Abby Lloyd

Abby has been a primary teacher since 1999 and completed her specialist teacher training in 2002. She has qualifications in literacy and dyslexia, mental health awareness and has written a guidebook with her daughter for use in schools regarding support for autistic girls. Abby has worked as a primary teacher, specialist teacher, assistant SENCO and private SEN tutor and also speaks at parent groups, mainly on the subjects of autism and anxiety.

Abby has three teenage children who are all autistic. They also between them have diagnoses of dyslexia, OCD and sensory processing difficulties, and she is exploring ADHD with her youngest at present. All three children experience anxiety to varying degrees and one is currently out of school with Emotionally Based School Avoidance. This gives her a huge amount of empathy and personal experience to share with schools and families, alongside her professional knowledge.

Abby is available to work with schools or families to offer specialist teacher observation-based reports. She requests any reports and assessments already carried out and collates the findings of these with background information on the child. She then comes into school to observe the child both in the classroom setting and 1:1. Abby is able to carry out assessments to give a wider picture based on school and parent concerns. She also spends time with the class teacher to discuss what is working well and where the school would like support. This leads to a thorough written report, pulling together and connecting what is already known, adding new information and then suggesting best next steps.