Issues of Gender & Sexuality in Special Needs Children: Keeping Students with Autism & Learning Disability Safe at School

The following paper addresses some of the issues presented by students with Special Needs, (especially autism) at school. It particularly focusses upon sexuality and gender. For example, autism and gender dysphoria appear to co-occur more often than in typically developing students. However, these young people may not understand how their reality translates to living within the public arena. This is also true of sexuality. Acceptance, understanding and accommodation of these students needs to inform our measures for keeping safe at school; this is of utmost priority

Adaptive Morphing and Coping with Social Threat in Autism: An Autistic Perspective

This paper highlights the role of terminology, such as camouflage and masking, commonly used in autism research. The author suggests researchers question assumptions around language commonly used to check it is fully representative of the autistic position. Being autistic often means being very literal. This literality means it is very important for researchers - particularly non-autistic researchers - to design research questions in a way that will gather accurate information often underlying autistic understanding. Words are powerful tools and lead to beliefs and positions held. Adaptive morphing in autism (currently referred to as camouflage or masking) infers a response, not of deceit, but one that is biological and not necessarily chosen. The author of this paper suggests masking, as a choice to deceive, is quite different from adaptive morphing for safety

Women & Girls on the Autism Spectrum: A Profile

Being female and autistic is poorly understood, but is autism really 'rare' in females? Historically, autism has been associated with traditionally masculine features and stereotypes of behaviour, with some believing autism only occurred in males [1]. This leads scientific enquiry to the critical question of whether there are more males living with autism or, conversely, do females on the autistic spectrum present differently to males and, therefore, are at risk of remaining undiagnosed

Problems with Object Permanence: Rethinking Traditional Beliefs Associated with Poor Theory of Mind in Autism

Poor Theory of Mind (ToM) (or difficulties imputing mental states to self and others) [1], (See also [2-5]) is often blamed for certain responses and behaviour in autism. However, the Theory of Mind Task Battery requires an understanding of language, the use of cognitive skills, as well as the child’s motivation and attention to complete. All of these factors are either weak or under-developed in individuals with autism suggesting that this is not the best means to measure one’s understanding that other people have their own thoughts, plans, beliefs, or point of view. Behaviours like strong defiance, insistence on sameness, fear associated with sudden change and severe anxiety may be related to difficulties seeing beyond the ‘now’ [6]. This paper suggests that some of the stress and anxiety in the autism population may actually be due to delayed object permanence (OP) (knowing something may still exist even if it is out of sight), which can appear as poor ToM. This delay in establishing OP is governed by single focused attention. For more information on this concept see: Lawson, W. (2011) The passionate mind, JKP:London. Although ToM and OP are defined differently, this paper aims to show the relationship between them and how one concept can influence the other using examples in everyday life to illustrate how poor OP is associated with single focused attention, which detracts from the bigger picture

Might we be Calling Problems Seen in Autism Spectrum Conditions: ‘Poor Theory of Mind,’ when Actually they are Related to Non-Generalised ‘Object Permanence’?

Autism spectrum conditions (ASC) and the delayed development of object permanence is often not questioned, and is rarely understood. The following paper attempts to explore this idea and suggests reasons for why such development is delayed and the possibility that certain difficult behaviours seen in children with ASC are less likely to be connected to having poor theory of mind and more connected to lacking generalized concepts of object permanence

Reframing Autism in a Mainstream Classroom via the Constructs of Inclusion and Stigma

An investigation was undertaken to explore the social environment in a mainstream classroom that housed both non-autistic and autistic students. The research focus was to see if engaging students in a particular programme, successfully reduced stigma. The research is founded upon the concept of autism as part of neurodiversity rather than only disorder. It posits affective and social outcomes of inclusive education can be a reality once stigma is exposed and autism, reframed. The literature reviewed yielded valuable insights into how best to support the rationale of this study to prepare typical classmates for entry of autistic children.Method: Via a single case-study, an engaging and interactive Peer Preparation Programme (PPP) provided opportunities for the pupils and the focus child to interact with each other; enabling them to acquire knowledge about themselves, each other, autism and ways to minimise the negative impact of stigma.Results: Findings indicated a considerable increase in empathetic attitudes, spontaneous interactions, peer awareness, positive peer imitations and peer advocacy.Conclusions: To reframe autism within mainstream classrooms, although conscious this is a single case-study, the program helped pupils comprehend the sensitive issues of social stigma and encourage empathy in practice

Inclusive research practice: Engaging autistic individuals and their families in research

In the past, much research about people with disabilities could be viewed as perpetuating marginalisation, stigma, and dependence. More recently, there has been a focus on listening to the voice of people with disabilities and co-production of research. This chapter presents an overview of how researchers can engage with autistic individuals, their families, and service providers as experts on their own experiences, not only identifying research questions and priorities but also being co-producers of the research. This chapter also provides an overview of the Participatory and Inclusive Autism Research Practice Guides (Version 3). These guides provide useful information for researchers who want to work in inclusive ways. Specifically, this chapter discusses how to engage individuals on the autism spectrum as participants, provides advice about how to facilitate research groups with individuals on the spectrum, and how to partner with individuals and families in research. Further, the chapter discusses how to report research results to individuals and families, and how to co-present research. Specific guidance includes how to recruit and retain research participants in longitudinal studies, evaluation of research outcomes and impact, and ideas about disseminating and utilising findings

Reframing autism in a mainstream classroom via the constructs of inclusion and stigma

An investigation was undertaken to explore the social environment in a mainstream classroom that housed both non-autistic and autistic students. The research focus was to see if engaging students in a particular programme, successfully reduced stigma. The research is founded upon the concept of autism as part of neurodiversity rather than only disorder. It posits affective and social outcomes of inclusive education can be a reality once stigma is exposed and autism, reframed. The literature reviewed yielded valuable insights into how best to support the rationale of this study to prepare typical classmates for entry of autistic children. Method: Via a single case-study, an engaging and interactive Peer Preparation Programme (PPP) provided opportunities for the pupils and the focus child to interact with each other; enabling them to acquire knowledge about themselves, each other, autism and ways to minimise the negative impact of stigma. Results: Findings indicated a considerable increase in empathetic attitudes, spontaneous interactions, peer awareness, positive peer imitations and peer advocacy. Conclusions: To reframe autism within mainstream classrooms, although conscious this is a single case-study, the program helped pupils comprehend the sensitive issues of social stigma and encourage empathy in practice

Autistic perspectives on the future of clinical autism research

There have been widespread expressions of dissatisfaction among autistic people and communities regarding the recommendations of the Lancet Commission on the future of care and clinical research in autism.1 The authors of this article discussed the Commission’s report and some wider issues related to autism research in general as a committee of autistic people, the Global Autistic Task Force on Autism Research, comprising autistic professionals and representatives of organisations run by and for autistic people, focusing on advocacy, service provision, education and participatory research. The Commission has been addressed in an open letter that drew attention to some of the points also discussed in this article