Rebekah's Journey

Rebekah Herbert is a specialist in Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND) Law, holding Higher Distinction in Levels 1, 2 and 3. She combines over 15 years’ lived experience as a parent of neurodiverse young people with more than a decade of professional work alongside vulnerable children and families.

Her work is rooted in inclusive education, with a focus on:

• Making inclusion effective in schools and alternative settings.

• Overcoming medical and social barriers and supporting reintegration into full-time education.

• Addressing social, emotional and communication needs within classrooms and across whole-school communities.

• Strengthening learning through play, especially in early childhood education.

Rebekah’s expertise includes:

• Makaton signing and supporting children with speech and language disorders (Elkan).

• Strategies for sensory processing and integration difficulties.

• Specialist insight into Autism, including the unique challenges faced by girls on the spectrum.

• Training in the Autism Diagnostic Observation Schedule (ADOS), undertaken as part of the recognised diagnostic process for Autism Spectrum Disorders.

• Understanding genetic syndromes such as Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome (EDS) type 3, which are often overlooked due to their invisible nature, and the impact these can have on education and attendance.

• Supporting children with speech apraxia, phonological speech disorder, Developmental Language Disorder (DLD), and wider communication needs.

• Guidance around mental health in children and young people, including conditions such as anorexia, obsessive-compulsive disorders, and other complex presentations.

• Working with adoptive families, where children’s complex needs can be misunderstood and parents are too often blamed. Rebekah advocates for approaches that recognise the importance of a therapeutic environment, low-demand parenting styles, and the realities of conditions such as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD), which are frequently misinterpreted in educational and social care contexts.