Autism Home Learning

Life during lockdown is an emotional roller coaster for us all. For many autistic children and young people, the emotions they are experiencing may be intense and confusing. In this post I share some of my experiences and thoughts on ways to support emotional wellbeing at home.  The confusion and unpredictability of the current situation, and when/how  we will eventually exit lockdown, is causing a good deal of anxiety for everyone. Awareness of the risks to emotional wellbeing for autistic children and young people is an important first step to supporting their wellbeing at this time. An earlier post focused upon increased anxiety which of course risks emotional wellbeing. Other widely recognised factors also impact emotional wellbeing for our children including: difficulties in communicating about feelings, barriers to interaction, differences in ways of thinking - such as lack of flexibility, sensory processing differences, difficulties with asking for help, lack of resilience

Essential to wellbeing is being able to socially connect with others. This is no different for autistic children and young people, except that being social from their perspective may be different to ours. This post explores 'being social' from an autistic perspective and ways to create opportunities for being social during this period of lockdown. Promoting Good Feelings when Home Learning (3) Today's post focuses upon relationships as an essential component of wellbeing.  Mutually supportive and enjoyable relationships are essential for wellbeing. Our successful relationships promote a sense of belonging and self-worth, providing opportunities to share experiences and support emotional wellbeing. There are many myths regarding autism, none more so than an assumption that autistic people have poor relationships and do not want to be social, yet many do have positive relationships and enjoy being social - they just do these things differently!   We need to guar