7th April 2018
I am always keen to increase my knowledge and understanding of Autism, both from a personal level as an Autistic, and from the point of view of other people. We all know the saying that “if you have met one person on the Autistic Spectrum, then you have met one person on the Autistic spectrum” and with more information becoming available regarding Autistic women, I want to increase my knowledge of that subject. Also I want to get some sort of “formal” recognition with reference to my understanding to go alongside my own experiences. Therefore I decided to try the new “Women and Girls on the Autism Spectrum” module from the National Autistic Society.
This blog is about how I found that module and the views expressed are purely my own. Obviously, as an Autistic man, I will never truly know what it feels like to be an Autistic woman (or a Neurotypical man or woman for that matter…) but I want to try and understand something of what Autism is like for others. I speak to so many Autistic women in the Autistic community and on Twitter, I wanted to learn more.
The main thing I learnt from the module, is the extent that women and girls mask being Autistic in order to fit in, whether it’s with a group of friends, their families, when at school, dating, at a concert or anywhere. I did know that masking was a key trait in women and girls on the spectrum, but I was surprised at the level to which it goes and could see how the true person (themselves) could get lost behind it all. As an Autistic man I mask a lot too and it was excellent to see the module mention this and to gender fluidity, without staying on the subject too long. After all this is a module about Autistic women and girls, and not men and boys.
The masking is so much more intense and the module explains this perfectly when discussing diagnosing Autistic females. The masking process means that during an interview, if the person carrying out the diagnosis only asks black and white questions and the female is masking, then no diagnosis or an incorrect one might be given. In one of the diagnostic examples given, a girl who has been struggling at school is asked “why do you not like going to school?”, to which she responds she does like going school. If the person doing the diagnosis stops the question there, then it might be assumed there is not a problem. However, the girl could be masking so it is important to ask further questions such as “why do you struggle at school?”, to which the reply of “Not liking the noise in the classroom” might be the response. The further questioning is more revealing as it hints toward a sensory issue which is an Autistic trait.
This explains one reason why often women and girls can be missed or misdiagnosed and the module is therefore, in my opinion, essential to anyone involved with the process of Autism diagnosis. It is crucial continuous professional development (CPD). Also it got me thinking personally about how I communicate with Autistic women. The module explains that often an Autistic woman might not even be aware that she is masking. There is a video in the course where one woman talks how masking stops her from being herself and also how difficult it is to stop masking. This got me thinking about some of the Autistic women I know and whether they mask when talking to me. After viewing the films on the module, I wondered what I can do to help someone understand they do not need to mask and be more comfortable around me. It raised my awareness and curiosity greatly.
This is the first module I have done in this series and the first thing I want to say that the presentation of the module, the way the subject matter is taught through text, diagrams, real life videos and exercises is superb. The graphics and design are clear and concise. They make learning very interactive and the facts are easy to digest. One exercise I particularly liked was an energy meter, where you had to drop various aspects of being Autistic such as intense interests or public meeting into the energy bar. The energy bar would then rise or drop to show how much that person could deal with. The idea behind this is to demonstrate that an Autistic can only cope with so much negativity, before they need some positive activity to restore the balance. This is a great tool and I think it would be good to have it as an exercise on the NAS website as a tool to show Neurotypicals how our energy levels actually work.
One minor issue I had with the module, and as this is my first one, I do not know if they are all the same, is the pre and post assessment. I should also state that this is nothing to do with the actual content but with format. The module gives you a series of questions to test your current knowledge of the subject. It then says at the end you will be tested again and need 80% correct answers to complete the module. I find this sort of thing distracting as I become anxious about having to pass the requirement at the end. I appreciate that this might be me as an individual but I think the module would be better if they did not say how many questions you need to pass until just before the final questions themselves. I must stress again though this is a minor format issue.
I hope that I haven’t offended anyone with this blog: this was not my intention if I have. I am very aware that there are some amazing Autistic Female Advocates out there, blogging, vlogging, writing, campaigning and much more for equality within the Autistic community. They have my admiration and respect for the work they do. Currently the diagnostic ratio of men to women is 3:1 which clearly indicates women and girls are not getting the support that they might need.
This needs to change and the “Women and Girls on the Spectrum” module is a great start towards this change. There has been a great response to the module through social media such as Twitter but it appears to me that mainly women are posting about it. I think everyone should do it. The way I look at it though is that every little helps and if this blog persuades just one person, male or female to take the module, than it would have achieved its purpose. Finally I would like to thank everyone who was involved in putting it together – it’s great!