Alex Hopwood

Alex’s journey with Autism started with Christopher; a wonderful, non-speaking, ‘severely’ autistic child with a love of nursery rhymes and teletubbies! Despite his outward ‘limitations’, his initial sessions in the Rapid Prompting Method (RPM) with Soma Mukhopadhyay enabled him to access age-appropriate learning. Over time, with consistent practice, he was able to demonstrate his ‘inner language’ through spelling on a letter-board.

In 2014, after completing an Education degree (BA Hons) and qualifying as a teacher, Alex had the opportunity to take the highest level of RPM qualification, an internship with Soma (the founder of RPM). After this, Alex created a private practise using RPM strategies to help other autistic individuals. She has spent thousands of hours supporting autistic individuals and their families, honing and developing her skills as a teacher, and learning something new from each student who she has the privilege to support.

During these years, Alex’s practice was shaped by her experiences with students, families and professionals. She sought to establish transparency over the support levels students were given and create assessment tools to identify the impact of intervention and track general progression. After delivering her first professional group mentorship she formalised the professional standards and guidelines for professionals in the UK. These practices supported her work in the UK and she works with LEA’s and a range of professionals. To distinguish these adaptations, Alex now calls this adaptation, Connect through Spelling (CtS).

At TEfA, Alex designs all of our programmes. She still works with a diverse range of individuals and consults on programmes where input and expertise is required. She is passionate about training more professionals and supporting researchers who are exploring this autistic population. She is continually expanding her knowledge base to support students towards greater independence through work on postural stability, primitive reflexes and behavioural optometry to name a few.