All about the “Ways of Being, Knowing and Doing: An Anthology for Neurodivergent Practice” project
I was honoured to be asked by Kim Mears and Lisa Chapman to have my work featuredin a new ebook they were creating in order to raise funds to support humanitarian work in Gaza. At the time of publishing this article they have raised over £1000 and hope to raise much more.
The ebook is designed to support neurodivergent people and those who support them. The money raised will go directly to charities involved in Gaza. This is a true international ripple effect of love and kindness and I hope a small balm to the horrors happening to other humans. With so much unrest and sadness happening to families in Gaza it has been humbling to see members of the autistic community come together to create a resource like the anthology.
I have posted my own contributions to the e-book below, but there is so much else inside the actual e-book that I urge you to make your donation and get your copy. 18 people contributed in total and you’ll find advice, knowledge and support from so many wonderful people within the autistic community;
- Heba Al-Jayoosi
- Monique Botha
- Lelanie Brewer
- Lisa Chapman
- Helen Edgar
- Warda Farah
- David Gray-Hammond
- Rowena Mahmud
- Elaine McGreevy
- Kim Mears
- Liz Pellicano
- Emily Price
- Tigger Pritchard
- Harriet Richardson
- Kieran Rose
- Bryony Shannon
- Jodee Simpson
- Ryan Boren, Stimpunks , Spectrum Gaming, Raelene Dundon
From Kim and Lisa;
“Exciting news! The community has come together to support the Palestinian people. The result is an incredible ebooklet “Ways of Being, Knowing and Doing: An Anthology for Neurodivergent Practice”. There are 18 contributors including.
“To get your copy, email NDebooklet@outlook.com with proof of your donation to one of the following charities or a charity supporting the humanitarian crisis. Proof can be a screenshot or similar. We are asking for a minimum donation of £8. If you plan to share it within your organisation please reflect this in your donation.
“An audio version will soon be available so please request this if you would prefer.”
Suggested charities:
- Medical Aid for Palestinians: map.org.uk
- Operation Olive Branch: https://www.olivebranchintl.com/
- Gift of the Givers: https://giftofthegivers.org/
- Palestine Asdiqa: https://linktr.ee/palestineasdiqa
- Gaza Kinder Relief: https://inara.org/gkr/
- abcdbethlehem.org
- https://fobzu.org/ (Friends of Beirzeit University).
- Palestine Children’s Relief Fund – www.pcrf.net
You can follow Kim and Lisa on X to get an update on the fundraiser and they also share updates from the charities and the vital work they are doing.
My contribution to the Anthology
Rather than give you five tips I have selected some quotes from my online essays and organised them into what I feel are three key aspects of autistic experience;
- Monotropism
- Masking
- Burnout
Having a greater understanding of these experiences can only support more autism affirming practice.
I have then gathered some quotes to aid you in your reflective practice as professionals.
What you will read is hard hitting, it might also be difficult to read, but it is also very necessary
MONOTROPISM IN AUTISTIC PEOPLE
“Monotropism can be used to explain multiple differences in Autistic experience in comparison to Neurotypical existence, such as attention, communication, and behaviour, to emotional and bodily responses, and more.”
From my book on Autistic Masking
“Framing autistic attention through the lens of an attempt to filter out competing sensory information also helps us understand the difficulties Autistic people often experience in transitional shifts.”
From my book on Autistic Masking
AUTISTIC MASKING
“The Mask is a living, breathing projection of self, a double consciousness, an acceptable closet, a stigma driven suppression of the authentic you, that both controls and envelopes you, that both keeps you safe and harms you, that grows and develops over a life-span forcing you to dissociate from it.”
From my blog post:
“It is easier for some Autistic people to Mask themselves into an early grave, than it is to step off the cliff and fall into who they truly are.”
From my blog post:
“There is story, after story, after story of Autistic children and young people put into environments and situations that hurt them (like school )and that they spend much of the time expected to conform and ‘behave’ and then whom are blamed for ‘not behaving’ and ‘not conforming’…”
You can read more on my blog post about autistic invalidation.
AUTISTIC BURNOUT
“Autistic Burnout is an integral part of the life of an Autistic person that affects us pretty much from the moment we’re born to the day we die, yet nobody, apart from Autistic people really seems to know about it…”
“I cannot emphasise enough how important it is to make the distinction: that Autistic Burnout is a separate thing from Depression and how important it is, that it starts being recognised and addressed in Society.”
“The world is an overwhelming place for us – it doesn’t have to be, but the way it’s set up with colours, noise and lights and people and expectations makes it so.”
“If society changed to accommodate us our lives would be a lot easier, instead though, for the most part we are still expected to change ourselves.”
These are all from my blog post:
“There is story, after story, after story, of Autistic people young and old, who have Burnout repeatedly dismissed by medical professionals who do not understand what it is, have no clue and seem to think that the answer to everything is depression and anti-depressants.”
You can read more on my blog post about autistic invalidation.
REFLECTIVE PRACTICE WHEN WORKING WITH AUTISTIC PEOPLE
“The Autism narrative has been missing the insight of Autistic people since day one. The world’s understanding of Autism is modelled on one of external observation. It is therefore completely biased.”
Read my blog post;
“If as a non-Autistic person you don’t understand, or don’t know the many deep and complicated narratives that surround us as Autistic people, then you have a responsibility to either learn them, or step back”
Read more on my blog post:
“If we don’t accept, validate and support the challenges a child has in school how on earth can we expect them to manage adult life? Have some empathy for the autistic experience. We all live here, this is our world and instead of dictating to us how we should live in it based on what you want and need, using standards not designed for us; why not empower us to live in it as our authentic selves…”
Read more on my blog post
“At the moment the only way we (Autistic people) can be accepted into the herd, is to be like the herd. We need to break that paradigm. The ‘change and fix’ paradigm needs to be changed and fixed.”
Read more on my blog post;
If you’ve found this article useful you can support my work by donating any amount from $3 (about the same as a coffee – mine’s a caramel latte please!).
I know not everyone wants, or needs to buy one of my training courses, but I often find people will read one of my free articles and want to say ‘thank you’ (and this is really appreciated as they’re a lot of work to write!) Buying me a virtual coffee is a really easy way to say thanks. It also supports me to keep being able to create new, free content and keep my older, free content up-to-date. It also allows me to keep my website ad-free!
My Autism FAQs page is a good place to start if you’re new to my work and want to explore more. Thanks for your support, Kieran.
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Training and ebooks from Kieran
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Got more questions about Autism?
If reading this article has given you more questions then my Autism FAQs is a great place to point you in the right direct to get answers (and most of where I direct you is to free-to-access resources!).
Using images from this article;
These images were created specifically for this article. If you would like to use images from this specific article you are welcome to do so. On the understanding that you credit me as the author, you do not alter the images and do not remove my branding (i.e. name, logo). And you must link back to this article so that as much awareness as possible can be raised about the fundraiser.