Lynn McCann, autism specialist teacher, trainer, author and business lead of Reachout ASC, joins me on the podcast to explore ADHD from the perspective of professionals with lived experience, who have gone down the career route in specialist teaching! A great discussion on how our own neurotypes may have an impact on our work (positives and challenges), and on our understanding of ourselves and the young people we support. 

Episode transcript:

Steph:

Lynn, thank you so much for joining the podcast. I’m really excited for our conversation today. And let’s just start with, can you tell us all about the wonderful work you do?

Lynn: 

Okay. Well, I think it’s wonderful because I really enjoy it! But then I’m an autism specialist teacher, so I set up an independent service nine years ago now, on my own here in Lancashire and we provide a service to schools. So they buy us in and we work around providing very individual support programmes for children who are autistic.

And now over time that’s developed into children who also have ADHD and PDA and things like that. But it’s really good. And in these nine years there’s now a team of five specialist teachers working with us and we have some support staff as well, some of who are autistic. So I love my team, they are amazing and I love the work.

So alongside that we also do training. Anybody who wants to know about autism or ADHD, we will do training and that’s anywhere in the country or the world. Just ask us. We’ll do it. 

Steph:

Brilliant. And you shared on your wonderful blog about your ADHD diagnosis. Was it last year that you received your diagnosis? 

 Lynn:

July 21.

Steph:

Yes and how did you, I mean, how did you find the process? How did it, you know, help you, I guess, understand the way that you learn and or how did it impact you?

Lynn:

Yes, it’s interesting, isn’t it? Because it started off because I’m now 54 and it started off around 50. And I think everybody gets, you know, what’s going on in my life? middle aged crisis thing. But I’ve been doing a lot of work around girls and autism and the research and I kept coming across ADHD in girls and I kept having like shivers through me thinking, Oh my gosh, it sounds like me.

This sounds like me. So near my 50th birthday, I went to my doctors with a 4 page essay of why I thought I had ADHD. Because I can hyperfocus, and I said, please send me for a referral. And I made the specific choice to go down the NHS route, partly because I want to help the kids and young people and people that I work with understand that process.

And I know it takes a long time and you’ve got to work out what you do while you’re waiting. So I thought, well, if I’ve experienced that myself, I’ve got something to share. So in the first year they didn’t send my referral off, said they lost it. And so I went back after a year and said I’ve heard nothing, so made them send it off this time and so that took.

Then I was on a two year waiting list and in July 21 I finally had my online assessment which took an hour and a half, very intense right to the end of it. I said, Yeah, I’ve no doubt that you’ve combined ADHD, so but in the meantime I’ve done that hyper focusing and I’d done a university certificate in ADHD. I’d looked and researched everything and I talked to my family and my friends, even an old school friend actually, to kind of get all the evidence together of of whether that was true or not.

Because obviously you think, am I right? Have I got it wrong with all that doubt that you have. So I had enough evidence, but it wasn’t until he said yes that I really believed it.

Steph:

I can resonate with that and, and especially around like thinking, you know, am I doing this? You know, why am I doing this? Is there is there a reason behind it? I was the same when I was diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD and kind of I it was kind of like, okay, I mean, I, I guess I already knew.

But actually when you hear it from somebody, you know, it just kind of confirms your understanding. And then I guess, therefore, for me, trying to work out is there, you know, is there other ways I can do things that’s actually going to help me? I’ve been trying to do it as a certain way. I may be. I don’t know.

I’m thinking maybe specifically with learning. I, I knew at that point why I was I had had previous difficulties in, in my education and then thinking, okay, okay, how can I because I was 19 when I was diagnosed. So I then went to university and was able to do things slightly different. But having that kind of understanding really kind of helps, I guess in terms of yeah, that understanding of yourself. Is there anything like do you think back to your education and you’re like, Oh, okay!

 Lynn: 

I’ve spent a lot of my life and get so badly exams. So I was top of the class in so many subjects. So it’s obviously quite clever, but my exam results were quite poor for what I should have achieved really. I mean, I’m obviously a bit older, so I think, you know, I did my exams in the eighties and there was no kind of extra help or even discussion about why that might be.

And then when I went to university, to do my teacher training, I was always on the last minute with everything. And again, you know, I just felt like I never achieved what I could have done. And I didn’t know what that barrier was. And I, I kind of grieved for that a little bit since, you know, thinking and you can’t go back and change things.

But I know now that, you know, I’m a voracious learner. I love learning, but I’ve kind of never even gone for to do a masters, for example, because I’m too scared of failing with my so I probably could do it now, but I think it just hangs around, doesn’t it? Yeah, but I’ve been a lot kinder to myself.

Just been all that looking back on everything. You reevaluate everything, don’t you? I bet you’ve done that as well. Yeah. And then you kind of helps you be more kind to yourself, I think.

Steph:

Yeah. Yeah. And it was, I mean it took me quite a while, like to link why I do the work that I do back to my own personal experiences. I don’t know why it took so long. It wasn’t until I actually had started doing my autism specialist teaching business. I went on a business course and we were asked the question about why, why do you do the work you’re doing? At that time, I you know, I was thinking I just love, I love interacting with autistic individuals. I just, I just love it. I love it. And then and I was really questioned on it. But why do you love it? Why do you love going into schools? And then, you know, I really thought about, okay, when I’m, when I’m in the classroom, I see, I feel like I see things that maybe other other teachers might not see or they might not pick up on. Why?

And then I’m thinking, you know, I can, I can feel it, you know, like really kind of thinking, hang on a minute, there is a reason why I’m so passionate about the work, the work I do. And I wonder whether it’s similar with you. You know, I really I can go into a classroom and I just like advocating for the child just comes so natural to me.

And I wonder if I’m, you know, deep inside there is I’m thinking of myself as well. Like, you know, maybe things could have been different if there would have been these adaptions when I was at school or, you know, just seeing things where the seemingly little adaptions can make such a difference. Um, do you feel or do you think about, well, maybe the question is how do you think maybe your own personal experience of ADHD helps with the work you do?

Lynn:

I think very similar to you actually. Right from the first when I went into teaching, I was always really had a big heart for children with special educational needs. And when I started teaching autistic children and then I went into a specialist school as well, I went on supply and never left for eight years, but it was just about I could see something about the children, which was great potential and getting to know each child individually and like the spark of intelligence that was there, that was not recognized by other people and what what was not bring in, that was the barriers they were experi