterne NI, from this week, includes autistic young people from the age of 8 to 60+!

Autistic young people at primary schools are now connecting to each other each week through play, autistic young people at secondary schools connect with each other at in-school and after-school groups, and our autistic and neurodivergent adult community meet up virtually and/or in-person, depending on preference!

Dot to Dot, the new primary school programme at Specialisterne NI, was inspired by members of our adult community, some of whom remember an adult following them around at school, and the next day being told they were autistic, and that was it. The idea is that if you are connected to other autistic people when you are diagnosed or realise you are autistic, you may not feel like you are the only person who is autistic, and working things out by yourself. You will also gain insight into the vibrant and diverse autistic community there is across N Ireland and the world, and learn from meeting older autistic young people at secondary schools, and autistic adult mentors, working across all types of and levels of careers.

If you are interested in joining the autistic community at Specialisterne, now is a good time! We have just launched our new primary school community, are inviting new schools to join our secondary school programme,  have added in-person meet-ups, have a new ALL2gether at Work community across multiple companies, and we are planning an exciting summer activity programme!

For details see below, and/or contact Sharond@specialisterne.com