What would you like to have been taught about Autism?

people here do not even realise that Yoga, the physical part  comes from Buddhists/Hindu  in India  They are practising only one part of their way of life.

but I agree with your Indian Doctor . Mindfulness living  is being taught in some primary schools in USA cant remember where. 

I work with an Indian doctor and the part of India she comes from has yoga and meditation on the school curriculum. She takes her yoga very seriously and attends seminars and workshops (obviously not just now with covid).

She believes that everyone should learn yoga and stretching for relaxation and mental healing. She's one of the calmest people I know so it must work on some level.

Ah, funny, a lot of my friends climb, and i've often wondered if they're mostly undiagnosed aspies. I keep toying with the idea of leaRning myself

to combat anxiety -

I think basic relaxation, mindfulness and meditation techniques should be taught ( to those u want it ) with  medium and advantaged techniques taught and prescribable, say  by GPs and other mental health professionals  to those who want to be teachers of these techniques to other people ( autistic and non-autistic )

I did well enough at school. It was work, and being an adult, that caused the issues. There were so many ways that I still reasoned like a child. (and still do)

That would be amazing, I'd love to see neuro diversity on the curriculum too.

Hi

Yes I get your point about labelling and being put on action plans. I think this is similar to what I would think if anyone suggested they teach me social skills!

That case study sounds so unrepresentative of a lot of the autistic population and should definitely have been balanced with a range of case studies. There are so many high profile autistic individuals that excel in their fields and live independent lives that to use a singular case study of someone with a high level of support needs is un-representative and not reflective of the challenges and strengths across the autistic population. 

I think education/ support should be more about helping young people understand what diagnosis means for them as individuals. Helping them to navigate the world whilst retaining their unique sense of identity. To some extent I wish I could unlearn the masking strategies that I have used to survive but have some strategies to help me to participate in life including social interactions with less anxiety. 

ok that explains it  - 

I'm not writing! I use speech to text technology for most things. 

youre writing is very good for a dyslexic.  severe dyslexics wouldnt be able to use this forum

I'm studying nursing and the case study involving an autistic person was really difficult for me. It was basically taught as "these people have only the most basic life skills and will need constant assistant and supervision for life" which doesn't match up to my lived experience at all.

When I was diagnosed it was just a diagnosis and then left to get on with it, no external support and the school somehow missed the fact that I'm ridiculously dyslexic so it's not like they were watching from afar. I felt quite bitter about the missing of my needs but as I've got older I think that I'm probably lucky I wasn't labelled and put on some sort of action plan because if I had been I'd have probably spent my life being treated as "special needs".

Thanks so much....I can relate to all of these too....

I found climbing and yoga super helpful once I discovered them in my 20s. I am also relatively competent at them because I can use my visual skills to good affect and my body gets the proprioceptive input to know where it is in space!

I completely get the predicament of either just being able to listen to a conversation (or for me unintentionally dominating a conversation). I still find it hard to alternate my attention between myself and others...it is either always on them or always on myself.

Keep me posted if you come up with anything else....thanks again....

I really like this question! And I'm still trying to find the answers to some things. Things I'd have liked to know include:

support with my motor neural skills so that I could have played sport; or helping me find sports that could work. There's remedial classes in school for intellectual work, I could have done with remedial PE

it's only now I realise how much anxiety i was constantly dealing with socially. So having had a diagnosis some basic skills in spotting my anxiety and managing it would have helped

i'd have loved to have fitted in. It was probably unviable to think I could have, but helping me find strategies like 1-1s, and to develop the friendships i did occasionally make and take them from the cursory level to something more like friendship

teaching my parents that my quirks and difficulties weren't going to go away and helping them understand and accommodate them

some basic help with sensory overload, esp noise, like being allowed to wear headphones at hime and legitimising that people's eating, breathing, talking did my head in

the things i still struggle with are:

shutdowns, so anything on managing them

not being able to confidently spot flirting or moves, and focussing on the detail of why someone isn't interested rather than seeing the big picture that they clearly are. And learning methods to then doing something rather than blurting "do you want a relationship?"

overwhelming myself with to-do's, and learning strategies to let go of feeling i have to do everything and optimise everything

learning how to put myself at the centre of a conversation and relationship, rather than just listening to others and their stuff

If more come to mind I'll add.