Autism, Identity and Me: A Practical Workbook to Empower Autistic Children and Young People Aged 10+

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This guidebook is innovative as it helps autistic young people own their autism diagnosis, whereas it’s likely the pathway thus far has been directed by a medical and/or parental perspective. The National Autistic Society is also a company limited by guarantee, registered at Companies House (01205298). Would the Professor tell a Person of Colour that they shouldn’t embrace their identity, or should conceal it? Nobody ever thought to tell me that I wasn’t broken, that things were just different for me and that was OK, that it’s OK that picking up the phone was a herculean task and that if i wanted to communicate in a different way, then that’s fine. Your identity is shaped by your experiences, your race, your education, your skin colour, your sex, your gender, your nationality, your abilities and perceived disabilities.

Autism, Identity and Me: A Practical Workbook to Empower

And here today, in these few minutes, I wanna try to unpack what self-acceptance can look like as a journey for Autistic individuals in a society that doesn’t really accept us. This is a great resource for supporting young people to explore their individual strengths and skills, whilst developing a sense of pride. Hearing voices of autistic children throughout the book gives a unique insight that can only be gained from listening to those with lived experience.It genuinely comes across from this that he doesn’t understand identity at all, nor it’s role in self-belief, confidence and mental well-being.

I am autistic card - National Autistic Society I am autistic card - National Autistic Society

And it’s hard when someone tells you that you’re doing it wrong; That everything you know is based on your singular child and information given to you that is narrow; and based on external observations. The workbook is highly structured and visual, broken down into key sections such as Interests and Focus, Masking, Emotions and My Autistic Identity Statement to create a personal passport and to develop a deeper understanding of what autism means to the young person as an individual. Society’s lack of acceptance forcing us to hide in plain sight and then, when it identifies us, forces us to accept a narrative about ourselves of it’s own creation.

Language derived from national charities that don’t help you, but convince you they’re helping somebody and then pass you onto volunteer run parent groups. The second thing that needs to happen is that we need to understand why we are in this situation in the first place, why is our difference wrong to the rest of the world, why do they think the way they do about us? We’re scared, a deep rooted fear that crawls up the back of our necks and makes our crocodile brains snap and snarl. This workbook supports the development of this and will be valuable for autistic children and young people aged 10+ and the adults working with them. Erikson ( 1968) introduced the idea that a relationship exists between identity development and mental health, which is still considered useful in understanding mental health today (Côté 2018).