Hans Asperger was celebrated worldwide. The disability he described in 1944 was named after him and appeared in mainstream diagnostic manuals. His birthday, 18 February, was designated ‘International Asperger’s Day’ and countries across the world marked this date. For many,...
autism
Despite the relaxed legislation on lockdown measures for autistic people brought into effect in April, 86 per cent of those surveyed in a study led by Dr Georgia Pavlopoulou and colleagues still felt that the needs of autistic people and their families were not adequately...
We are living through a social paradox: mental health research has proved that social connection is crucial to wellbeing, yet during this pandemic social isolation is crucial to survival. Relationships are one of the most important aspects of our lives, but we can often...
In 2017 I received a diagnosis of autism. During my diagnostic assessment, the Psychiatrist asked me a simple question with surprising consequences:
‘How do you feel about eye contact?’
‘Well’, I explained, ‘I look at someone for a few seconds, then take my cue...
In an attempt to slow the spread of the novel coronavirus (Covid-19), unprecedented changes have been made to the inherently social world we live in. Though for many this may feel unusual, I cannot help but notice that for those on the autism spectrum, attempting to function...
A briefing document produced by last year’s winner of the joint BPS and Parliamentary Office of Science and Technology (POST) postgraduate award has now been published. Margaret Laurie’s note covers information about autism and its prevalence, co-occurring conditions,...
As a 16-year-old student hoping to study psychology at university, I recently attended a film festival in Singapore. One movie I watched was Innocent Witness, a Korean film directed by Lee Han. It appealed to me as one of the main characters has autism and I have previously...
An internationally-renowned autism researcher has received this year’s British Psychological Society Presidents’ Award. Professor Francesca Happé (King’s College London) has led seminal work on the neurocognitive causes of social impairments in autism and more recently has...
I was saddened to see the letter from Cross and Atherton. This was one of many recent articles from various outlets to take issue with the concept of neurodiversity. Only, the concept as...
Autism: A new introduction to psychological theory and current debate, 2nd Edition by Sue Fletcher-Watson and Francesca Happé, published by Routledge is...