Cogs Stories: Cathy Gregory

Today is International Women’s Day. And to mark the occasion, we at Cogs are launching a series of pieces that showcase the incredible stories of women with experiences around neurodiversity. First in the series is Cathy Gregory, mother to a son with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD).

In the short video below, Cathy describes the challenges she faced in finding the best educational setting for her son and her eventual decision to pull him out of mainstream education altogether. Deciding to homeschool was, she says, a hugely difficult choice, but one that – in hindsight – paid off. Her son achieved excellent grades at GCSE and was able to move on to college then university.

Cathy’s story illustrates a common dilemma among the parents we’ve spoken to – how to balance the desire for a more tailored educational environment with the often prohibitive costs of homeschooling. Thankfully, the decision Cathy and her family came to proved to be the right one, but this isn’t always the case. For many families, additional educational support outside of mainstream settings remains frustratingly out of reach. And that’s why Cogs exists: to end educational inequality for all neurodiverse children.

You can check out Cathy’s story below.