78 Results in Thoughts, Feelings & Behaviour

The importance of preparing for feelings

Autistic people often feel anxious about things that are spontaneous or vague. Having plenty of information in advance of or at least during a situation, can significantly minimise an autistic person’s anxiety. The information allows an autistic person to plan and prepare for what the situation might entail. It is usually helpful for an autistic… Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today This article and our podcasts are available only to members of our communi…

The margin of acceptability

I’ve been thinking about why I like people to be specific when they are giving me a choice or asking me to do something. Let’s have a look at this video clip taken from ‘A Day at Primary School for The Girl With The Curly Hair.’ The art teacher told the class to, “draw anything from your… Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today This article and our podcasts are available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue to read this arti…

Autism and pedantic speech

It is often said that people with autism have ‘pedantic speech’. Pedantic speech refers to ‘an overly formal speaking style that is inappropriate to the conversational setting. It can be characterized by didactic patterns of prosody and very precise articulation, as well as unnecessarily complex vocabulary.’ Watch the video below:… Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today This article and our podcasts are available only to members of ou…

How to change reactions to responses

For most people, whenever something happens, it will cause an automatic and immediate reaction. Although this reaction comes naturally, it isn’t always appropriate or helpful. The reaction can often be skewed and disproportionate compared to the situation. Here are two examples that may help to understand a reaction: 1) A boss sends their employee an… Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today This article and our podcasts are available only to members of our co…

Why autistic people often feel confused

Autistic people can often feel confused even if they are highly intelligent. Feeling confused so frequently can really impair an autistic person in their day to day living. Even the most “simple” or “ordinary” tasks and situations can be highly perplexing… There are many reasons why autistic people may have a tendency to feel confused…. Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today This article and our podcasts are available only to membe…

Shyness in autistic versus neurotypical people

Shyness is feeling nervous, uncomfortable or awkward in social situations. A lot of people used to describe me as "shy", but my experience of being shy seemed different from some of the other shy people I had met. I wondered whether it was because I was autistic that my shyness came across differently and felt different. I created this animated film to suggest how shyness might be different for an autistic person:

12 reasons autistic people might be sensitive to emotions

Autistic people can be highly sensitive. They might feel upset, disappointed, frustrated or hurt frequently. Family members might sometimes think that their autistic loved one is being “oversensitive” or “overreactive”. If they understood the deeper reasons as to why their autistic loved one is like this, it might help them to be a bit more… Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today This article and our podcasts are available only to member…

How other people can affect what an autistic person does

Based on my animated film, A Day Working at the Vet’s for The Girl With The Curly Hair, I have been developing e-courses to help autistic people at work and to help employers understand autistic workers. There was one specific scene in this film that inspired me to write this article. In the scene, The… Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today This article and our podcasts are available only to members of our community. If you would like to continue to read this article…

Why can’t autistic people say how they are feeling?

Autistic people can have a lot of difficulties and can be severely impaired in daily life. They can feel highly anxious everyday. The sad thing is that even the people closest to them may not know what they are going through. I suppose there is a similarity here to some of the experiences that depressed people have. In the media, we often hear stories of people who have struggled severely with their mental health but that their family and closest friends were unaware. This brings me to the first reason why an autistic person might be unable to tell their family how they are feeling:

Understanding rules versus guidelines

Autistic people may have a tendency to take things literally. One consequence of this is that they might believe that things said are ‘rules’ and subsequently should be followed strictly and precisely (whereas the person who said those things only meant them to be ‘guidelines’). Taking another person’s comments literally can cause the autistic person… Join The Curly Hair Project Community Today This article and our podcasts are avail…