Not long ago, I had a book stall at an event unrelated to autism - a rare occasion for me as an autistic author and speaker. And I think it’s fair to say there are| Autistic Not Weird
When I was a teacher in a school for autistic students, it was well-noted that my biggest strength was my ability to build strong teacher-student relationships. My students engaged well in my classes, opened up| Autistic Not Weird
In order to provide for people with disabilities, learning difficulties or neurological conditions, sometimes we need to treat them differently. This can be done well, and it can be done catastrophically. I could write| Autistic Not Weird
For this year's World Autism Acceptance Day, I made these fifty pictures and shared them to Autistic Not Weird's Facebook page [all links open in new tabs]. For those who don't already follow it, or want| Autistic Not Weird
Ever since adolescence, I’ve wanted to spend my life building people. Whether in terms of confidence, intellect, life skills, or all the other ways a person can be built up, I’ve wanted to be the| Autistic Not Weird
One commonality I’ve found among autistic people is that many of us love creating our own universes. The real world often functions without autistic people in mind. To many of us, it seems that the non-autistic population seems to be entirely in control – often, even in control of our world and our futures. So it can help enormously for us to escape into a universe where we choose the rules, we can influence events, and nobody gets to cast […] The post Twenty tips for aspiring writers, ...| Autistic Not Weird
We see them far too often. Videos of an autistic child (or adult) in extreme distress, shared across the internet in the glorious name of “autism awareness”, perhaps even with a divisive or gatekeeping comment such as “this is what real autism looks like”. The motivation, of course, is to display the problems that all too often kept behind closed doors. And whereas the issues do need discussing and addressing, perhaps there’s a better way to do so than uploading […] The post Ten v...| Autistic Not Weird
There’s something falsely positive about the word “perfectionist”, isn’t there? The first time I remember hearing the word, I was being taught how to answer job interview questions. I was told that when the interviewer asks me what my biggest weakness is, I should say “oh, I’m a perfectionist, I can’t leave things alone until I know they’re right”. Because apparently, it’s like answering a question about weaknesses by continuing to show off my strengths. (I never did this,...| Autistic Not Weird
It doesn’t seem quite right, does it? That a month designated for raising public knowledge of autism would be so widely disliked by the autistic people it claims to support. But just to clarify: the| Autistic Not Weird
This is going to be one of my shorter articles – largely, I imagine, to be posted in reply to those who “correct” my language when I refer to myself or others as autistic, as| Autistic Not Weird
The two questions above are among the most commonly asked by parents of newly-diagnosed autistic children. And wouldn’t it be great if there were a one-sentence answer to it? Sadly, it doesn’t work like that. But here’s my advice, as an autistic man who used to be an autistic child, who gets asked this question a lot. Full disclosure: this is a rewrite of an article that I wrote five years ago (way back at the start of Autistic Not […] The post When should I tell my child they’re au...| Autistic Not Weird
On 29th November 2009, my life started to take the opening few steps towards beginning to make some kind of sense. After a lifetime of knowing I was different somehow to the general population (and too many years believing myself to be ‘lesser’ rather than different), a family member finally gave me an explanation for why, and it started a mental revolution for me. My attitude towards my own brain has changed enormously: what started as a secret word to […] The post Ten years ago today,...| Autistic Not Weird
A few years ago, one of my articles received this comment. “F*** YOU F***YOU F***YOU.You don’t even know anything about autism. It’s a f***ing curse that controls parents’ lives until they finally die!F*** YOU”(Obviously, this| Autistic Not Weird
The most depressing period of my life was spent jobsearching, but I picked up a bunch of lessons from it. Here they are. The post Finding employment as an autistic person appeared first on Autistic Not Weird.| Autistic Not Weird
Content Warning: this article discusses the dangers of making children vulnerable to abuse and manipulation, but does not discuss specific instances of abuse. Not long ago there was a debate on a British morning TV| Autistic Not Weird
So it’s World Autism Awareness Month again! Those who follow Autistic Not Weird’s Facebook page [links open in new tabs] will know that I often use the occasion to upload a ton of picture posts- not just to spread awareness but to encourage autism acceptance too. This year, instead of uploading facts about autism like I have in the past, I started an album called “Fifty ways to help autistic people“. And, as promised, here they are in one big […] The post 50 ways to help autistic pe...| Autistic Not Weird
I wasn’t very old at all when I first noticed I was different. I didn’t have a word for it until I was 24, but my differences have rarely been a secret – to me or anyone else. And sometimes, sadly, other people make those differences an issue. They shouldn’t be any problem at all, but not everyone appreciates difference. This is another article I’ve put off writing because it’s such a difficult subject, but it’s clearly in high […] The post A brief guide to coping with bein...| Autistic Not Weird
I don’t like Christmastime. And I should be allowed to say that without being criticised for it. Don’t get me wrong, I love what Christmas stands for. But December is that month when Expectation Claus sneaks into your house, instructs you to follow all these traditions (whether you’re comfortable with them or not), and you’re not allowed to tell him you’re sad because everyone is supposed to be happy and joyous at Christmas. It’s the rules. Like everything else in […] The post A...| Autistic Not Weird
The internet is full of advice articles for parents. So just for once, this one’s for children themselves! I can’t believe I’m saying this, but this is my fiftieth article for Autistic Not Weird. So I thought I’d do something special for it. I used to be a schoolteacher (and now I work with autistic students outside of schools), and this is the advice I would give to children growing up on the autism spectrum. Something important before we begin: […] The post Fifty pieces of advice ...| Autistic Not Weird
Is it ‘autistic person’ or ‘person with autism’? How many autistic people are also LGBT+? Has ABA improved in recent years? Do parents of autistic people wish for a cure? Do autistic people feel empathy| Autistic Not Weird
