Tag: Autism
-
Autistic Burnout, Bodymind and Soul
Kieran Rose (2018) describes autistic burnout as a ‘crash where you keep on crashing’. This resonates deeply. I have experienced cycles of burnout throughout my life due to systemic unmet needs living as an autistic person in a world primarily designed for non-autistic people. The double empathy problem (Milton, 2012) is real, and as explained…
-
Quantum Neuro-Holographic Thoughts from a Liminal Space
“Quantumness tends to prosper in very cold systems that are carefully isolated rather than part of a tepid soup awash with other activity.” (Lewton, T. 2024) This may be a weird take, but … I think we could use the idea of quantumness and reframe it around an interpretation of marginalised groups living on the edges of…
-
Neurodivergent Co-Regulation
Being neurodivergent can be really hard work in a world that is mostly still lacking in an understanding of the differences in sensory, social, and communication needs of autistic/ADHD and other neurodivergent people. Different lived experiences can create a double empathy gap (Milton, 2012). This means that people’s needs are often not adequately met, and…
-
Neuro-Holographic Thoughts
I believe that the DEEP (Double Empathy Extreme Problem) is at the heart of all the systemic ableist issues we have in our education, social and healthcare systems. The lack of an embodied presence and connection between people being together as humans is causing harm. It is leaving marginalised people further on the edges and…
-
Neuroqueering in the Liminal Spaces
Neuroqueering in Liminal Spaces “By silencing our bodyminds, they (neurotypical society) have halted the growth of a chaotic self. We are no longer able to move fluidly through our experience, instead frozen like ice on an arctic tundra” (Gray-Hammond, 2023) David Gray-Hammond (Emergent Divergence) and I are responding to each other’s blogs to help expand the…
-
The Double Empathy Problem is DEEP
“The growing cracks in the thin veneer of our “civilised” economic and social operating model are impossible to ignore”, Jorn Bettin (2021). The double empathy problem (Milton, 2012) creates a gap of disconnect experienced between people due to misunderstood shared lived experiences. It is “a breakdown in reciprocity and mutual understanding that can happen between people…
-
Top 5 Neurodivergent-Informed Strategies
Top 5 Neurodivergent-Informed Strategies By Helen Edgar, Autistic Realms, June 2024. 1. Be Kind Take time to listen and be with people in meaningful ways to help bridge the Double Empathy Problem (Milton, 2012). Be embodied and listen not only to people’s words but also to their bodies and sensory systems. Be responsive to people’s…
-
Monotropism, Holotropism & Floatation Experiences
I am autistic and monotropic, and I am interested in exploring Helen Mirra’s theory of holotropism (2023) and how this may impact flow states and regulation. Holotropism synthesises the theory of monotropism (Murray, 2005) with deep ecology and holistic anatomy. Holotropism is a: “multi-dimensional, spacious, edgeless terrain under the monotropism map…To be holotropic is to have…
-
An unlearing and relearning journey.
Hello! I have never done an introduction post for Autistic Realms, so after 18 months and some one kindly nominating me for the Positive Role Model Award as part of the National Diversity Awards and receiving so much lovely feedback, I thought I would share a bit about myself! I am Helen Edgar, late identified…
-
Interpreting your Monotropism Questionnaire Results
This information will hopefully provide some clarity for anyone who has taken the Monotropism Questionnaire and are unsure what their results may mean.
-
Autistic Community: Connections and Becoming
Everyone seeks connection in some way or another. Connections may look different for autistic people. In line with the motto from Anna Freud’s National Autism Trainer Programme (Acceptance, Belonging and Connection), creating a sense of acceptance and belonging is likely to be more meaningful for autistic people than putting pressure on them to try and…
-
Celebrations: Neurodivergent-friendly ideas to help make celebrations a success for the whole family
(A guest blog, originally written forand published by ThePDASpace, May 2023) Family life can be busy and chaotic, and you may feel like you are constantly juggling to try and keep some balance to get through the day and avoid a crisis. Changes to everyday routines, such as celebration days and events, can be difficult…
-
Neurodiversity Affirming Glossary of Key Words – for families and professionals
For the words of theory and philosophy that More Realms is written in, from neuroqueer and rhizome to Ma, monotropic time and bodymind, see the companion glossary Key Words: A Glossary of Neuroqueer Theory and Philosophy, and the Stimpunks glossary I helped to build. (Glossary written & and originally published for THE PDA SPACE…
-
Monotropism and The Monotropism Questionnaire
This article was originally written for and published by Neurodiverse Connection (Aug 2023) What is monotropism? The theory of monotropism was developed by Murray, Lawson and Lesser (2005) in their article, Attention, monotropism and the diagnostic criteria for autism. Monotropic people focus more attention and energy resources on a more limited number of channels of interest…
-
Embracing Autistic Children’s Monotropic Flow States
Article originally written and published for Neurodiverse Connection (Sept 2023) Autistic and ADHD people are more likely to be monotropic than the rest of the population (Garau, V. et al., June 2023). This means they focus more energy and resources on fewer interests/tasks/ sensory input at any one time compared to non-autistic polytropic people. Developing a…
-
Autistic Burnout: Social Media Project November 2023
Autistic burnout is a term often used within the autistic community to describe an intense exhaustion that many autistic people experience where input and demands from life exceed the capacity a person has to manage. As part of my ongoing work within the neurodivergent community, I hope to help develop a deeper understanding and awareness…
-
Monotropism, Autism & OCD
Exploring similarities and differences between Autistic and OCD monotropic flow states. Can attention tunnels freeze, and thoughts get stuck?
-
Building a Family Sensory Toolkit
Tigger Pritchard delivered a great workshop with The PDA Space where they discussed ‘The Sensory Impact of School Holidays’, which is available to watch here in The PDA Space Portal. I have also created a FREE E-BOOK ‘Building a Family Toolkit’ which is availablein my shop. https://autisticrealms.com/shop/ Sensory Systems Everyone has a sensory system;…
-
Monotropism Questionnaire: Take It and Understand Your Results
Post first published 28th July 2023 Over the past few weeks, there has been a sudden surge of interest in the Monotropism Questionnaire (MQ), pre-print released in June 2023 in the research paper ‘Development and Validation of a Novel Self-Report Measure of Monotropism in Autistic and Non-Autistic People: The Monotropism Questionnaire.‘ by Garau, V., Murray,…
-
Transitions – Supporting young people throughout the day
Updated October 2026. Transitions are one of the biggest hidden demands in a young person’s day, and understanding why they cost so much comes back to monotropism: every switch pulls attention out of a tunnel and costs energy. The ideas below still hold. For the theory in plain language see the monotropism guide; for the…
-
Monotropism and Experiences of being Monotropic
The theory of Monotropism was developed by Dr Dinah Murray, Wenn Lawson and Mike Lesser (2005) in their article, Attention, monotropism and the diagnostic criteria for autism. Monotropism is increasingly considered to be the underlying principle behind autism and is becoming more widely recognised, especially within autistic and neurodivergent communities. Fergus Murray,(2018), describes montropism as:…
-
Book review – Autistic Burnout, Children /Young People in Education by Viv Dawes
I am excited to announce that Viv Dawes (autistic advocate, writer, and trainer, www.autisticadvocate.co.uk) has just published her new book, Autistic Burnout, Children /Young People in Education, a book aimed at parents of autistic (or other neurodivergent) children. I have revised my preface here as a short review so everyone gets a chance to find…
-
Middle Entrance
I am starting my new blog in the middle. I am in the middle of what is known as ‘midlife’ as I am forty-five; I am also mid-career, having resigned from teaching and not yet working in any other defined role. I also live much of my life in and between the online (primarily neurodivergent)…
-
Penguin Pebbling: An Autistic Love Language
Penguin Pebbling is a neurodivergent way of showing you care, like sharing a meme or twig or pretty stone to say “I’m thinking of you,” inspired by penguins who gift pebbles to those they care about.
-
Low Demand Parenting (for the whole family)
There are a growing number of courses and books discussing the benefits of low-demand parenting strategies. This approach has been adopted by many professionals, such as Dr. Naomi Fisher, who support families. It is becoming increasingly popular amongst parents, especially in neurodivergent communities or in communities where children are struggling with mental health. Many of the low-demand…
-
Autism & OCD – What Could Help
Updated October 2026. Autism and OCD overlap in ways that are easy to mistake for one another, and getting that wrong leads to the wrong support. This post sets out the differences and what could help; for the attention side of the story, Monotropism, autism and OCD explains why thoughts can loop, and the monotropism…
-
Monotropism = Happy Flow State
Updated October 2026. This was my first attempt to explain monotropic flow to parents, and I still believe its central point: deep interests are not a problem to be managed but the place where Autistic, ADHD and PDA young people regulate and recover. I have written a fuller plain-language monotropism guide since, and glimmers and…
-
Autism is fluid
Updated October 2026. “Being Autistic” is one of the searches that brings most people here, so a word on where this post sits now. It is a short statement of the neurodiversity paradigm: autism is a way of being, not a disorder to fix, and Autistic needs are fluid. If you want the vocabulary behind…
-
Neurodivergent Friendly Classrooms
Updated October 2026. I wrote this for Twinkl in 2023, and the attendance crisis it describes has only deepened. The classroom ideas still apply. Since then I have written about why behaviour-based approaches such as PBS do harm, and about the monotropism that underlies so much of what teachers see; both are worth reading alongside…
-
Supporting neurodivergent students who are struggling to attend school
Updated October 2026. School attendance remains the question I am asked about most by families and schools, and the reasons have not changed: unmet needs, sensory overload, masking and burnout. This post sets out what schools can do. For the burnout side read the Autistic burnout hub and the teacher guide; for parents, Parent ideas…
-
Supporting pupils through Autistic Burnout (Neuro-Affirming Teacher Guide)
Supporting pupils through Autistic Burnout (Neuro-Affirming Teacher Guide)
-
Book Review: The New Normal-Autistic musings on the threat of a broken society by David Gray-Hammond
David Gray-Hammond’s new book The New Normal – Autistic musings on the threat of a broken society (2022) is a fantastic and wonderful addition to not only the Autistic and neurodivergent community but is also an accessible text for those who are less familiar with the neurodiversity paradigm and the flipside of the…
-
Supporting autistic students experiencing OCD in a school setting
Updated October 2026. More pupils are living with OCD alongside being Autistic than most schools realise, and the support that works is rarely the standard behaviour plan. This guide is still my starting point for teachers; read it with Autism and OCD: what could help and, where burnout is part of the picture, the Autistic…
-
Autism, OCD, Alexithymia & Interoception
Updated October 2026. Alexithymia and interoception are two of the least understood pieces of the autism and OCD picture, and I still get messages about this post every week. Since writing it I have explored the same territory through monotropism, which helps explain why anxious thoughts loop, and gathered the support side in Autism and…
-
Total Communication
Total communication is not a new concept it evolved from the field of education for the deaf in the 1960s (Schow and Nerbonne 2007). Mueller (2021) defines total communication as including, ‘not only speech, signing, gestures, and written language, but also picture communication and voice output communication devices’. For those with profound and multiple…
-
Education Crisis – Neurodiversity Affirming Teacher Training Needed
Language Identity First Language: In line with preferences from the Autistic community I will be using Identity First Language (ie. Autistic person, NOT person with Autism) Neurodiversity – This relates to the biological fact that human brains and minds differ from each other. Neurodiversity aligns with the idea that all children are unique and…
-
Supporting Children through Autistic Burnout (Parent/Carer Guide)
Updated October 2026. This guide was one of the first things I wrote for Autistic Realms, and it is still the page most parents arrive at. Since then I have gathered everything on burnout into one place, the Autistic burnout hub, and written about how burnout differs from depression and about spoon theory and energy.…
-
Language matters, relationships are essential
It can be difficult and confusing to understand the language surrounding neurodiversity. It can be seen to be creating further divisions and potentially isolating some people by getting hung up on the specifics. I know I have my own anxiety about not using the ‘right’ language (despite writing this!). In response to my previous…
-
Parent ideas for autistic children struggling with school attendance
Updated October 2026. If your child cannot face school, there is always a reason, and the ideas here are about finding it rather than forcing attendance. Since I wrote this I have added a parent guide to Autistic burnout, which is behind a great deal of school distress, and a short explainer on spoon theory…
-
‘Profound autism’ does not exist – rather there are autistic individuals with PMLD / PIMD
‘Profound Autism?’ Language matters, but it is complicated and there are constant changes of vocabulary and what is deemed as “correct” or inline with best practise of the time, particularly in education and health care. Earlier this year Emily Ansell Elfer (Feb 2022) shared the news that the phrase ‘Profound Autism’ had been ‘officially recognised…
-
‘Profound’ in relation to those with PMLD / PIMD
PIMD / PMLD The International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (Profound Intellectual and Multiple Disabilities – IASSIDD) supports individuals and their families who have profound intellectual and multiple disabilities (PIMD). They define this group of people by saying that ‘they are characterized by very severe cognitive, neuromotor and/or sensory…
-
Ideas for Autistic Children who are Struggling at School
Updated October 2026. This was among the first posts on Autistic Realms and it is still the one I send to parents who sense something is wrong before anyone else does. The signs below hold. For what to do next, Parent ideas for Autistic children struggling with school attendance follows on, and the Autistic burnout…
