Type of service: Local groups, Social groups

Parents Talking Asperger's (PTA) is a faith-based, award-winning voluntary support group for parents of children and young adults with Asperger syndrome (diagnosed and undiagnosed)/High Functioning Autism and associated conditions. It offers emotional/practical parent-to-parent support/advice; special educational needs (SEN) advocacy and signposting; home visits; social activities for parents, children and young people with autism; and siblings. Since Founder and Principal Karen Irvani set up a Facebook page called “Parents Talking Asperger's” in February 2012, today, PTA supports almost 2,000 families, primarily in north/rest of Oxfordshire with regular contributors from around the world. PTA also receives family referrals from The National Autistic Society (NAS), other autism charities, local authorities and SEN professionals from local schools. PTA operates locally in Middleton Cheney on the border of north Oxfordshire and south Northamptonshire, but draws in families from a 30-mile radius to its groups, and overall, supports families nationwide and overseas online, by phone and in person. PTA's main aim is to create a supportive forum enabling parents to share the highs and lows of living with autism, and turn the negatives into positives: no one should have to struggle alone. Its secondary aim is to work alongside the autism and educational community to promote awareness and positive life change for children, young people with autism; their siblings and their parents. PTA's Fun Nights for children/young people, siblings and parents take place at its headquarters near Banbury on alternative Thursdays: PTA Youth 6.30pm-8.30pm and PTA Junior 4.30pm-6.30pm. Activities include Wii, iPads, computer games, table tennis, book corner, painting and stamping, magnet and Lego construction, table soccer, air hockey and in planning, an electronic sensory room chill-out. Siblings Talking Asperger's is PTA's newest group and meets on the last Friday of every month providing a social opportunity in different settings for siblings for children and young people with autism.

Aimed at: Adolescent , Adult , Child , Child/adolescent sibling, Parent/carer of a child, Parent/carer of a young person, Parent/carer of an adult, Partner, Young person

Specialisms: Exclusively autism specific