What is Autism?
Autism affects the way a person will interact socially, affecting their communication and interaction.
An individual may be non-speaking, talk in a monotone with no emotion or often appear excitable. Equally, there may be no verbal identifier. Social rules of communication can be unclear causing an individual to make too much or too little eye contact. Non-verbal communication can be misinterpreted, and the individual may be unable to make sense of inferences, requiring more context and clear concrete language. Idioms such as “pull your socks up”, “Over the moon” or “pull yourself together” may be taken literally. Equally, irony and jokes may be difficult to interpret.
The individual may struggle to make friends or respond in a social situation, not knowing how to start a conversation. The thought of having to interact may be too stressful causing a spike in anxiety and refusal to become involved. The autistic individual may not understand social rules around conversation, preferring to talk only about themselves or their special interest and not follow turn taking. Conversation may be functional only and once the message conveyed the person may simply walk away, not knowing how to end a conversation.
In a world that seems very different for the autistic individual. Generalising between experiences is difficult and even small differences can make the situation appear completely new and alien, provoking anxiety, and a stress response. To defend against this, some individuals will benefit from and even demand an adherence to routines. Repetitive behaviours such as counting, repeating some phrase or ritualistic movements or routines can help regulate emotions and stress levels.
Many individuals are hypo or hypersensitive to different sensory stimuli and act in ways to regulate these senses by either creating sensation or regulating and calming a sensory reception. There are times when people's senses are overloaded and a ‘meltdown’ can be experienced where someone responds explosively, shouting or physically striking out. ‘Shutdown’ or ‘burnout’ can also happen where they are simply unable to function.
Everyone in the world is different and is an individual. Embracing neurodiversity is important because it celebrates the unique ways individuals think, learn, and experience the world. Being autistic does not put people into a box and indeed every autistic individual presents their condition uniquely. Autism is a spectrum disorder which means there is a diverse range of features and differences. Some may have speech, some not. Some may experience shyness while others can talk to anyone, some may be affected by sensory differences, which again have many variables, while others experience no difficulties in this area.
Being autistic at Cocklebury
Identity first or person first language? Research into autism, (often by autistic authors) tends to highlight that people are proud to be autistic and view the characteristics as very much a part of who they are and not just an addition or label that disables. At Cocklebury Farmhouse Homes, we use identity first language for autistic people, but person first language for learning disability.
However, in terms of person centred care, we consider the person first and identify their abilities and needs. We view people’s strengths and how they like to experience the world and we build a support plan from this.
Individuals may be autistic. Understanding and identifying the needs of individuals caused by their autism is essential to know how to respond in the most appropriate and effective ways. We can recognise this and be aware of how this may affect the individual, but we are careful to highlight strengths before categorising or defining an individual by their diagnosis. By operating in this way, we feel we are more successful in achieving inclusion.
At Cocklebury Farmhouse, all staff are trained in autism and are led by a management team that have extensive experience in working with and meeting the needs of autistic people. The Registered manager is completing a master’s degree in Inclusion with an emphasis on autistic adults.
Diagnosis
Receiving a diagnosis is a very personal decision. Some autistic individuals are very proud of the identity a diagnosis brings and for some it can explain differences that they have always been aware of but couldn’t understand. For others, they may not want their differences to be highlighted and may not view any benefit from a diagnosis. Even though there should be no stigma, some people may feel uncomfortable about such differences being labelled.
For individuals we support, we will consider the individual’s views but where we identify a lack of capacity, we will consider how the individual relates to the support they receive and what benefit they may receive from having an identity and diagnosis.
Research into views of autistic individuals has highlighted that people are proud of their identity and see their autism as an important part of what shapes them, hence they are autistic rather than have autism. Research needs to be investigated into the autistic voice of those that are non-speaking and individuals with a severe learning disability where capacity is in question but we are guided by the research that is there. At Cocklebury Farmhouse we encourage people’s identity of being autistic and view the benefits a diagnosis will bring such as opportunities to resources.