ℕ𝕖𝕨𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕦𝕡𝕕𝕒𝕥𝕖𝕤
Autism Awareness; review
Sunday, May 22, 2022 by Sam McCormick | Eric Knows
Our first collaboration with Eric Knows on Thursday 19th May was an overwhelming success.
Ella offered her own lived experiences combined with the theoretical knowledge, to cover the main areas of autism that are often overlooked.
We covered:
- How the senses can often be experienced differently;
- Behind the scenes – masking, following rules and alexithymia (difficulty recognising both your own and others’ emotions);
- Stimming;
- Executive functioning;
- Shutdown (quiet, withdrawal, unable to talk and/or decision making) versus meltdowns (angry, outbursts, crying, shouting, hitting and lashing out).
"It was great to hear about each point in detail, and from a female's point of view." Said one parent of an autistic child
Ella also talked about how to best manage your own expectations against the needs of the neuro-divergent individual. Explaining how the outcome for everyone is better if the needs of the ND individual are put first; create the environment to suit the individual’s needs rather than make the individual adapt to the environment they are spending time in eg, if you know an autistic individual will struggle to follow a set of rules, break them down and give them one at a time. If you know an individual stims, allow them to do so.
And Ella observed that mental ill-health often coexists with autism; possibly because of the increased mental load of just getting through the day in the neuro-typical world. There have been no definitive studies that have understood the true root cause.
One ND attendee reflected: "So far, all I had learned about autism is that it is different for everyone and for that reason autism could never been correctly described by the same one description. The discussion style [of the event] was interesting a comfortable and Ella explained everything well. I would like to learn more from Ella about meltdowns v shutdowns and masking."
She also offered some practical tips to help with Executive function and what to do/not do during melt or shutdown. Practical in both her own personal experience of learning about herself and learning the best way to manage her autistic son in these situations.
And an NHS practitioner commented: "What I have gained from this session is confidence. It was all extremely valuable and I am looking forward to future sessions."
Suggestions for future events include:
- Autism in girls
- Masking
- Later diagnosis (pre-teen onwards)
- Alexithymia
- Stimming
- More OT intervention strategies
- Ideas for working with ND patients
Do you have any more suggestions to add to the list? Would you like us to come and deliver a talk at your place of work, or to the staff of somewhere you often visit? Drop us an email to let us know at sam@learninganewway.co.uk
