Late Diagnosis

Hi and welcome. I'm a woman in my sixties and for most of my life if someone had suggested I might be autistic I'd have thought they were a bit crazy. Then when I was in my fifties I watched a documentary featuring an autistic woman and realised I was a lot like her. To be honest, before that I didn't really know what autism was.

I have also sometimes wished I was more like other people, but we can't change who we are. Although we struggle with some things, we also have positive attributes, which can include problem solving skills, retention of facts, creativity, attention to detail, hyper focus, honesty and loyalty. This means that we can fill the skills gaps in teams where the others are not autistic, for example they might see the big picture but we can see the details.

I'm surprised that you are expected to be self taught while doing an apprenticeship - you should have a mentor and they should be able to guide you if you are stuck. Don't be afraid to ask for help, and tell them how you learn best - whether it's that you need more clear unambiguous instructions, or more structured questions, or information in the form of pictures or diagrams. Your employer/trainers have a responsibility to make reasonable adjustments for you.

Thank you for your reply, I really apricate the positive spin of autism as I am really struggling to see any at the minute. 

I really struggle with confrontation so I always feel too intimidated to change the way something is presented to me. I have got a tutor but she simply provides me with questions to answer and I have to sort of find the information out myself. I know I can go to her if I get stuck but my problem lies with the whole concept rather than the questions themselves and I don't know how I bring this up without it feeling like a confrontation.  

I understand, I also felt too intimidated to challenge things or ask questions when I was younger.

Although I'm now retired, I have qualifications in learning support and English Language teaching, did a work based accounting qualification and have mentored colleagues doing them. So if you feel happy to share more about what course you are doing and what the concept is that you can't grasp, I might be able to give you some pointers. Your course has probably been structured for you to find out the answers yourself because we can often retain knowledge we search for better than that which is just handed to us, but some students need more support and structure. Your tutor should be asking you how you are getting on and prompting you to say if you find anything difficult - I would do that with any student, but as you are autistic it's even more important. 

Don't worry, you're a learner, you're not expected to be an expert, and you're not being tested on grammar or sentence structure.

I don't have early years training or experience (I worked with children aged 7-10 when I was an SEN teaching assistant) However I have just googled play theorists and found it quite interesting.

What guidelines have you been given for the research? Were you just told to research play theorists and write about what you discovered? If so this is how I would approach it:

First, read about all the play theorists you find and make some brief notes about the main ideas each of them came up with.

Then, choose which ones you want to write about. If you've been told to only write about one, then just choose one but I hope that's not the case as it's more useful to compare and contrast different ones. You can't choose the "wrong" person, it doesn't matter which one you choose as long as you report their work and ideas correctly. As your course includes an SEN element, I would include at least one whose theories you think might benefit SEN children.

If you've been told to write about just one play theorist, write about the benefits and drawbacks you think there would be by implementing their ideas. If you haven't been told to only write about one, compare and contrast the ideas of the ones you choose. You can also present what you see as the benefits and possible drawbacks or limitations of each theorist in a table format as part of the report.

When writing text, instead of using an AI try thinking about what you would tell someone if they asked what you were writing about, then it might sound a bit more natural. I haven't used ChatGPT so I don't know exactly what it does, but I don't think it would be cheating to use it if it's only rewriting your own words - but try to have more confidence in yourself.

You could do a rough draft and then ask your tutor to have a look at it to see if you have understood what they wanted you to do, and ask for feedback about how you could improve it. If you have a mentor in your workplace, you could ask for their feedback instead as they will have done something similar when training.

I hope this is helpful. If not, just try to pluck up the courage to tell your tutor that you are unsure if you are doing it correctly and ask if they could please give you.some guidance. That's their job. Think of it not as confrontation but as asking for help, which we all need sometimes. 

Don't worry, you're a learner, you're not expected to be an expert, and you're not being tested on grammar or sentence structure.

I don't have early years training or experience (I worked with children aged 7-10 when I was an SEN teaching assistant) However I have just googled play theorists and found it quite interesting.

What guidelines have you been given for the research? Were you just told to research play theorists and write about what you discovered? If so this is how I would approach it:

First, read about all the play theorists you find and make some brief notes about the main ideas each of them came up with.

Then, choose which ones you want to write about. If you've been told to only write about one, then just choose one but I hope that's not the case as it's more useful to compare and contrast different ones. You can't choose the "wrong" person, it doesn't matter which one you choose as long as you report their work and ideas correctly. As your course includes an SEN element, I would include at least one whose theories you think might benefit SEN children.

If you've been told to write about just one play theorist, write about the benefits and drawbacks you think there would be by implementing their ideas. If you haven't been told to only write about one, compare and contrast the ideas of the ones you choose. You can also present what you see as the benefits and possible drawbacks or limitations of each theorist in a table format as part of the report.

When writing text, instead of using an AI try thinking about what you would tell someone if they asked what you were writing about, then it might sound a bit more natural. I haven't used ChatGPT so I don't know exactly what it does, but I don't think it would be cheating to use it if it's only rewriting your own words - but try to have more confidence in yourself.

You could do a rough draft and then ask your tutor to have a look at it to see if you have understood what they wanted you to do, and ask for feedback about how you could improve it. If you have a mentor in your workplace, you could ask for their feedback instead as they will have done something similar when training.

I hope this is helpful. If not, just try to pluck up the courage to tell your tutor that you are unsure if you are doing it correctly and ask if they could please give you.some guidance. That's their job. Think of it not as confrontation but as asking for help, which we all need sometimes.