Our Story
About Our Founder
Rachel Cavanagh is the founder and director of Create Skills for Life. Rachel has worked as a teacher and educational therapist for 22 years. During this time she has taken thousands of children on a successful journey to become functioning adults with a positive outlook on life.
At the age of 22, Rachel began her career as a secondary school art teacher in the mainstream school system. Upon returning from maternity leave, she found her position was filled; she forged a new path as a learning support teacher. During this time she noticed many children with very low reading ages who struggled with assessments.
‘I saw there was a need, whether it be to read or write…something was needed’ - Rachel.
This experience sparked her journey as an educational therapist; working 3 days a week as a secondary support teacher and 3 days as a private therapist. Her therapy work allowed her to provide a multisensory approach to her teachings, tailored for each individual student. Her one on one work with students enabled her to incorporate many systems for learning e.g. auditory, visual, phonemic and memory.
‘I learn who my students are, and how they work as individuals and teach them accordingly, and in a way they want to learn’ - Rachel.
Rachel has 14 years of experience as a learning support teacher, specialising in literacy and numeracy.
Additionally, Rachel has been involved in the world of ASD for many years; two of Rachel’s three children have ASD and ADHD. Through her extensive research and liaison, Rachel has acquired three amazing mentors: Professor Tony Attwood, Psychologist; close friend Dimi Stathopoulos, Speech Pathologist and Occupational Therapist; and Mogens Johansen, a retired Psychologist and close friend who taught Rachel the theory and concepts of psychology. These mentors helped expand Rachel’s knowledge of speech therapy, occupational therapy and psychology and the impact upon ASD, language delay and other developmental issues.
BYRON’S STORY
Rachel’s Son Byron
Rachel has three sons, Hudson, Byron and Mason; the middle son is Byron. Two of Rachel’s son have autism spectrum disorder and ADHD. This was a difficult journey of discovery, diagnosis and intervention, parenting and teaching.
“All I wanted was for Byron to be the best version of Byron he could be”
After watching him suffer from extreme anxiety, not understanding the world around him and not knowing how to function with others, I went and asked everyone I knew that could help, ‘How do I teach this little boy to function and interact with the world around him?’ Everyone told me to look on the internet. I searched the internet and found singular worksheets but there was not a program of steps to follow and to guide and help me teach Byron. This is when my mentor Professor Attwood encouraged me to develop a program myself.
‘So, I did’ – Rachel.
I designed, trialled and tested teaching and learning sequences to develop resources for every stage and age of the learning development process. I created resources to help people, like my son Byron, thrive in the world. I created resources that would help him, and other children, to ‘read’ and understand other people; manage their behaviour, emotions, and thoughts about the people around them; adapt to different settings; monitor, change and adapt behaviours, thoughts, and feelings as needed; and keep themselves safe and regulated. I wanted Byron to have the best path in life and become the best version of himself. This become my goal for other students too.