Hello! My name is Emily Price (she/her)
I'm an Autistic Speech and Language Therapist (SLT) based in Greater Manchester, UK, and Co-Founder of Divergent Perspectives; a training provider delivering workshops to professionals in how to support Autistic children, young people, and adults. I advocate and campaign for radical changes in therapy practices for through public speaking, training, and education. I use my lived experience of being Autistic to inform my work in addition to my clinical expertise as a SLT to guide my work, makes me uniquely positioned to make a difference.
I don't provide interventions based on behaviourism and the social-deficit theory of Autism; these practices are rooted in flawed theories and outdated research. As a Neurodivergent-Affirming SLT I do not provide Social Skills Training. We know that these interventions are designed to teach Autistic children to mask and perform a set of socially expected behaviours built upon neuronormative norms of attention and communication. As a Neurodivergent-Affirming SLT I focus on helping the Autistic person to advocate for themselves through their chosen method(s) of communication.
I support them to express their choices, views, boundaries, emotions, and decisions. I give the person full autonomy to select their own goals. I help them to identify their communication strengths & needs using non-pathologising language. I use a trauma-informed approach which takes into context the historic marginalisation and exclusion of Autistic people, I consider the accumulation of sensory, interpersonal, and emotional trauma, and the intersections between other struggles e.g., gender dysphoria, eating disorders, ethnicity.
MY GOALS
To empower Autistic children / adults through:
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Lived experience of being Autistic
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Expertise of Speech, Language and Communication
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Advocating for reasonable adjustments / accommodations
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The Neurodiversity Paradigm
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Respecting Autistic styles of communication
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Accessible information
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Activism