On June 20th of last year, Hannah Gadsby’s show, Nanette, debuted on Netflix. Since then, the comic’s life has been permanently altered. The special delved into the powerful and often painful topics of homophobia, sexual assault and comedy’s relationship with trauma. Her new show, Douglas, discusses her autism diagnosis alongside a host of other topics. …
*Editor’s note: Carmen’s piece, though helpful, is written in an American context. Not all situations described in the piece may apply to Ireland* Driving is an important milestone in the lives of teenagers and young adults. No longer do they have to ask mom and dad for a ride to their friend’s houses. Now they …
Autism vs First Year of college May 2019: I have just finished my summer exams. I had dropped out of college twice before and this was third time lucky. I had finally completed the first year of a degree in Digital Marketing, Communication and Public Relations in Dundalk IT, a course with a mixture of academic, creative and technology skills …
Community Voices: Ella Durrigan on Starting College Read More »
The following piece is the final piece in our series covering bullying and autism. The first part discussed it in a professional context and the second (largely) discussed bullying in a school context. This final piece hopes to portray how yesterday’s bullying can potentially become tomorrow’s abuse. This article is recommended for a mature audience …
Community Voices: Nóra Nic Oireachtaigh and Bullying Read More »
In the wake of Joel Langford’s tragic death, I wanted to discuss the unique nature of bullying directed at autistic people. Neil Kenny is a Researcher at the National Anti-Bullying Research and Resource Centre (ABC) at DCU. He holds an B.A. in Psychology from University College Dublin, got his PhD from Maynooth University in 2011 and a Specialist …
Research continues to tell us that we must view ‘challenging behaviour’ as a way in which the child is trying to communicate their needs with us. It has been suggested that we must move away from using the term ‘challenging behaviour’ and instead view the child’s responses as reactions to the environment. If we begin …
How can My Child Be Supported if They’re Having a Meltdown? Read More »
It’s Day 12 of #AsIAmChallenge and things have taken a big step up! Today we are challenging members of the public, businesses, schools and community organisations to conduct a sensory audit of their environment. Autistic people can experience environments in a different way to those who are not autistic – some people experience sensory overload …
Autism is widely known yet it is not widely understood. Awareness of the condition has grown in recent years and there have been many milestones in actively including and promoting autistic people’s participation within wider society. Myths and misconception still exist however and it is important that we tackle these whenever we see and hear …
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