Autism Sensory Workshop Gympie Qld
at Gympie Senior Citizens Centre
Thursday, 22 October 2026 from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM (E. Australia Standard Time) + Add to calendar22/10/2026 09:0022/10/2026 15:30Australia/BrisbaneAutism Sensory Workshop Gympie QldAutism Sensory Workshop Gympie Qld
Thursday, 22 October 2026 from 9:00 AM to 3:30 PM (E. Australia Standard Time)
Organiser
Nelle Frances
0482830158
nelle@nellefrances.com.au
Address
Gympie Senior Citizens Centre
40 Mellor Street
Gympie
QLD 4570 Australia
Bring a jacket if you find air conditioning cold. Sign on & registration from 8:30am
Event web page: https://www.stickytickets.com.au/krnh9tGympie Senior Citizens Centre
40 Mellor Street
Gympie QLD 4570
AustraliaNelle FrancesfalseDD/MM/YYYY2880
Tickets
Details
Sensory Detective® Autism Workshop – Gympie Q
Date: 22 October 2026
Venue: Gympie Senior Citizens Centre, 40 Mellor Street, Gympie Qld 4570
Region: Wide Bay–Burnett
Duration: 6 Hours CPD
The Workshop HANDOUT NOTES will be emailed prior to the event or handed out on the day.
A practical, neurobiological understanding of autism, sensory processing, regulation and behaviour—designed for the people who support autistic individuals of all ages and life stages, across home, education, therapy and community settings.
For: Teachers, Allied Health Therapists, Behaviour Specialists, Support Workers and Families.
What if the behaviour you're seeing is telling you something about the nervous system?
Term 4 is underway. For teachers, educators, parents, carers, allied health professionals and support workers, this is often the time of year when we begin to see something change.
A student who was managing earlier in the year may now be experiencing increasing sensory overload, avoidance, refusal, shutdowns or meltdowns.
A child may participate at school — only to fall apart the moment they get home. An autistic person may appear to be coping, while their capacity is actually being steadily depleted.
And despite everyone working hard to provide support, the question remains: “Why isn't my support increasing capacity?”
The Sensory Detective Workshop® explores what may be happening underneath the behaviour.
Are you noticing:
- escalating sensory load?
- increasing difficulty participating in classroom activities?
- transitions becoming harder?
- refusal or avoidance?
- shutdown?
- meltdowns?
- fluctuating capacity from one day — or one lesson — to the next?
- students who appear to “cope” at school but collapse afterwards?
What if these aren't simply behaviours to manage? What if they are observable indicators of an autistic nervous system responding to an increasingly demanding sensory and cognitive environment?
Nelle's workshop provides educators with a practical framework for understanding what may be happening beneath the behaviour — and how environmental changes, sensory supports and regulation-focused approaches can influence participation and capacity.
PARENTS & CARERS - What happens after school may tell you something about what happened during school.
Does your child hold everything together at school, then come home exhausted, irritable, overwhelmed or unable to cope?
Do they seem to “manage” in one environment but struggle dramatically in another?
Are you being told, “They were fine at school today,” while you're seeing something very different at home?
The difference may not be inconsistency.
It may be capacity depletion.
Nelle's workshop explores how sensory load, regulation, executive demands and environmental expectations can interact — and why behaviour occurring after school can provide important information about what a child has been managing throughout the day.
ALLIED HEALTH PROFESSIONALS & SUPPORT WORKERS - What if we stopped treating sensory processing as a
side issue?
Sensory processing can influence far more than sensory preferences.
It can affect:
- regulation
- functional capacity
- participation
- executive load
- communication
- transitions
- learning
- social engagement
- co-regulation
- tolerance of everyday environments.
The Sensory Detective Workshop® examines the relationship between sensory processing, nervous-system regulation and functional participation, while introducing a practical approach to developing individualised sensory profiles and considering environmental modification.
Rather than asking only, “How do we change the behaviour?”, the workshop asks:
“What is the person's nervous system experiencing — and what is required for capacity to become available?”
CONVERGING PERSPECTIVES
Whether you are standing in a classroom, supporting a child at home, delivering therapy or working alongside an autistic person in the community, you may be observing the same underlying challenge from different perspectives.
A teacher sees avoidance.
A parent sees the after-school collapse.
A therapist sees reduced functional participation.
A support worker sees fluctuating capacity.
But these aren't always separate problems.
They may be different expressions of the same underlying sensory and regulatory load.
With NDIS funding changes tightening and schools and frontline services increasingly expected to respond to more complex support needs, bridging these gaps is becoming increasingly important.
Understanding autism through a regulation-first lens can help the people around an autistic individual move from fragmented observations to a more complete understanding of what is happening.
THE SENSORY DETECTIVE WORKSHOP®
Thursday 22 October 2026 | Gympie Senior Citizens Centre
This immersive six-hour professional learning experience combines almost three decades of autism-sector experience, lived experience and research-informed knowledge to explore the neurobiological foundations of autistic neurology — including the sensory and regulatory processes that are often overlooked in conventional autism training.
At the heart of the workshop is the Sensory Detective® Neurobiological Framework and its regulation-first approach to understanding sensory processing, capacity and participation.
You will explore:
Sensory Processing → Nervous-System Regulation → Capacity → Participation
and consider what can happen when sensory demands exceed available regulatory capacity.
This isn't simply about identifying sensory preferences.
It is about learning to become a “sensory detective” — noticing the clues, understanding what they may be communicating, and using that information to develop more individualised and meaningful support.
If you work with, educate, support or care for autistic individuals of all ages, this workshop is
designed to give you information you can take back into your everyday practice.
Come and discover what may be happening beneath autistic behaviour.
Sensory Detective Workshop® — Gympie
Thursday 22 October 2026
Gympie Senior Citizens Centre
Places are limited. Registration is essential.
What you will gain from this 6-hour CPD session:
- how sensory load, interoception and executive demand interact
- why autistic masking and compliance exhausts autistic capacity
- how dysregulation looks like non-compliance, avoidance or lack of motivation
- how to identify what is actually destabilising the autistic person's nervous system
- what to change first—without asking for more effort
This workshop is for you if:
You're a clinician or practitioner
- seeing repeated burnout, regression or plateauing in autistic clients
- wanting an evidence-aligned framework that makes sense of complexity
- needing language that holds up in reports, reviews and audits
You're a teacher or early childhood professional
- seeing autistic children cope until they can't
- wanting to reduce escalation, shutdown and exclusion
- needing practical, system-level adjustments—not just "strategies"
You're a support coordinator or support worker
- struggling to translate plans into lived success
- seeing participants cycle through providers with limited change
- wanting to understand what actually supports participation
You're a family member
- knowing your autistic child / adult is working hard to be their best
- exhausted by being told to do more
- wanting a framework that explains your lived experience
What you will leave with:
- A shared language across disciplines
- A way to see nervous-system load in real time
- Clarity about what to prioritise—and what to stop pushing
- Practical adjustments that reduce escalation and risk
- Renewed confidence that progress is possible when regulation comes first
MOST IMPORTANTLY Teams will leave ALIGNED - this is where real and sustainable change begins!
If you are ready to stop asking autistic people to perform through overwhelm—and start building environments, supports and expectations that actually work—this workshop was designed for you.
The Sensory Detective® Workshop
6 hours CPD | Regulation-first | Practical | Evidence-aligned
This is not about doing more - it's about doing what works.
Nelle Frances
Autism Education Consultant & Trainer
Creator, Sensory Detective® Framework
Sensory-First Supports that Create Lasting Change
Continuing Professional Development (CPD) Contribution (6 hours):
Please retain your Certificate of Attendance as a record of CPD. This workshop aligns to General Capabilities, in particular the organising elements of Personal & Social Capabilities, Critical & Creative Thinking and Ethical Behaviour within the Australian Curriculum.
Cancellation Policy:
Notification of cancellation received in writing no less than 7 days prior to the workshop will be refunded. No refunds will be given after that.
The Workshop HANDOUT NOTES will be emailed prior to the event or handed out on the day.
Disclaimer: The Sensory Detective Workshop is for educational and professional development purposes only. It does not provide medical, therapeutic, or clinical advice. The content is based on the lived experience, professional expertise and research-informed practice of Nelle Frances. This workshop does not constitute medical, therapeutic or clinical advice. Important: This workshop includes a brief sensory simulation activity. For the safety of all participants, anyone with autism, sensory processing disorder, anxiety, trauma, or any condition that may be affected by this activity are strongly advised not to take part.. You are welcome to observe from outside the room.. Nelle Frances accepts no liability for any injury, loss, or damage arising from participation in this workshop or from the use of information provided.
Refund Policy
Refunds up to 7 days before the event, Cancellation must be received in writing 7 days prior to event.
