Adaptable Social Work

05/06/2026

⚖️ A significant win for NDIS participants.

The Federal Court has confirmed that the NDIA cannot look at people as just a list of "eligible" and "ineligible" impairments when considering support needs.

In the landmark Eastham case, the Court found that the NDIA must consider the whole person, including how eligible impairments interact with other impairments and environmental factors to affect daily life.

What does this mean?

✅ Your eligible disability does not have to be the only reason you need a support.

✅ The NDIA should consider how multiple impairments work together to impact your independence and participation.

✅ Real-life circumstances matter, including factors such as transport access, where you live, and how your disabilities affect each other.

This decision recognises something many participants have been saying for years: people are not a collection of separate diagnoses. We are whole people with complex lives, and support decisions should reflect that.

If you've been told a support isn't related to your "eligible impairment" alone, this decision may hold important information that needs to be included in therapeutic reports written to support your future NDIS planning, reviews and appeals.

04/06/2026

04/06/2026

Behaviour is communication.

A child who shouts, refuses, hits, withdraws, lies, clings, or seems "difficult" is often telling us something they cannot put into words.

Behaviour is communication.

Behind many behaviours there may be fear, anxiety, shame, confusion, grief, sensory overwhelm, unmet needs, or experiences that adults may not yet fully understand.

When we only react to the behaviour, we can miss the message.

When we stop and ask, "What is this child trying to tell me?" everything changes.

Children do not always need harsher consequences. Sometimes they need safety. Sometimes they need understanding. Sometimes they need help making sense of big feelings that they cannot manage alone.

This simple shift in thinking can transform how parents, carers, teachers and professionals support children.

If more people understood that behaviour is communication, fewer children would be labelled as "naughty" and more would get the support they need.

Share this if you agree. ❤️

Free BEHAVIOUR IS COMMUNICATION POSTER

LIKE the photo and comment "CHILD" and we will send you a message with a link to a free PDF of this resource.

03/06/2026

Thank you Zoe Simmons—journalist, copywriter, author & editor for your advocacy. You are awesome.

The below video is Zoe explaining the intersectionality of disability, gender and health, medical gaps in knowledge and the gaslighting that occurs when GPs face patients outside their scope of practice, don’t understand or have the answers.





https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1Dy1u5n1oP/?mibextid=wwXIfr

03/06/2026

Autism supports are more than just therapy. It can also be about having someone with you in environments that are not good for your nervous system.

https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1LHbEEC3BN/?mibextid=wwXIfr

💡 Support doesn’t only mean therapy.

A lot of Autistic distress comes from environments that are too demanding, inaccessible, or invalidating - not from a lack of effort.

People don’t need to be “fixed.”
They need spaces where their nervous system is safer.

💬 Support can be practical.
💬 Support can be relational.
💬 Support can be environmental.

And sometimes those forms of support change someone’s quality of life more than any coping strategy ever could.



[ID: Against a grape background, with the Reframing Autism logo at the top and the colourful knotwork in the lower right corner, white text reads, 'What support can look like besides therapy:' Beneath the white text are five toggles, which list: 'flexible deadlines, sensory-friendly environments, autonomy, safe people, removing unnecessary demands'].

02/06/2026

Every day activities can look very different if you have accessibility needs. The attached video is UK - similar experience here in Australia.

As a family with a member who is disabled and has access requirements we find purchasing tickets is easier when you contact the venue to be supported in the process.



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https://www.facebook.com/share/r/1B52YZj3eR/?mibextid=wwXIfr

31/05/2026

What does the NDIS mean when they push back and say ‘parental responsibility’ vs what caring for a complex disabled child?
Please view the below video.

Adaptable social work can assist with writing carer impact statements.
📞☎️ 0472 510 133 to discuss.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1CywpVy37t/?mibextid=wwXIfr

29/05/2026

The post attached is UK based but the truth also reflects the Australian disability experience.

Government (state and federal) talk about wanting inclusion but funding models limit the ability of schools to achieve the goal of inclusivity. The measures of school outcomes do not include inclusivity. These simple facts call to question not individual schools, but the funding and outcome measures government use to support disability inclusivity.



https://www.facebook.com/share/1PXFdgdxZa/?mibextid=wwXIfr

I read the recent Guardian article discussing concerns that an ‘attainment at all costs’ approach could undermine proposed SEND reforms, and honestly, I think many people working in schools will recognise the tension immediately. (The Guardian)

Because you cannot build a genuinely inclusive education system while simultaneously measuring schools almost entirely through narrow attainment outcomes.

Schools respond to accountability systems. They always have.

If a school knows it will ultimately be judged, compared, ranked, inspected, celebrated or criticised primarily on data, results, attendance figures and progress measures, then those pressures inevitably shape decision-making. Even in schools with deeply caring staff.

And this is where the contradiction sits.

We say we want inclusion.
We say we want emotionally safe schools.
We say we want flexible provision.
We say we want earlier support.
We say we want schools to keep children with complex needs within mainstream where appropriate.

But inclusion takes time.
It takes staffing.
It takes flexibility.
It takes relational approaches.
It takes environments where regulation and belonging matter alongside academic outcomes.

And sometimes truly inclusive practice does not look neat on a spreadsheet.

Some children make enormous progress that cannot be captured by a headline attainment measure.
Some children need reduced timetables temporarily to survive school.
Some need alternative ways to learn.
Some need sensory adjustments that don’t fit traditional classroom expectations.
Some need schools willing to absorb complexity rather than quietly push it elsewhere.

Yet schools operating under intense accountability pressure can end up trapped between two competing messages:
“Be inclusive.”
But also:
“Maintain exceptionally high measurable outcomes at all costs.”

The danger is that inclusion becomes conditional.
Conditional on whether it impacts data.
Conditional on whether staffing exists.
Conditional on whether budgets stretch far enough.
Conditional on whether schools feel safe enough within the accountability system to truly embrace it.

And I think many education professionals understand this instinctively:
children are not outcomes measures.

Of course attainment matters.
Education matters enormously.
Opportunity matters enormously.

But if inclusion only works when children perform in ways the system finds comfortable, measurable and efficient, then it was never really inclusion in the first place.

Emma
The Autistic SENCo
♾️

Photo: Number 3 spent quite a lot of time upside down when he was younger

28/05/2026

To respond appropriately it is important to understand PDA equalising.





https://www.facebook.com/share/1EFme9WQk2/?mibextid=wwXIfr

What Is Equalising?

Equalising (or levelling) in PDA is often misunderstood.

It can look like:
• Telling you what to say
• Correcting your tone
• Making you repeat things “properly”
• Creating sudden rules for you
• Demanding you do something immediately
• Flipping the power dynamic

From the outside, it can feel controlling.

But from the inside, it’s often a nervous system trying to rebalance power.

When a PDA child feels one-down, even subtly, their body can go into threat.

Equalising is an attempt to restore internal equilibrium.

It’s not always about dominance.

It’s about safety.

🌻

27/05/2026

https://www.facebook.com/share/1DX5xpCJFZ/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Support Isn’t a Luxury

You were never meant to hold this alone.

A sustainable support team might include:
• A therapist who understands PDA
• A support worker who doesn’t escalate
• Flexible schooling options
• Friends who don’t judge
• Online community

It might also include:
Asking for practical help.
Outsourcing where you can.
Letting something drop.

Support isn’t indulgence.

It’s protection.

And if you’re crying after “the worst day,” that doesn’t mean you’re failing.

It means your nervous system has been carrying too much for too long.

You deserve regulation too.

🌻