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: 12 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:
10 ways to improve your mental health
Posted: October 10, 2019
We all have mental health, so here are 10 easy things you might like to do to improve yours: 1. Smile The physical motion of smiling can actually make you feel good! And I also like it when people smile at me, it uplifts me immediately. You could get into the habit of smiling more. 2. Spend time in nature Many of us spend the majority of our week indoors and at our computer. Spending some time outside and making a conscious effort to appreciate grass, flowers, animals and birds, can make you f…
Why advance notice is important
Posted: October 8, 2019
Like most autistic people, I really struggle coping with situations that happen spontaneously. I started to think what the fundamental reason for this is and found that I have been able to summarise it quite simply... When something is going to happen, there are 3 things I need to consider:
The Filter
Posted: October 5, 2019
The Filter is an idea I came up with to describe how autistic people process information in everyday life. The purpose of the Filter is to control input so that a person is comfortable and engaged. Whatever a person is doing, they are always exposed to three inputs: Unimportant Irrelevant Unpleasant Watch our amazing video to see an example of what exactly this means when applied to a real life situation:
To care or not care what others think?
Posted: September 28, 2019
Lots of people care greatly about what others think of them. Most of us from a young age are pressurised to behave and look a certain way and to follow social rules. At school, children who don't meet this strict social 'criteria', tend to be bullied. Adults may be judged negatively or suffer discrimination. Since autistic people tend to be different from most people, I wondered whether they would tend to worry about how other people perceive them.
The 2 most debilitating aspects of social anxiety
Posted: September 17, 2019
Social anxiety is an extremely restrictive condition to live with. Social anxiety, for me, is feeling extremely shy, frightened, awkward, nervous, at both the thought of interacting with someone and during the actual interaction with them. I have narrowed down the 2 most debilitating aspects, for me, of social anxiety to be...
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