Wider issue: We need to be more aware of autism

IF a new colleague seems unfriendly, sticks rigidly to a routine and doesn’t get your sarcastic jokes, don’t immediately dismiss them as weird. They may be autistic.

Around one in every 100 people is on the autistic spectrum and has difficulties in social situations, but loves order and routine, and yet the condition is still poorly understood.

World Autism Awareness Day (April 2) hopes to improve the public and organisations’ understanding of autism, and highlight the fact that it’s not just a childhood problem.

Autism is described as a spectrum disorder because, while everybody with it shares three main areas of difficulty — with social communication, social interaction and social imagination — the condition will affect them in very different ways and to varying degrees.

Some are able to live relatively normal lives, often trying to hide their difficulties, while others will need lifelong specialist support.

For instance, people with Asperger Syndrome, which is a form of autism, are often of average, or above average, intelligence and tend to have fewer problems with speaking than people with other forms. They don’t usually have the learning disabilities associated with autism, but may have specific learning difficulties, such as dyslexia and dyspraxia, or other conditions including attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD).

One of the main champions in the fight to help improve understanding is Temple Grandin. Despite not being able to speak until she was four years old, due to her own autism, an extensive early education programme and attending a school for gifted children led Grandin to a hugely successful career designing facilities for livestock, a PhD in animal science and honorary degrees from many universities.

The 66-year-old American has been a vocal campaigner for the welfare and rights of people with autism, and her new book, The Autistic Brain, is about to be published.

As well as offering new ways of understanding the causes, diagnosis and treatment of autism, she hopes the book will provide an insight into the different ways people with autism think.

She says treatment for autistic children should start at the first sign of abnormal behaviour, and believes those at the higher end of the autism spectrum should be encouraged to get involved with peers in areas of common interest, typically music, art, robotics and cooking.

Grandin, whose life was the subject of the award-winning 2010 film Temple Grandin, starring Claire Danes, stresses: “I’m worried that the educational system is going to block out some unique kinds of minds.”

* The Autistic Brain By Temple Grandin is published by Rider on April 17