Estimated reading time: 5 minutes, 29 seconds

Read on to find out what your 2022 highlights were, as we reveal...

• What was everyone reading about this year
  • Your favourite of our social media posts
  • The blogs you most enjoyed reading
• The AET resource that you downloaded more than any other
• Our Team’s highlights of the year
• A fact that may surprise you!
• What’s coming up in 2023

In June we worked in partnership with Immie Swain to produce a video for ITV’s Good Morning Britain.

‘Immie’s Signs to Spot Autism’ was a short production for education professionals.

In the video, Immie discusses her diagnosis and experience in education, revealing that she went to five different schools. The segment covers ‘masking’ and how education professionals might go about spotting ‘undiagnosed’ autistic children.

Join the 5,000 education professionals who requested access to the video: https://www.autismeducationtrust.org.uk/news/immies-signs-spot-autism

Our AET Community is all about sharing and seeing what each other have been up to.

You all enjoyed reading about AET Partner, Thetford Academy sharing their activity during Autism Acceptance Week in March/April which involved autism lead, Leahanna Tarry and her team of student Autism Ambassadors offering autism awareness and staff training in the Norfolk region.

A festive checklist? Tick!

As the decorations were going up, we shared with you a handy checklist for all practitioners to take to their setting.

10 Ways to Create an Inclusive Festive Classroom highlighted ways to make a festive yet inclusive environment that everyone could enjoy

Visit the post on social media above to download your copy!

Get in touch with our marketing team via email and tell us what you’re up to in 2023.

Connect with us on social media and let’s share our activities as far and wide as we can!

Three blogs stood out this year with the highest reads:

• The Progress Tracking Tool all Educa­tion Practitioners Need

There are many tools to track academic progress for children in education settings. 

We featured one of our most popular resources -  the Progression Framework – to show you how to track the progress of autistic children and young people in areas that fall outside the curriculum.

• 2021 at the Autism Education Trust

What’s changed since last year? Throughout this year, you’ve been interested in the progress we made in 2021. Our calendar year round-up has been read by many of you throughout 2022. Let's see if we have the same result at the end of 2023!

• Relationships and Sex Education

Our guest blog discussing Relationships and Sex Education was also popular. It focussed on the importance of making this content and information accessible for those who support autistic young people.

We’re always interested to see what topics spark your interest. Email us and tell us what you’d like to see more of, or suggest a topic that you would find particularly useful.

This year, our most popular resource was our Schools Standards Framework which was downloaded more than 3,400 times in 2022!

You’ve been using this popular resource to:

• Identify priority areas to work on
• Create an action plan to improve school-wide practices
• Implement reasonable adjustments for your autistic pupils
• Improve the engagement, retention, and academic achievement of autistic learners
• Monitor your practice and provide evidence of embedding good autism practice in your setting

You can download your own copy of our Schools Standards Framework for FREE here:

This was a tricky one for us as we’ve enjoyed a year of so many highs, but we've whittled it down to our top three highlights:

Autism Acceptance Week

Our peer awareness ‘Let’s Learn About Autism’ education packs were downloaded and used during March and April to deliver autism awareness and understanding to many thousands of pupils.

Keep an eye out for news on Autism Acceptance Week 2023!

The Autistic Young Experts Panel

Videos featuring autistic learners took centre stage in our campaign sharing why they wished more people knew about autism and what the week meant to them

We recruited new members to our Autistic Young Experts Panel

The Members enjoyed their first face-to-face meeting as they continued their amazing work which involves guiding, advising, co-creating and co-delivering our education resources and training.

More from the Autistic Young Experts in 2023, and we see the launch of their BRAND NEW YouTube Channel.

Autism Europe 

13th Autism Europe International Congress   – themed ‘A Happy Journey Through Life’ the congress was a huge success and saw our director, Dr Sarah Broadhurst, invited to chair a symposium, co-present on the topic of ‘Leading the Way in Autism Education’ - as well attend a networking gala dinner.

The well-attended conference in Cracow gave us opportunities to develop and extend our international reach to professional colleagues and new contacts looking for established and industry-leading autism education programmes.

This was a new feature to our monthly roundups, it gained your vote and we decided will remain a regular one.

Did you know this...?

Many people think we have just five senses: sight, smell, hearing, taste and touch.

In fact, we have seven senses. The two (lesser known) senses are vestibular and proprioception. These senses impact balance, motor skills and body awareness.

Most autistic people experience sensory differences.

Understanding how an autistic child or young person processes information from their senses can help you support the individual in their everyday school life.

After our whistle stop tour of our AET 2022 year, we’re excited to be looking ahead to 2023.

We’ll save the details for next year, but we look forward to bringing you a suite of on-line learning opportunities for the busy practitioner, as well as the all-new Young Experts Panel YouTube channel launch.

For now, we’d like to thank YOU!

We’re continually inspired by our amazing community of hard-working and resilient practitioners committed to making a difference to the lives and well-being of autistic children and young people.

We wish you all a relaxing and well-deserved festive break and look forward to an exciting 2023 together.

Your AET Team