Phoebe Caldwell

At the beginning of her career with autistic people, she began her work as an untrained occupational therapy assistant. The work consisted of autistic men who were in long term institutions in the Bristol area. As Caldwell began her work, she began to undertake unconventional ways of working with and assisting those in the institution. She decided that painting and creating murals would help liven up the dull corridor in which they were confined to during her time as an assistant. After being terminated from her first position, she continues her work elsewhere in the surrounding areas of Bristol. After recognition spread about Caldwell's work, Bristol University sponsored the creation of a training video, featuring herself.[1]

Caldwell is in her late 80's and has five children and nine grandchildren.[2]

Caldwell has created a system based on imitation of body language to communicate with autistic people.[3] It is known that autistic people tend to protect themselves from sensory overload by stimming.[3] Caldwell has studied this and instead of attempting to intervene, she uses it to gain their attention.[3] "Contrary to what is normally understood, children on the autistic spectrum do recognise when we use their own body language to communicate, provided we respond using the repertoire of their personal behaviours. We are shifting their attention from solitary self-stimulation to shared activity" [3] It is important to pay attention to how they do this and the feelings behind it, just mimicking tends to only catch their attention for a short period of time; we need to answer.[3] By echoing them, this will interact with their brain in a positive way and reducing stress, "Aloneness becomes a shared interest."[3]

Caldwell has been recognised by BBC news[4] and The Times. She recently won the Times/Sternberg award for her work to improve the outlook for autistic people with learning disabilities.[5]