How to support a teenager girl coming to terms with her diagnosis

There is a fun community on social media platforms to start. #actuallyautistic on twitter and a few others to connect with. It could be helpful to follow or find other who love who they are.

I needed help with language when I was younger. I could visualise exchanges, or entire scenes in my imagination but identifying the word I was trying to convey was difficult. Identifying or understanding a feeling or emotion was difficult. It always helped to talk through these things with someone who was interested in what I had to say and because I stayed silent due to just lack of understanding, it wasn't often someone could see that I had a voice just waiting to express. Being given room to try to communicate, or even just not dismissed and encouraged to engage with my senses to understand the world around me better really helped. I had a teacher who afforded me time to take notice. And write what I was sensing down. A history teacher who encouraged my questions. These affirmations and encouragements toward what I was gifted in were life-changing.

Parents who seek to help and support their children are exactly how society becomes better :)

Hi NAS73958,

You might want to have a look at our section here on the NAS site about post diagnostic support for parents and carers - https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/diagnosis/post-diagnosis-support/parents-and-carers

This covers areas like social care, financial support, autism services such as social groups which you can find in the Autism Services Directory here on the site, as well as links to our helplines and family support services, and education courses.

There's also a section on post-diagnostic support for adults, which you may find helpful as well give you say you're recently diagnosed too - https://www.autism.org.uk/advice-and-guidance/topics/diagnosis/post-diagnosis-support/autistic-adults

Hope this is of some help,
Ross - mod