Katie Quickenden

Katie is an experienced educator, qualified early years SENCO and mum of two neurodivergent children. She has a child development degree and has worked in a variety of educational and childcare settings supporting many neurodiverse families. Katie is passionate about empowering parents to better understand and advocate for their child.

Katie always felt her early parenting experiences were different to everyone else around her. This became even more apparent when she began working as an Ofsted registered childminder in 2018. Not long after, in a bid to understand her children better, Katie embarked on a degree in Childhood Studies specialising in Early Years Education. Over the years Katie has worked across various educational settings including mainstream, specialist and independent nursery and primary schools, children’s centres, and charities such as the NSPCC ChildLine. After graduating Katie went on to qualify as an Early Years SENCO and found her passion working with and supporting children with special educational needs and their families. This passion was further ignited by her own children’s diagnoses of Autism, ADHD, Dyslexia and Developmental Coordination Disorder. Despite having similar diagnoses, they have very different profiles and require different parenting approaches. Katie has worked tirelessly to understand and raise awareness of their individual needs and foster relationships with friends, family, and professionals that enable them to thrive. Katie now dedicates her work to sharing her knowledge and experience with others through parent support groups and bespoke coaching workshops.