Autism Awareness Training
Autism Awareness Training
As a part of my placement with Discovery, I helped deliver a session regarding the topic of Autism Awareness. I assisted the university Autism practitioner Gemma Price in delivering a presentation surrounding the topic of how best to support autistic people.
This included aspects such as what such as functioning labels and why some autistic people prefer not to use them to identify themselves. Functioning labels are the labels which are given to autistic people in an attempt to define the abilities and support needs of an autistic person. For example, an autistic person who is determined as being less able by neurotypical standards may be given the label of low functioning. However, a lot of autistic people believe that this dismisses the individual strengths and support needs of the autistic person who this label has been given to.
Neurotypical refers to an individual who doesn’t have autism or any other developmental disabilities. The training also covered some of the ways that autistic people may socialise which could be different to that of a neurotypical individual. For example, an autistic person may have a special interest they talk about a lot.
This training was provided via Zoom. I assisted in this training by supporting Gemma with clarifying any further information I may have regarding the elements of autism discussed. I feel that I was able to add relevant information from my own personal experience of being an autistic adult. I feel it is very important for Discovery volunteers to do Autism Awareness training. This is because it will assist them in knowing how to best interact with and support autistic people that they might meet both while volunteering and in everyday life. This will mean that the autistic people who they are interacting with may feel more supported. I feel that even though autistic people may not be fully supported in some areas of life, the amount of information and support available to autistic people has greatly improved over the last few years.
There are some things which I wish were better understood by some people about autism. One of these things is that every autistic person’s needs and strengths are different so it’s always best to speak to an autistic person about how best to support them. I also disagree with functioning labels as autistic people can have certain areas they struggle in and some they don’t. Every autistic person has different strengths and support needs. An autistic individual may have tasks they struggle with more than other tasks. For example, an autistic person may be able to communicate effectively but may need support to help them with their organisational skills. This is why I feel functioning labels dismiss both the areas which an autistic individual may be strong in and the areas which they may need more support in.
Overall, I really enjoyed this training as I feel it gave me the opportunity to raise further awareness about autism. I would highly recommend this training as it would allow you to further develop your understanding of autism
Nicole Jones – 2nd year Social Science student