228 Results in Strategies

Helping teenagers to improve self confidence

Many people with autism also have mental health problems, which include: low mood, anxiety, loneliness and a lack of self-confidence. The teenage years are arguably some of the toughest years for everyone, so here are a few suggestions to help teenagers with ASD feel more confident. These are some of the things I wish my parents, friends and teachers had done and said to help me. I've written it for parents but it could be for anyone who cares about someone with ASD:

10 tips to combat sleep problems in autism

In my experience, sleep problems are particularly common for people with autism. Here are my top 10 tips that may help improve you or your loved one's sleep. 1. Ensure a comfortable sensory environment Here are some possible solutions for someone who is undersensitive (sensory seeking):

The impact of feelings and thoughts on behaviour

The thoughts we have and the emotions we feel influence the way we behave (CBT model). I would like to look at this in more detail, focusing on people who are on the autistic spectrum. Thoughts I think the four most common types of thought in ASD are:

Difficulties and triggers vs likes and needs

One of the most helpful things about knowing I am autistic, is gaining understanding of things that help me and things that hinder me. Once I understood what are my difficulties and triggers, and my likes and needs (specifically, the things that make me gain social energy), I became aware of my limitations and was able to adjust my lifestyle. There are a lot of things I can do, but I don't (or I won't) do them. This is the way I live. It enables me to live a happy life and I achieve a lot of things. For me, putting limits on my lifestyle has been very enabling. In this article, I wanted to show why limitations can actually be a good thing.

Autistic responses to pain

Pain is a common cause of challenging behaviour in people with ASD. People on the autistic spectrum may have difficulty communicating that they are in pain, and instead show this by becoming agitated or challenging in their behaviour. People around them may be completely unaware of their pain, instead assuming that they are being difficult or naughty. There are 3 aspects to pain response I'd like to discuss: Pain experience Pain response Pain communication

Are you being bullied?

If a person is hypersensitive, it means they might react strongly to things that would not bother other people. Hypersensitivity can refer not only to physical sensations such as touch and sound, but also to emotions. People who are emotionally sensitive are prone to being upset by the words and actions of others. For people on the autistic spectrum however, there is an additional challenge which is being unable to work out the motives and perspectives of others (theory of mind).

Consequences of masking

When you learn about autism, you will probably have come across a term known as 'masking.' It is sometimes hard to describe exactly what masking is, but I will do it in my own way here. What is masking? Masking is the term used to describe hiding autistic traits. For some people at some points in their life, masking will be intentional, conscious behaviours. For others - especially younger girls I imagine - they may not even realise they are doing it. For me, it was only after I started learning about autism that I realised that I had spent a large proportion of my life masking. Before this, I hadn't really been aware I was doing it. Masking means that people will not see on the outside that an individual is autistic. There are many simple examples of masking, such as:

What is the difference between anxiety and stress?

A lot of people (myself included) use the two terms, 'anxiety' and 'stress', interchangeably. In my opinion, there is one major difference between anxiety and stress, and that is pressure.

“Autism” means “self”

The word "autism," comes from the Greek word "autos," meaning "self." I've been thinking this in more depth and there are a lot of aspects to "self", it doesn't necessarily mean selfish nor does it just mean the need to be alone... Social impairments The most obvious etymology of the word describes the social impairment symptoms. The way I describe it is that the social impairments cause the glass jar to exist around every person with ASD. This glass jar makes it very hard to connect with people, even if there is a desire to. Neurotypical people don't have the social impairments - at least not to the same severity - therefore there is no glass jar (it's more like a shell if the person is "shy").

Coming to terms with change – opportunities

Opportunities (even good ones) are always hard to face - largely because, it takes me a long time to come to terms with any sort of change. Just the possibility of a change - even if it won't actually happen - makes me feel very unsettled and uncomfortable. Even if I have a choice about whether or not something is going to happen, the possibility of a change still really unsettles me. Anything that threatens the current normal/stable state always feels very frightening.