Understanding Autism for Dummies

Product Information

Whether it’s delivering world-class education for everyone, reducing diagnosis waiting times, or supporting autistic people with training and employment, this strategy sets out the real steps we’re going to take over the next five years. These are steps I know will make a difference and help all autistic people across England lead the full and happy lives they deserve. By 2026, we will have made headway on reducing the health and care inequalities autistic people face, and show that autistic people are living healthier lives. This includes evidencing that we are making progress on improving autistic people’s health outcomes and reducing the gap in life expectancy. Full disclosure here, Tom helped me write my book and there’s a reason I sought him out for that: I read this book about his son, which came out in 2011. Tom tells the story from when he and his wife had initial concerns about Ezra’s development all the way up to Ezra being thirteen years of age. The book ends at Ezra’s Bar Mitzvah which they never thought he’d be able to accomplish. In September 2020, we published our Plan for Jobs to protect, support and create jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this plan, we outlined a number of actions that will also benefit autistic people, including increasing the number of Work Coaches, who provide help to people who are newly unemployed and making sure that Jobcentres continue to be open to help customers who really need face-to-face support. We will continue to review how our provision meets the needs of autistic people as we move out of the COVID-19 pandemic, and tailor our response based on this. In addition, we will continue to ensure that job programmes are accessible to autistic candidates. Our commitments in the first year Let’s talk about your first book: Following Ezra by Thomas Fields-Meyer. What did this book tell you about autism?

Autism Spectrum Disorder? | CDC What is Autism Spectrum Disorder? | CDC

Support groups can be a great way to meet people who have had similar life experiences. You might meet lifelong friends and become an important part of someone else’s social support network. In addition, we want to ensure that autistic people can get the adaptations or extra support they need while in work, or to get into work. As government, we will lead the way in becoming a more autism-inclusive employer by expanding our Autism Exchange Internship Programme, which is aimed at providing more autistic people with experience of working in the Civil Service. We will also begin to collect data on the number of autistic people working in our departments to understand further improvements we may need to make to recruit and support autistic people.

Moreover, we have been able to transform society’s awareness of autism, as an estimated 99.5% of the public have heard of autism according to the National Autistic Society ( The Autism Act, Ten Years On), which is so important in autistic people being able to feel included as part of their community. We are clear that in some areas work will only begin after the first year (2021 to 2022), and in many there will need to be additional actions in the subsequent years of the strategy to fully realise our vision. In some areas work is still in early stages or ongoing so we will wait on findings or further progress before we take action. This includes the National Autistic Society’s research on developing a tailored Improving Access to Psychological Therapies (IAPT) model and the development of Oliver McGowan Mandatory Training for health and care professionals. Once developed, this can be adapted to other public servants, including the police or housing officers. In other areas like employment, we have work underway to improve support for autistic people but will monitor the full impact of the pandemic to ensure we are continuing to take the right actions. In the first year of the strategy, we will drive improved employer awareness of autism, so they better understand the benefits of employing autistic people and are able to make the adjustments needed to recruit and properly support them. We will also continue to promote better access to employment support programmes for autistic people and move forward with our plans to improve the benefits system for disabled people to ensure this better supports autistic people who are unable to work. Some autistic people need little or no support. Others may need help from a parent or carer every day. Some people use other names for autism

Understanding Autism For Dummies: Shore, Stephen, Rastelli Understanding Autism For Dummies: Shore, Stephen, Rastelli

Autistic people can find it harder to understand abstract concepts. For example, they can struggle to understand another person’s point of view – or if they know it in theory, they may still struggle to imagine what it might be. It’s also possible that women with ASD have repetitive behavior tendencies and narrow interests that aren’t seen as unusual. For example, a woman with ASD who feels the urge to neatly organize dishes or who is only fascinated with music theory may pass as “neurotypical”. Diagnosis and causes An autistic person can be ‘under’ or ‘over’ sensitive in any of the senses – including sight, hearing and balance. This means sounds, lights, touch and smells can be painful or very uncomfortable. Consider disclosing your diagnosis. Talking about your diagnosis can be difficult and the social stigma attached to ASD may make you shy away from doing so. While disclosure is entirely up to you and your comfort level, it may help improve some relationships. Letting close friends and family know about your diagnosis can help them understand why you have a hard time interpreting their sarcastic comments, for example, or why you’re distressed by sounds that seem normal to everyone else.

More about autism

Gaigg, Sebastian B, Paul E Flaxman, Gracie McLaven, Ritika Shah, Dermot M Bowler, Brenda Meyer, Amanda Roestorf, Corinna Haenschel, Jacqui Rodgers, and Mikle South. “Self-Guided Mindfulness and Cognitive Behavioural Practices Reduce Anxiety in Autistic Adults: A Pilot 8-Month Waitlist-Controlled Trial of Widely Available Online Tools.” Autism 24, no. 4 (May 1, 2020): 867–83. Link This strategy takes into account the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on autistic people and their families’ lives, as we know this has been very challenging for many. In summer 2020, we commissioned the Policy Innovation and Evaluation Research Unit (London School of Economics) to undertake rapid research to improve our understanding of autistic people’s experiences during this time, and our ability to respond appropriately. The final report from this rapid research is published alongside this strategy. Some autistic people have little or no speech or delayed language development – or they communicate in a different way - using pictures, sounds or gestures for example. This doesn't mean that they don't understand what is being said, often an autistic person can take in more information than they give out, this creates a disparity in what someone understands and what they communicate. Although we’ve come so far over the last decade, there must be no limit to the ambitions of autistic people; they should have the same opportunities as everyone else in society. You use the term ‘dysregulation’ quite often in your book. What is that experience for someone with autism?