General Chat

I think I will watch it but it will be with a bit of trepidation.

Tomorrow night.....Are you Autistic?

http://www.channel4.com/info/press/programme-information/are-you-autistic

Chris

I work with children on the spectrum. It is a large scale and quite rightly Sharron, I think we are all on there even if its only a 1 or 2.

But routine and breaking down instructions or jobs into smaller pieces is sometimes the only way for people to cope.

When I give a particular child a job, I need to be specific with the instructions. Writing down bullet points in plain English. Never use jargon or slang.

My own daughter has some degree of need and she processes information much slower than most so it takes her longer to complete tasks.

Also you cannot hurry someone who has ASD, they need to organise themselves and will not skip details.

So Sharron, gathering everything you need first before you start the tea, isn't that uncommon and putting things into compartments is structuring which also I deal with every day. It helps a lot of pupils and adults to cope with life in general.

Even myself, I wonder sometimes if I have a little OCD. Everything in my house is symmetrical. On my mantlepieces,I have matching candles each end, matching photoframes each end. I don't like odd things, but like balance.

I always buy shampoo and conditioner, never just one or the other.

All my drawers are organised. Socks ironed and folded in rows, underwear the same. All neat and ordered.

Everyone has a different way of coping in life and if you find doing things the way you do helps you cope and it works for you, then carry on and don't let anyone change that.

Florence
in the hebrides

I do inhabit a very small world at the moment. Travel the same bus routes, use same shops, find it very overwhelming to contemplate even small changes to my routines. Have to research things thoroughly if colleagues want to go somewhere new for lunch for instance. It takes an overwhelming amount of effort to do anything new or different. Prefer to hide at home with the two cats.

That is very comforting to know Kucinta.

I do still have to break things down but not as much and I don't drive very far on my own (spent years as a professional driver). Have to operate in one room or place. I gather everything by the sink when I make tea before I start the job.

I have been diagnosed With a couple of anxiety disorders, nd have to deal with things in the same way, breaking everything I do into manageable pieces. Work have also learned that when taking on something new, I need to have very definitive guidelines that spell out each individual step of the process.

I have just seen something on the news about a couple who started a chocolate factory in Ely to accommodate the needs of their autistic son.

They mentioned that, for people on the autistic spectrum, it is important to have routine AND that jobs needed to be divided into all their component parts.

This shocked me because, at my lowest ebb and to a much lesser extent now, I am pleased to report, everything I contemplated doing had to be broken down to all it's stages.

I have always thought that everybody was autistic to some degree, maybe we all are and we all cope with it in different ways and I just was not coping with mine.

Something to toy with.