Joshua Muggleton

Joshua Thomas Bailey Muggleton (Born 7 July 1989) in Guildford, Surrey, is an English Speaker, Writer and Consultant on Aspergers Syndrome. He is currently a Psychology student at St Andrews University, Currently featured on the Channel 4 project Yeardot

Personal life

Joshua spends his term time in St Andrews, Scotland and comes home to Guildford, Surrey to live with his parents, two brothers, and sister.

Academic history

Joshua was born and brought up in Guildford, Surrey. For the first 2 years of his academic career he was home schooled by is Mother. Because of his brother Autism, Joshua was sent to the local primary school. Unfortunately, he was bullied from soon after he started. Joshua then attended a large secondary school in Guildford, where the bullying got progressively worse. Within 6 weeks he was clinically depressed, and by the first Christmas, he was suicidal. His mental state continued to degrade until he had a nervous breakdown at age 15, shortly after he was diagnosed with Aspergers syndrome. Joshua spent the next 6 months in and out of school, unable to return to full time study. 4 months before his GCSEs, he was officially signed off school by his Psychiatrist. He spent the run up to his GCSEs self studying. He was unable to attend school to take his GCSEs, and so had to take them in Surrey County Council buildings. Joshua achieved grade C in Maths, English literature, English Language, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Business studies and a B grade in Religious Studies.

Joshua spent the next year recovering from his experiences, as well as part time studying for his A levels with Satellite Virtual Schools. However, just before his first exams, he suffered another nervous breakdown, and so discontinued studying.

Joshua then attended a Farleigh Further Education College, a specialist collage for people with Aspergers syndrome partnered with City of Bath Collage. During his first year, he studied Mathematics, Physics and Business studies. The following year he substituted Psychology for Physics due to low grades in this subject. After showing high aptitude for Psychology, he took the whole A level on one year, instead of the usual two years.

Joshua Left Farleigh with A Grade A level in Maths and Psychology, B grade A level in Business Studies and D grade in AS level Physics. Joshua was subsequently accepted into St Andrews university.

Autism Career

Autism Speaking and Training

Joshua started giving lectures and workshops when he was 15. His first two talks were minor, and to small groups of professionals. However, Joshua’s big break came when he was offered the chance to speak at the [National Autistic Society] s south east members meeting. After a well reseved performance, Joshua was asked to speak at the NAS "Make School Make Sense" campaign launch at the House of Commons. This spawned many other talking opportunities, including the Liberal Democrat and Labour party conferences.

Autism Writing

After launching the "Make School Make Sense" Campaign, Joshua was asked to write a blog on life with Aspergers syndrome for the NAS. This was put on Hommerton Collage, Cambridge recommended reading list for Teacher Training courses. This was then stopped when Joshua signed a contract with SOTelevision for the YearDot Project. In September 2008 Joshua began writing a book scheduled for publication in early 2009

Autism Media work

Joshua’s work with the media began with the run up to the "Make School Make Sense" campaign, in which he was featured in many local and specialist education newspapers and periodicals. In 2006, Joshua was interviewed by BBC news online, BBC radio 5 Live, and BBC radio 4. Since then, he has been featured on CNN, and regional news broadcasts.

Joshua is currently featured in the Channel 4 documentary Yeardot

Work with the NAS

In 2007 Joshua was elected as a Councillor for the NAS. At age 18, this makes him the youngest ever councillor in the charities history.

External links

* [http://www.mugsy.org/josh Joshua Muggletons website]
* [http://www.yeardot.co.uk Yeardot Website]