This month we had another great autism reading group; this time turning to the fascinating topic of belonging. For advance preparation we had two articles about the autistic community and peer support and an inspirational TED talk about the power of friendship. Peer support We started by talking about the benefits of peer-to-peer support …
In this month’s reading group, we focused on the ‘Double Empathy Problem’. We were joined by a range of people with a diverse range of experiences and backgrounds. We provided some interesting readings for people to take a look at beforehand: Double empathy, explained | Spectrum News Revealing the Double Empathy Problem We started with …
Monthly Autism Reading Group (March 2022) – The double empathy problem Read More »
This month we turned to the topic of autism and employment, after hearing a great podcast from Sophie Longley, who also came along to support our discussion. Our readings were: https://www-bbc-co-uk.cdn.ampproject.org/c/s/www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-59049557.amp https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/autism-in-workplace/working-with-autism/ https://spoti.fi/3GrH5Gs This time we had some questions to ponder in advance. Here’s what we discussed on each one. What changes do you want …
Monthly Autism Reading Group (Feb 2022) – Autism and Employment Read More »
In this month’s reading group we had a really interesting discussion about the effectiveness of CBT for autistic people and how we evaluate therapies. We provided an interesting reading and some discussion questions: Why are there such variations in ratings of the effectiveness of therapies? How can we adapt the way we evaluate the effectiveness …
Monthly Autism Reading Group – The effectiveness of CBT for autistic people Read More »
In this month’s reading group, we had a great discussion about the support for students in schools and the latest National Autistic Society 2021 School Report. The report gives recommendations of how schools might provide better support for autistic students. We provided some advance discussion questions to think about: Do you agree with these recommendations, and do you foresee any problems …
This month’s reading group was focused on the relationship between interoception and autism. We provided a reading about how being more in connection to your body can lead to lower levels of anxiety, including for those with autism, and a video providing an overview of interoception. This reading group followed a fascinating lab meeting at …
Autism Reading Group (November 2021) – Autism and Interoception Read More »
The topic for the first Autism Reading Group of the year was Autism in girls and the diagnosis gap. For this meeting, we had a TED talk Niamh McCann: girls with Asperger’s and a reading. Autism has historically been viewed mainly as a male condition. The ratio of boys diagnosed compared to girls is 4:1, but research has found the true ratio …
Monthly Autism Reading Group (October 2021) – Autism in girls and the diagnosis gap Read More »
By Prof Nicola Yuill The topic for this session of the reading group was mental health, something that has loomed large in the news during Covid-19 restrictions. We had two readings, one giving figures for conditions that can affect many autistic people, such as Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and the other being a very thoughtful …
Monthly Autism Reading Group (June 2021) – Mental Health services for autistic people Read More »
Terminology to think about We started off the conversation talking about the useful table included in the reading which gave alternatives for different terminology we can use when talking about autistic people, for example, instead of using ‘at risk of autism’ to use ‘increased likelihood’. There is a drive to specifically change the language we …
If you would like to sign up for our next Autism Reading Group please email acorns@sussex.ac.uk What is creativity and how can we measure it? Creativity is hard to define and it’s also hard to pinpoint when someone is being creative or not. In our meeting we said that everyone can be creative and potentially …
Monthly Autism Reading Group (April 2021) – Autism, Imagination and Creativity Read More »
