So, autism is a neurodevelopmental condition and what happens is, that the way my brain, if I am autistic, the way my brain perceives the information, processes it in my brain and the way I express it, all can be very different, okay, from a neurotypical person.

And uh autism does not necessarily impact my ability to learn, okay, but what is different about me, as an autistic person, would be my style of learning which is very very different from how others around me learn or express.

So, when we talk about autism, autism is a very wide spectrum and uh so when I say spectrum what it means is, in different abilities or different ways of communicating, people are uh impacted differently.

So we can have people who are autistic and completely non-verbal, there are also people who are autistic who are leading lives like you and me and have gone through education, have been married, have been raising babies, all of that, without actually telling anybody or being identified as autistic.

So there can be, there are people who need a lot of support through their lives and there are people who also need support but in different ways uh that are sometimes not very obvious.

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Uh so when we use the word neurotypical, what it really means is the very predefined concept which the majority of people use to measure the developmental standards or the um or the yeah pretty much the developmental standards.

Very often in school or in little children, these are the academic results that give us an idea.

Uh but also my growth, my physical growth, my speech development, my, the way my brain is functioning in terms of, as appropriate to the, age.

So there are these norms that have been set uh after a lot of research and that’s considered neurotypical.

Neurotypical is what used to be called ‘normal’ earlier.

The world is changing dramatically and we’re embracing neurodiversity which means the way the brain is processing is very different, and they can be autism and other conditions as well.

And neurotypical is when people are not neurodivergent or they’re developing typically.

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Right, so when we think about what was earlier called as high functioning autism and or Asperger’s earlier, what it really means is that in the early developmental years, the first 5 years of their lives, everything is meeting, they are meeting their milestones.

Everything, they’re speaking on time, they, a lot of them cope very well academically, in fact they can be excellent students.

So we know of autistic people who have been through the IITs and they have been through IIMs and they’re lawyers or they are doctors or they are authors um working in, like really top 5 companies in India, all of that.

They, because autism is such an invisible condition, in the sense that you don’t see somebody and immediately get to know that this person may have a condition like autism.

Oftentimes, because if the person, if I’m autistic and I don’t tell you that I have autism you may not be able to figure out that I have autism.

The difference would be in the ways I communicate or my expression might be very different.

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Right, so for, for a lot of people, whether they’re children or adults, a lot of times people may not use spoken language.

So they might use, say, uh tablet or pictures or type out their responses.

Uh they might use an assistive device to support their thoughts.

A lot of people might just paint to express themselves or uh music can be another form of their expression.

But for a lot of autistic people, words might be something that they use, they might be expressing using words, however expressing their needs, expressing what I want, expressing what I…what is difficult for me, asking for help, I’m stuck in this place, I don’t know what else to do, okay, but asking for help can be very hard.

So a lot of, in fact a lot of autistic people have a lot of struggle in their work.

They did fabulously in academics because it was a very structured environment but our job, our employment places are very socially dependent, right?

They’re dependent on our social skills.

So that makes a lot of difference because I can’t chat with you, I can’t make the small talk, I can’t ask you or gossip about my boss, those can be things that can be very hard, I'm very focused on my work.

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So one of the things uh that we do is, we use a lot of visual cues to teach autistic people and the good idea, a good practice would be to continue doing that because very often we take them away, we take away the visual cues, uh but for an autistic person it’s like ‘my spectacles’, right?

It is like, ‘yeah I need it for a long, long time. It helps me function better. It is like my phone.’

So one of the things that uh for most autistic kids, they’re visual learners, right, they learn by seeing.

So having visual cues for them in their environment, having a very structured organized environment for them really helps them a long way.

So one of our advice, always, is that: continue using that as the child grows and develops and what we actually do is we also teach children how to create their own visual uh supports and how to find their way to organize things better.

So so many times what happens is we feel that ‘Okay, we’ve done, we’ve taught our child with a a a lot of visual cues and it’s alright to take it away’ that is something we advise against because for an autistic child it’s really, really important and that is something that we uh let the child be with.

So all these strategies that we’re talking about are strategies that educators and employers both can be using and that can be taught to an autistic individual and used, should be used in the intervention strategies whether it is in school or whether it is in a clinic.

When we think about children or even for that matter even adults, there are some things that remain exactly the same, a) talk - and these are things that are actually good for neurotypicals, or us, they’re good for everybody - a) talk positive.

Don’t tell me ‘what I don’t want you to do’, tell me what I, what you want me to do.

So it’s like if I am, if I have my hands like this and say, ‘hey Nidhi don’t put your hands here’, I don’t know what to do.

I don’t know whether I should keep them here, should I be doing like this?

What do you want me to do? It confuses me.

Because as an autistic person I may not even be able to figure out what your intention really is.

That’s hard for autistic people.

Okay, so what would be important for me to do is if you just tell me, ‘Nidhi, can you keep your hand down?’ That just is a very clear message.

That is very important, so tell me what to do versus what not to do.

Uh, any kind of subtle, you know, messages, hints, uh reading between lines uh so sometimes we give all of these, I mean sarcasm and jokes are one thing but sometimes um you know we're trying to politely, diplomatically tell people, ‘Oh yeah you’re looking very nice…’ but you know uh but there so there is something in my voice, there might be something in my face that is giving away that yeah, but there is a little thing.

For a lot, for a lot of autistic people that can be hard to gauge, based on your facial expressions, based on the intonation of the voice to figure out what you actually mean rather than what you say.

So, if you tell me directly, no politics, no games, just straight simple messages, that’s something that’s very helpful.

So uh so for a lot of people, when they are in the academic setups, and uh whether it’s school or college, for a lot of them, processing immediately information, so in the sense, the teacher is writing, you’re trying to understand, you’re trying to write things, all of that together can be very hard.

So, in a lot of schools, even the ones who are talking about being inclusive, one simple strategy could be if I’m allowed to record the lecture on the phone.

That’s a very simple strategy that gives me time to go back and process and that’s something that school and college, even as adults in meetings that I can do.

In addition to visual cues, uh the other thing that really helps is, if we can help autistic people plan and prioritize, what needs to happen in which sequence.

Uh visual cues help create that sequence uh but sometimes what is also required is making a list, things to do, so if we can teach a lot of those strategies to organize my time better, to organize my uh my uh how to plan my day, or um that that can be very very helpful.

Very often schools employ or um have Shadow teachers for autistic people.

And that’s again some of, these are some of the things that they can use in their setups.

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Uh so, so, intellectual impairment, or what we used to call “mental retardation” is one of the most commonly occurring conditions uh, that is also easily identifiable but very often you also find some other things that come come with it.

There are medical conditions like seizures that may happen, uh we also have ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder that is something that happens um that co-occurs with autism.

Learning disabilities may happen.

There is not enough scientific data or research that’s going on um to give give exact figures in India.

However, um these are conditions that are commonly, that commonly exist.

One of the most under-diagnosed conditions, as a child as well as as an adult is, anxiety.

So people don’t recognize and including mental health professionals, they don’t really recognize how much anxiety a lot of autistic people go through.

And that can grow up because of the environment, and especially from growing up in an autism unfriendly environment, or not a very supportive environment.

It can lead to a lot of mental health conditions as an adult.

Depression, Anxiety, a lot of times, OCDs or Obsessive Compulsive conditions, that is also an, that also co-exists with autism.

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So, uh for, we, we get approached by a lot of people actually, who are exploring neurodivergence, they’ve felt like an outsider, or an imposter all their lives.

And what we encourage is of course, an exploration of their neurodiversity.

One of the things that they can do is approach a mental health professional, or an educator or a person trained in, and is neurodiverse affirming.

So that something that really helps because because very often when people come to us, they’ve already been to a lot of people, a lot of professionals who have dismissed that.

They have dismissed, ‘what is ADHD? There’s nothing like that.’ or ‘you can’t be autistic because if you’re coming up for a diagnosis of autism then you can’t have autism’ or ‘Autism happens only in children, it can’t, you know you can’t be autistic you’re an adult now’.

So that’s a very very common occurrence and that can lead to a lot of uh difficulties um for an autistic person because they’re constantly trivialized, their experiences are being minimalized and that’s not a great experience.

So it can be, seeking support can be a very difficult experience for a lot of um, a lot of adults.

Um having said that, for, you know, if, if done properly, it can also be a very liberating experience.

So I know a lot of times, um there are, you know, when we give a diagnosis, there are and there are a lot of, you know, happy tears and lots of cheers because finally they’re being able to embrace their neurodiversity, somebody has validated their experience.

Um a lot of autistic people, especially the ones who are getting diagnosed as an adult, they need to have continued support as well um because ‘what to do?’, ‘How do I negotiate life?’, ‘How do I negotiate my environment now that I know that I am neurodiverse?’, ‘What are the skills I need to build up on?’ That's something that’s very helpful to have.

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There are trainings that are now available, which explain what neurodiversity is and it is embraced as not a bad thing, not something that you need to give away, something that is a strength and nothing to be ashamed of and that is what we talk about.

That’s a perspective that we want to talk about, rather than you know, ‘everybody has to fit the same mold’.

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So, a lot of times, uh the the traditional understanding of autism is still that you know you have to be able to make, uh if, if you are autistic you cannot make eye contact, okay.

For a lot of people that is true, for a lot of others they’ve learned to blend in by mimicking the skills that they see are socially desirable.

Okay, so, the, a lot of autistic people have come to their adulthood by embracing people’s skills uh that seem to work for others.

Yeah so another misconception is that, uh for autistic people, they can only work in the area of technology or that they’re going to be, they’re going to have some savant skills, exceptional skills, so these are very very common misconceptions.

And yes, autistic people are very good and can be very good at some skills but it’s exactly the same as you know non-autistic people.

We all have some skills and then we have some challenges.