Tag: Autistic
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The Constellation of Intensities: Neuroqueering the Spiky Profile
Why even the “spiky profile” still measures us against a grid — and what a constellation of intensities offers instead.
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Little Fluffy Clouds: An Invitation To Play
Multisensory Play Ideas: Little Fluffy Clouds Sensory Session
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The Autistic Rhizome: Community, Liminal Spaces & Belonging
Autistic belonging grows through community, from liminal spaces, not conformity.
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Monotropism, Limerence And Autistic ADHD Experiences
Limerence in Autistic and ADHD people may be shaped by monotropism, a natural tendency toward deep focus and emotional intensity. Rather than being unhealthy or excessive, this pattern reflects how monotropic people engage deeply with relationships, meaning, and how they form connections.
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Understanding the Double Empathy Problem: A Guide For Autistic People & Families
FREE Neuro-Affirming Communication & Sensory Passport + Training Support Autistic people through better understanding of communication, sensory needs & double empathy.
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Discovering Belonging: Creating Neuro-Affirming Animations with Thriving Autistic
Discovering Belonging: Neuro-Affirming Animations with Thriving Autistic. Celebrate Autistic identity through the Discovery Programme and new animations that explore belonging, strengths, and community.
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Monotropism vs Polytropism: ADHD, AuDHD & Autistic Attention
Explore how monotropism shapes Autistic, ADHD, and AuDHD attention. Dispelling myths, uncovering research and exploring why neuroaffirming support matters for our wellbeing.
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Beyond “Neurodiversity Lite”: Why Neurodiversity-Affirming Practice Matters
Explore the difference between true neurodiversity-affirming practice and “neurodiversity-lite,” and why justice, and lived experience matter.
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Monotropism and Polytropism Explained
Learn how monotropism differs from polytropism, plus research showing ADHDers and AuDHDers score higher on the Monotropism Questionnaire.
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The Autistic Dream Realms Project
Autistic Dream Realms The Autistic Dream Realms Project, created with Katie from Autistic and Living the Dream is a project in which we share information about being Autistic and OCD, as people with lived experience of both, as an individual (Katie) and a parent (Helen) to help demystify Autism and OCD. General content warnings: mental health,…
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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.
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Supporting pupils through Autistic Burnout (Neuro-Affirming Teacher Guide)
Supporting pupils through Autistic Burnout (Neuro-Affirming Teacher Guide)
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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…
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‘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…
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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…
