Marianna is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist specialising in the field of Autism Spectrum and neurodiversity. For over twenty years, Marianna has dedicated her work to promoting the psychological well-being of people on the Autism Spectrum and improving understanding of ASC as an international trainer in diagnostics of ASC, lecturer, writer and therapist.
Marianna started her career working for the National Autistic Society, supporting young adults with ASD in accessing further education. She then worked at the Institute of Psychiatry and the Maudsley Hospital as a Research Psychologist on the Molecular Genetic Study of Autism as well as on the longitudinal study following up children adopted from Romania, who experienced severe deprivation in early development.
For ten years, Marianna managed psychology provision at the National Centre for High Functioning Autism at the Great Ormond Street Hospital for children. Together with colleagues from the Institute of Child Health, she conducted research into how environmental modifications in schools can lead to improved outcomes for children with ASC. She was part of the team who developed the STEP-ASD (Systemic Transition Programme for ASD), a research-evaluated intervention supporting children with Autism Spectrum in mainstream schools, and co-authored a book on supporting children during the transition into secondary school. She developed programs to support children, young people and their families after receiving a diagnosis (PEGASUS), published in peer-reviewed journals including JCPP and PEGASUS is now used in a range of services across the UK. She also set up and continue to provide training in diagnostic assessment of Autism Spectrum (ADOS2 courses), which attracts professionals from all over the world.
In 2017, Marianna was approached to set up the first ASD/LD module of the CYP IAPT program, where she works to date as a Senior Clinical Tutor. Marianna is the founder and director of Autism Spectrum Direction, a social enterprise that provides training courses internationally and invests proceeds from these to support autistic community through therapeutic and assessment services. The main focus of her career has been inspiring people to continuously strive to create more inclusive environments for everyone on the neuro-spectrum and helping children and young people with neurodiversity to achieve to their potential.
I have reviewed two websites about Autism. They are the Autism Society of America (http://www.autism-society.org) and Kids Health: Autism (http://kidshealth.org). They are both organizations. The first website was one of the first few websites that came up on my internet search of Autism.
The first website (Autism Society of America) was helpful in terms of signs and early inidications. They also stated that Autism can be treated but can’t be outgrown or cured. They had many resources in other states, and programs to send your children. They also had a link to bring your children to sensory friendly films. I liked this website because it was easy to navigate and had many resources. It was targeted to parents, families, and educators.
The second website (Kids Health:Autism) was targeted towards parents, kids, and teens. In each section of targeted audiences the vocabulary differed for better understanding of each particular age group. I really liked that. It had many other options in the website such as nutriton and printable worksheets. It was not as easy to navigate but it had some useful information.