A social enterprise helping people on the autistic spectrum and the people around them.
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4 Conversation techniques to add to your social script
Posted: 10 months ago
Many autistic people create for themselves a 'social script' to help them know how to interact in social situations. A social script is a guide for planning what to do and say inside a social setting.
The Girl With The Curly Hair uses a social script whenever she meets up with her friends. Specifically, she uses 4 conversation techniques:
Are autistic people more likely to have gender dysphoria?
Posted: September 7, 2019
Gender dysphoria (GD) is the condition where a person experiences discomfort or distress because their biological sex does not match with their gender identity. A person born female may identify as a male and a person born male may identify as a female. There is some thinking that there is a link between ASD and GD. However, there is very little evidence and results are unclear. I have some thoughts on why there may be such a link:
10 ways in which autistic people mask
Posted: August 27, 2019
Masking is the term used to describe the way autistic people behave in order to hide their challenges. I was about to say "hide their 'social deficits''' but I think masking can also mean hiding other aspects of autism as well, such as sensory processing. Here is a list of masking behaviours autistic people might have:
5 ways to give and receive inspiration
Posted: August 18, 2019
One of the most important themes in my daily life is inspiration. One of my life philosophies is to have, maintain and provide inspiration every single day. It keeps me going and prevents me from falling into dark periods. A lot of autistic people suffer with low mood and I think one way to help tackle low mood is to ensure inspiration is part of your daily life. You can use this article in 3 ways: 1) to gain tips to inspire others, 2) to gain tips for getting inspiration from others, 3) to gain tips to inspire your autistic loved one who might be in a dark period.
How to cope with unpredictability
Posted: August 9, 2019
Most autistic people benefit from feeling that their world is predictable. By predictable I mean: knowing what is going to happen next and fully understanding what any situation entails. Due to the nature of being human and daily living however, no matter what measures people take, there is still going to be a degree of everyday unpredictability. I will look at some of these unpredictabilities and suggest strategies on how to manage:
Using different characters to improve social interaction
Posted: July 29, 2019
One concept that I find useful to think about is using different 'characters' to help me get better at social interaction. This can involve a degree of masking but, as I've mentioned before, I don't consider masking to always be a bad thing. The ability to mask helps me get what I want a lot of the time. It is the only way that I get by in the neurotypical world. Here are some characters that autistic people may find useful to get to know from inside themselves: The Observer
Episode 3 now available
Posted: July 22, 2019
Episode 3 'A Day at College for The Girl with the Curly Hair' is now available to watch on our website! The Girl With The Curly Hair goes to college. She travels by train and has Chemistry, Physics and Biology lessons.
Was it such a bad thing to be diagnosed as an adult?
Posted: July 19, 2019
I often feel bombarded by people who praise early diagnosis of autism. There are lots of benefits of receiving a diagnosis as a young child, for example being entitled to receive support at school. However, there are also some benefits of not getting diagnosed until adulthood. I think that I am a better person in many ways because I wasn't diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome until I was in my twenties. The period of time in which a person is diagnosed, for example 2019 versus 1999, would also affect how useful a diagnosis was. For many older adults, having a diagnosis as a child would probably not have helped them much at all, just because of the period of time and the widespread lack of understanding of autism.
What does having no instincts mean?
Posted: July 9, 2019
One of the most severe difficulties associated with autism is the difficulty imagining what might happen in a situation. You could describe this as social imagination or just simply lacking instinct. Most neurotypical people will go into any situation and be able to cope with it on the spot. The situation can be anything, for example going on the train, going to a cafe, meeting friends, going to the GP or going to a conference. In most instances they don't have to do much 'preparation' beforehand, or least not overly conscious or right-to-the-very-last-detail preparation. Autistic people, on the other hand, have a tendency to either overprepare or underprepare.
The work-life balance: how to achieve it
Posted: June 29, 2019
Working or studying full time exhausts me to the point where I am not normally able to do much else during evenings and weekends. I know that a lot of neurotypical people say their work is tiring but I observe that most neurotypical people can still have a 'life' during evenings and weekends. This is in comparison to autistic people. I have read so many autistic people's experiences of work and education and how it completely exhausts them or leads to burnout. 'Free time' ends up being 'recovery time' and relationships, hobbies and 'life' suffer.
5 ways to be more assertive
Posted: June 18, 2019
Assertiveness means being able to stand up for yourself in situations where you feel uncomfortable or under threat in some way. As a person with ASD, a lot of situations make me feel uncomfortable! I haven't however always been able to be assertive in order to properly manage the situation. Unfortunately I have suffered being around people I didn't want to be around, doing activities I didn't want to do, experiencing little 'internal' meltdowns as my stress levels built up and having no way to cope until I got home.