Girls and Autism: New Perspectives – Many Voices Girls with autism are often overlooked for support because their identifying behaviours can be different to that of boys. Without a diagnosis, girls on the autism spectrum can struggle with extreme stress, leading to mental health issues, problem behaviours, school refusal or other outcomes which impact on their quality of life.

Barry Carpenter was recently appointed to the UK’s first Professorship in Mental Health in Education, at Oxford Brookes University. He is Honorary Professor at universities in the UK, Ireland, Germany and Australia. He has been a Fellow of the University of Oxford. He has been awarded an OBE and CBE by the Queen for services to children with Special Needs. In 2017 he was entered into "Who’s Who" in acknowledgement of his national and international contribution to the field of Special Education. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Barry has held the leadership positions of Headteacher, Principal, Academic Director, Chief Executive, Inspector of Schools and Director of the Centre for Special Education at Westminster College, Oxford. In 2009, he was appointed by the Secretary of State for Education as Director of the Children with Complex Learning Difficulties and Disabilities Research Project. A major outcome of that research was the pedagogy around Engagement for Learning; this model has been adopted as the basis for new statutory assessment for children with SEND to be implemented in 2020. He is the author of over 150 articles and many texts on a range of learning disability/special needs topics. His work has been translated into German, French, Dutch and Russian. He has written extensively on Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorders (FASD), and co-authored the seminal text, "Engaging Learners with Complex Needs" (Routledge). Barry lectures nationally and internationally. In recent years this has included China, Japan, Abu Dhabi, USA, Germany, Australia and New Zealand. He is the co-founder of the National Forum for Neuroscience in Special Education. For the Mental Health Foundation, he chaired the National Inquiry into the Mental Health of Young People with Learning Disabilities. He is currently chairing a working group looking at the needs of Girls on the Autism Spectrum. This will be the focus of his 2019 book. Barry has 3 children – one a School Principal, one a Senior Occupational Therapist in Child Mental Health, and a daughter with Down’s Syndrome, who now has a home of her own, published her first book in 2017, and is on an Apprenticeship as a Teaching Assistant.