National Autistic Society

If you look into the history of where this word came from, it apparently originated, as all good ideas do, with members of autistic self-advocacy communities that emerged online when many people got access to the internet.

That's according to something called the National Autistic Society in the UK.

The basic idea is that a bunch of autistic people discovered how to log on to message boards, and among themselves, they determined that, quote, autistic brains are wired differently from the mainstream on a fundamental level.

And the epicenter of this brain trust was something called the InLV mailing list and forum, where the, this is short for independent living on the autistic spectrum, apparently.

And before long, these autistic individuals decided to become more inclusive.

And so this is from the National Autistic Society, quote, a 1996 post in the InLV forum by Tony Langdon refers to neurological diversity of people.

This may be the first expression of the concept.

In a follow-up post, Langdon wrote, a lot of this curing needs to be applied to society at large rather than to autistic people, a key idea in the neurodiversity paradigm.

It's movement and timing and how the brain connects and forms relationships and how, you know, the experiences of what we're exposed to, all of that comes together superimposed on our own natural traits.

Like, you know, there was this big organization, I think, out of the UK, I think, the Autism Society or National Autism Society, they came out with this big bold statement a few weeks ago saying that we've looked at something like 83 studies and we've come to the conclusion that autism is genetic and that there's really not much you can do about it.

But when you dive into what they're saying, they're basically saying that autism seems to run in families.

But there's no autism gene, right? There's no gene that's been identified.

And so I was absentmindedly watching it, waiting for my order to be ready.

I was doing some voluntary work at the time for, ironically, the National Autistic Society.

were no autistic people in my family so i thought i just wanted to work with other people and do something useful with my time and plus it's great for the cv right so i was working as a volunteer coordinator for the nas and i'd been a befriender so i was i'd already been in that kind of caring altruistic i don't want to make it sound oh look at me how good i am but i had already been in that kind of I like to serve.

And I was watching the news.

I thought it.

I obviously went to go and do it.

And so I went to my boss at the National Autistic Society.

Forgive me, I can't remember your name, but if you're watching, thank you.

to book something.

I have randomly got the National Autistic Society coming to our house.

As you do.

As you do.

We can take them out of here if you want.

Please do.

Even when the National Autistic Society aren't there.

That's fine.

Did you get that? Did you get a follow up? Did you get a support plan and so on?

again national autistic society website talks a lot about them in their last episode they have a lot of resources on who you can speak to in terms of like government teams and healthcare systems and what you're entitled to as well so that's really important but yeah as you said in practice a lot of people actually don't get this automatically and it's a lot of like either advocating for yourself or advocate like having people advocate for you which is really difficult

The best part of it, I think, probably outside of, I think for ADHD, understanding is the most important thing for all of it, right? So if we park after the understanding and acceptance bit, which is clearly the most important part, after that, you know, if it helps you, then ADHD meds can be hugely helpful from that side of it.

But I think in general, I think the most helpful thing is the understanding.

And, you know, when you start realizing that, yes, you might feel different to neurotypical people, but you find your kind of community, suddenly that feeling of difference is dissolved and you actually feel, you know, that other people are like you, you feel that your challenges are shared, you can learn from other people.

I think probably it's where the social media is most powerful.

I mean, the National Autistic Society, do a lot of work on social media.

The conversation we're having on this podcast, even my YouTube channel and other creators and people, it's finding those people out there that make you feel seen because I think that's probably the, I actually think that's probably the most powerful thing.

So there's lots of things at play with her.

But also, interestingly, the National Autistic Society have very, very recently just released a statement saying that autism is in fact genetic, which is a huge step forward.

So I urge everybody to go and read their statement around that, which is on their website.

Thank you.

We wanted to know things like what she could access, what software she could access, whether she could go to study skills sessions, what the learning support was available, what it was like and what was available and who she would go to if she actually needs some help.

I think something I'd really encourage other parents to do is don't just ask what support do you offer, ask specifically what the support looks like, who provides it, how your young person accesses that and what happens if they aren't able to advocate for themselves or they just don't know who to ask.

I was reading through the National Autistic Society and they recommend speaking directly to a disability advisor or the SEN team, learning support team, and asking about their staff knowledge and understanding of autism and their available learning resources and what additional support or equipment is available.

Because it is there.

You know, I think, you know, there'll be some people listening to this particular podcast that won't believe that the internet never existed, but there was a time that it didn't.

So we went down that particular route, Barra, and I think organisations like the National Autistic Society have been an absolute godsend because you all of a sudden find groups of people that are going through exactly what you're going through and other parents that are helping you sort of navigate that.

And when he moved into the world of special needs education, that's where we came across, you know, people who just dedicate their lives to helping people like Harry with learning difficulties.

and you're in awe of what they do and how they can help your child to develop so a lot of what we've done is really learning on the hoof really as we've gone forward and you know exactly what Gareth said you know I'm now there with a physically healthy 22 year old yes he has learning difficulties and he walks around with two lots of Sonic the Hedgehog under his arm wherever he goes like you know medals that he wears, which I'm as equally as proud of as he is.

So like you said, I've worked in neurodiversity within employment, working with adults for a very, very long time.

I started out at the National Autistic Society.

And I think for me, Yeah, well, my whole life, it was kind of I knew that I struggled with things that other people seemingly weren't struggling with, that my brain was slightly different.

But for so long, I'd probably built up the scaffolding that I needed to mask and hide a lot of those difficulties.

I crossed that finish line and felt so at peace with my diagnosis.

I ran it for a National Autistic Society.

Amazing.

And I'd never run more than a 3K before I started training.