About Jo

Jo Grace
@jo3grace

About Jo Grace

Joanna Grace is an international sensory engagement and inclusion specialist, doctoral researcher, trainer, author, TEDx speaker and founder of The Sensory Projects. The Sensory Projects run on the principle that with the right knowledge and a little creativity, inexpensive resources can become effective sensory tools for inclusion. You can find out about the various projects at www.TheSensoryProjects.co.uk

Joanna is a qualified teacher who has taught in mainstream and special school connecting with pupils of all ages and abilities. Joanna has also worked in a consultancy capacity to support schools to further their provision for children with additional learning needs. Since setting up The Sensory Projects Joanna's work has expanded, and she regularly works with adult care providers, heritage settings and families. Joanna draws on experience from her own life as well as insight from the research world and her professional background to inform her work. Joanna has family members with physical disabilities and neurodiverse conditions and has also been a foster carer for children with complex disabilities. Joanna is autistic and this enables her to take in huge amounts of information on a particular topic, Joanna uses her ability to focus on the sensory world to inform her work. Joanna is currently studying for a doctorate in Identity and Belonging for People with Profound and Multiple Learning Disabilities. 

Joanna's first book Sensory Stories: A Practical Guide sells globally and is a well-thumbed document in many a special school classroom. Her subsequent books: 

are also widely read and are beginning to go global!

Joanna publishes an every growing range of Sensory Stories at The Sensory Projects, and recently became a children's author with her books:

  • Voyage to Arghan - which tells of the journey made by a little girl who wins a competition to be the first child in space. (The protagonist of this book has Downs Syndrome).
  • Ernest and I - which follows the adventures of a boy and his toy penguin living a life at sea. (The protagonist in this book is Autistic).
  • Spike and Mole - in which you can meet a funny little hedgehog who lives inside his spikes rather in the way that a tortoise might live inside its shell and how he helps a tenacious little mole in the garden one day when disaster strikes.
Joanna's children's books are all Sensory Stories, each page has a sensory prompt along with the text and a full colour page illustration, enabling differently abled children to meaningfully share in the stories together.
In 2019 Joanna's son became the UK's youngest published author, with a book he wrote when he had just turned five: My Mummy is Autistic, environmentalist and broadcaster Chris Packham wrote the foreword for this bright and cheerful explanation and celebration of neurodiversity.
Joanna followed this a year later with her own deeply personal book The Subtle Spectrum, which describes the stages people go through following a diagnosis of neurodiversity in adulthood and the journey to embracing autistic identity. Steve Silberman, author of Neurotribes, wrote the foreword for Joanna's book.
Joanna is very active on social media and always welcomes new connections across Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin.
You can find out more about her work at The Sensory Projects on her website www.TheSensoryProjects.co.uk

Jo's posts on SNJ

Jo's Posts

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