Autism tutor, online across the UK
Autism-informed tuition built around your child's pace and profile
School says they're coping.You know what coping is costing them.
Six things parents of autistic children tell me again and again — and what I actually do about each one.
What you're seeing
They hold it together all day, then fall apart the moment they’re home.
What I do
Masking is exhausting, and the bill always arrives at home. My lessons don’t ask for it: no forced eye contact, no performing interest, no sitting still to prove you’re listening. The aim isn’t to help them mask better — it’s one hour a week where they don’t have to.
What you're seeing
The more you ask, the harder they refuse — even things they wanted to do.
What I do
Demand avoidance gets worse under pressure and better under choice. I use invitations rather than instructions, offer genuine options, and keep the entry point small enough to say yes to. When something is refused, I lower the demand instead of raising the pressure.
What you're seeing
A supply teacher or a changed room can undo an entire week.
What I do
Everything about my lessons is deliberately the same: same person, same time, same shape, same start. Your child knows what’s coming before it happens, and I flag any change in advance. You will never be handed a different tutor, ever — there is no roster and no rematching.
What you're seeing
“How does the writer make the reader feel?” is an impossible question at home.
What I do
Inference is treated in schools as something children simply intuit. It isn’t — it’s a skill, and it can be taught explicitly. Reading subtext is literally my discipline as a drama teacher. We learn the rules of what’s implied rather than hoping your child guesses them.
What you're seeing
Group work, presentations and speaking assessments are a source of real dread.
What I do
This is my specialism. We rehearse the actual thing — what to say, when to say it, what to do if it goes wrong — in private, with one safe person, as many times as it takes. Speaking in front of people is a skill that can be practised, not a personality your child either has or doesn’t.
What you're seeing
Because they’re quiet and no trouble, school insists there’s no problem.
What I do
Quiet is not the same as coping, but it’s very easy for a school to record it that way. As a former SENCO I write clear, specific evidence of what your child can and can’t do and what support actually works. Written proof is what changes conversations with schools and local authorities.
How I work with autistic learners
The same four principles sit underneath every lesson, whatever we're working on.
Predictable by design
Same tutor, same slot, same structure, every week. Your child knows what the hour holds before it starts, and anything different is flagged beforehand. Predictability isn’t rigidity — it’s what frees up the energy to actually learn.
Low demand, high structure
Clear structure with the pressure taken out of it. Choices instead of instructions, small entry points, and no insistence on eye contact, stillness or visible enthusiasm. Refusal is information, not defiance, and I respond to it by adjusting rather than pushing.
Their interests are the route in
If your child knows everything about one particular subject, that’s not a distraction from the work — it’s the way into it. Essay structure, inference and analysis can be taught through almost anything, and they’re learned far faster through something a child already loves.
Communication taught explicitly
Nothing is left to be picked up by osmosis. What a question is really asking, what an examiner wants, what’s implied but not said, how to hold your own in a discussion — all of it gets taught out loud, as rules that can be learned rather than instincts you either have or don’t.
What lessons look like
No surprises, no pressure to perform, and nothing sprung on your child. Here’s exactly how it works.
Before the lesson
You’ll have talked to me properly before your child ever meets me.
- A free call first, just the two of us. No child in the room, so you can be completely honest
- Tell me what they’re like, what helps, what to avoid, and what went wrong last time
- I build the first lesson around that, and send you the plan before it happens
- The first lesson has no targets. We just meet
- Not wanting to speak is fine — they can type, use the chat, or just listen
- Same tutor, same time, every week
Inside the hour
Structured, with the pressure taken out.
- Short chunks with clear endings, ticked off a checklist they can see
- Camera off, fidgeting, stimming and looking away are all fine. I don’t measure listening by eye contact
- If something isn’t working that day, we do less of it, not more
- Their favourite subject becomes the material we work through
- You don’t need to sit in. The evening is yours again
Afterwards
You always know what happened, and what’s next.
- A short note after every lesson, in plain English — what we did, how it went, what’s next
- Those notes build up into a written record you can use at parents’ evenings, annual reviews and EHCP applications
- If it suits your child, they can take a LAMDA exam — a real qualification in speaking and communication
- The exam is one to one with an examiner. No stage, no audience, no group
- The examiner marks it, not me, so the result is independent
Common questions
Almost none of them do at first, and I’d be surprised if yours did. The first lesson has no targets and nothing to get wrong — we just meet, and if your child doesn’t speak at all, that’s a completely normal first session rather than a bad one. They can type, use the chat, or just listen. Going quiet with a new adult isn’t a warning sign. It’s the starting point, and I’ve never had a child stay there.
No. A lot of the families I work with are somewhere on a waiting list, sometimes with years to go. Some have a diagnosis, some have a suspicion and no answers yet, some have been told their child is “too able” to need assessing. I teach the child in front of me, not the paperwork — and if you’d find it useful, I can write down what I observe, which is often helpful evidence to have.
Then we have a small lesson instead of a full one. We might do ten minutes, or talk about something they’re interested in, or just make it through the hour without anything being demanded of them. I don’t push, and I don’t treat it as a wasted session — a child learning that a difficult day doesn’t end in a row is doing something genuinely useful. If it becomes a pattern, I’ll tell you and we’ll change the approach. Where burnout has tipped into not coping with school at all, the same care shapes my support for children who can’t manage school.
Online, across the UK. For a lot of autistic children this is a real advantage rather than a compromise: they’re at home in a familiar room, there’s no journey to manage at either end, the camera can be off, and they can move around freely without anyone commenting. It also means we can keep going on days when leaving the house wouldn’t have happened.
Both, in that order. We start with communication and confidence because for most autistic learners that’s the thing holding everything else up — and then apply it to real academic work: English, essay structure, inference, reading, exam technique. It isn’t a choice between the two. The confidence is what makes the academic work possible. If you’d like the practical side first, the free call, trial lesson and twelve-week course are set out here.
Yes. As a former SENCO I know what the process needs and what a strong piece of evidence looks like. After every lesson I write a short note, and over time those build into a documented record of what your child can do, what helps, and what happens without support. I’ll complete forms that need someone in a teaching capacity, and I’ll do it by the date you need it. I can also be named as the tutor within a personal budget or EOTAS package.
Ready to talk about your child?
I teach every lesson myself, so I take a limited number of students at a time. If you’d like a place this term, it’s worth getting in touch now.