Special needs school to help Cambridge professor understand autism impact
search

The latest Jewish News

Read this week’s digital edition

Click Here

Special needs school to help Cambridge professor understand autism impact

Prof. Simon Baron-Cohen to work with Gesher School to study factors stopping autistic youngsters from progressing

Gesher school teaches children with a range of special needs
Gesher school teaches children with a range of special needs

A new Jewish special needs school is to help a Jewish professor from the University of Cambridge understand whether autistic students are less likely to enter further education or employment.

Professor Simon Baron-Cohen, whose cousin Sacha recently posed as an Israeli firearms fanatic to satirise America’s gun lobby, is leading the work at the Autism Research Centre at Cambridge, with funding from law firm Mishcon de Reya.

Researchers will be working with newly-opened Gesher School, which provides a specialist learning environment for autistic children, to better understand what factors stop autistic students from gaining a job or further qualifications.

The Cambridge team has already shown that two thirds of autistic adults experience anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts and feelings, and it is already known that social communication difficulties make children on the autistic spectrum particularly vulnerable to negative life experiences, both at home and at school. Many report being bullied, excluded, exploited, and feeling marginalised.

Researchers now plan to use online surveys and focus groups to capture parents’ experiences, with a view to producing policy guidelines based on their findings.

Outcomes for autistic students will be compared to those with different categories of special educational needs, such as Attention Deficit and Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), Conduct Disorder and Dyslexia.

Sarah Sultman and Ali Durban, who co-founded Gesher School in September, said: “Collaborations between funders like these help bring about social change on many levels. Early intervention is critical for autistic children and this research will give an insight into how schools can best help.”

Support your Jewish community. Support your Jewish News

Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.

For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.

Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.

You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.

100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...

Engaging

Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.

Celebrating

There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.

Pioneering

In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.

Campaigning

Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.

Easy access

In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.

Voice of our community to wider society

The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.

We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.

read more: