Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 6h

www.parenta.com/2025/09/22/p...

Practical advice for new teachers and childcare staff on fostering belonging, connecting with children, slowing down, decluttering, and being fully present.

www.parenta.com

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 10h

inclusive start ups she was supporting. I wonder how I can carry that legacy forwards.

Thinking about those times reminded me of a question I used to get all the time in the early days, so here it is revisited: should we be age appropriate?
disabilityhorizons.com/2025/10/age-...

Age Appropriate or Person Appropriate? | Disability Horizons

Joanna Grace reflects on why support for disabled and neurodivergent people should focus on being person appropriate, not age appropriate — celebrating individuality, comfort, and joy at every stage o...

disabilityhorizons.com

1 3

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 10h

Projects, a..g...e....s ago.
He sent me a Trabasack that I used to travel with. He got in touch again after Flo's death. Told me how much she had helped him when they were setting up. At the same time she was helping me. I never knew she helped him then. I wonder how many

1 2

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 10h

disabilityhorizons.com/2025/10/age-...

Disability Horizons Limited

There is a backstory to this article that you don’t need to know or read but I'm going to tell you anyway on case you're looking for something to distract you on hump day.

I first met Duncan when I was setting up The Sensory

Age Appropriate or Person Appropriate? | Disability Horizons

Joanna Grace reflects on why support for disabled and neurodivergent people should focus on being person appropriate, not age appropriate — celebrating individuality, comfort, and joy at every stage o...

disabilityhorizons.com

1 4

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 1d

If you are 'Edith' and 'Iona' in The Scale of the Spectrum please DM me!

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 2d

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 4d

PS If anyone I am connected with has insight into the law around book publication and knows whether I am allowed to self publish Ernest and I now its publisher has dropped it....

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 4d

Flo wrote in her foreword for the book: "I trust this book will reach and touch many readers, inspiring them to use sensory stories as a key to unlocking excitement, fun and enjoyment". I trust this translation will enable it to reach more people.

1 1

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 4d

signed for publication in European Languages, it along with 20 of the sensory stories will be published first in Greek next year, and then depending on how that first translation goes might be translated into other European languages.

1

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 4d

from my childhood) cannot be got anymore. I was contacted this week by a setting in Sweden that wanted a copy and I couldn't find one for them. (Spike and Mole is still going strong).

Meanwhile: The Sensory Stories book has had contracts

1

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 4d

Good news and sad. Two of the books pictured here are no longer in print. Their publisher has decided to focus on other projects. I still have some copies of Voyage to Arghan, but Ernest and I (a story

Image shows the books mentioned in the post propped up on a wooden sideboard under a shelf carrying rainbow notebooks

1 4

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 5d

Busy day at #NEScymru @nationaledshow.bsky.social lovely to meet old chums and make new ones!
Tigger Kim @thesendcast @sensoryguru

2 3

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 5d

Ready to go at #NEScymru @nationaledshow.bsky.social

2 5

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 6d

#NEScymru in the morning! @nationaledshow.bsky.social
I will be talking about whether people are being mis-sold sensory supports, and whether diagnosis are needed.

2 3

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 6d

Off to look for my sweets, looking forward to talking to a team of teachers later, remembering Flo with them and thinking about sensory supports!
@gwr.com

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 6d

thinking about the impact of environments on autistic people, and what their behaviour tells you about the environment. You can read it in these pictures or access it (and other articles) in the magazine on this link:
online.fliphtml5.com/fodzc/oxcy/

CV issue 8

online.fliphtml5.com

2 5

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 6d

My cat is out of the bag! Connectiverse tell me they've already had feedback on this article from an LA Education Partnership Officer saying "YES, all educators should think about the cat!"
The article is about online.fliphtml5.com/fodzc/oxcy/

Brightly coloured autumn themed magazine cover - can be read via link provided

Magazine page with portrait shot of me (white woman long brown hair, blue dress) and image of someone wearing sound cancelling headphones in a supermarket and an image of hands reaching for a carrot with a stick being brandished in the background, text of the article can be accessed in link provided.

Magazine article, painting of a cat swimming in water and photo of a cat appearing to ponder life, text of the article can be accessed on link provided.

1 5 7

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 6d

And so on....

Can you add to the list of wondering questions?

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 6d

If the situation is already hard, why would we add another job on top of it?

Who is finding the communication useful? Is it benefiting the person doing the work or is it getting in the way of them having a snack?

1

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 6d

Why is it snack time that's designated for this, is there a value judgement being made between lessons and snacktime.

Who has to ask for every bite? Is this real communication?

Whilst food is motivating, does this motivate communication?

1

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 6d

This can look like children having to use their AAC to ask repeatedly for small bits of food.

It's not a question with an answer. But it is one that prompts lots of other thoughts.

1

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 6d

really, but asked from a really good position of understanding the enormity of all we had just talked about. It was to do with the use of AAC, that snack time has been seen as an ideal time to practice communicating.

1

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 6d

challenging environments under heightened emotional tensions, and that "mainstream" advice can leave families feeling isolated. But the question that came up was one very specific to special school settings. Very simple

1

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 6d

The focus was why eating can be difficult for people who struggle with the sensory world. There is lots in the answering of that why, not least: the reality of different sensory processing, how multi sensory and invasive eating is, that eating often happens in

1

Joanna Grace PhD @jo3grace.bsky.social · 8d

trespassers on the tracks in the end meant I had to deploy grandparenting for school pick up, but I'm in position for the regular Tuesday evening onslaught of parenting logistics. Very very grateful for how exhausted I feel.