Chapter 24 Understanding Autism Part 4: Common Themes & Next Steps

Chapter 24 recapping my unexpected Autism and ADHD year: this week I continue to talk about the fantastic online course Understanding Autism run by the University of Kent and available on the FutureLearn platform.

In its final week the course looks at common themes underpinning different presentations on the autism spectrum and what might be next for autism studies. I also reflect a little on some of the questions posed and throw up some of the difficulties I find with the concept of autism as a medical diagnosis.

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Contact email: [email protected]

Some useful links:
Understanding Autism course: https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/a...

University of Kent post-graduate autism studies: https://www.kent.ac.uk/courses/postgr...

As there was brief discussion of suicidal ideation and self harm, if these issues affect you, in the UK, the Samaritans can be contacted on 116 123. In the US, the National Suicide Prevention Hotline is 1-800-273-8255. In Australia, the crisis support service Lifeline is on 13 11 14. Hotlines in other countries can be found here: http://www.suicide.org/international-...

AQ Autism Self-Test:
I'm going to keep posting the link to the AQ Self Test for autism every Sunday in case this is the first video in the series people come across. Take the self test (remember it's JUST a self-test) and see how you score. You may have been on the autism spectrum all along and just had no idea, like I was:
https://psychology-tools.com/test/aut...

ADHD Self-Test:
(with all the same caveats as above) an ADHD self-test. ADHD is even MORE common than autism (and many of us will have both); the vast majority of ADHDers just struggle through from childhood through adulthood having no idea that they even HAVE ADHD, let alone working out strategies to cope and deal with it all better to be happier and less frustrated with ourselves and others.
https://psychology-tools.com/test/adu...