Author: Sarah Boon
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9 things I’d like my younger neurodivergent self to know.
For those of us who have always been neurodivergent, but discover that we are when we are adults, we can have a lot of feelings about how things could have been. Although this is something I have made peace with now, there are still things I wish my younger self knew about being neurodivergent. Yes…
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Autism training by non-autistic people? What is that all about!
Every now, and then I’ll be browsing on social media and a conversation that comes up among autistic people is when autism training is delivered by non-autistic people. Historically, autism training was always delivered by professionals with no autistic involvement. Although this is starting to change, I still suspect that a lot (if not the…
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Does neuro-affirming always live up to what it’s cracked up to be?
Having been in neurodivergent spaces for a while now, I’ve been noticing a new term ‘neuro-affirming’ is increasingly being used in the last year or so. Although I am not aware of a formal definition of neuro-affirming that exists – the general consensus seems to be that neuro-affirming is an approach used in professional practice…
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Our dehumanisation continues after death
Autistics being dehumanised is nothing new. In fact, most information out there about autism and the history of autism research is full of dehumanisation. However, this week has shown us that being dehumanised for being autistic may not necessarily end when we take our last breath. A few days ago, controversial autism researcher Simon Baron-Cohen…
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How the UK government’s attendance policy is harmful: a neurodivergent perspective
School attendance policies have always been a sticking point with many neurodivergent people, as lots of us could not attend school for reasons beyond our control. Some of us (and our parents) would have faced unfair consequences as a result of low attendance during school. However, often it’s not due to us “skiving”. Fresh after…
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I’ve published my first academic paper!
Hello everyone, My post will be rather brief today, but that’s because I have more of an update rather than a longer blog post. This week, a paper I co-authored on was published in a journal! It’s a true pinch me moment. Growing up, I was not considered academic and instead received the backhanded complement…
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How I wrote a book while being neurodivergent
2023 has been a bit of a rollercoaster year to say the least! (Although most of the chaos stemmed from 2022, and rolled over into this year). During all the chaos I finally finished writing my first book! It is currently being fine tuned by the editors, ready for publication in 2024! Once the publication…
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I’m available for hire! Need help with improving your understanding of autism and neurodiversity?
Hello, me again! Many of you reading this will know me from either my writing on this blog or my various posts about being an autistic ADHDer on social media. Alongside my writing and social media posts, I have provided support for fellow neurodivergent people and their families, and designed and delivered training related to…
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What being autistic taught me about people’s obsession with resilience
Something we see a lot of in today’s society is an obsession of resilience and demands from people to ‘be more resilience’; particularly so from people with power over others. E.g. a school teacher telling a child’s parents that ‘they need more resilience in the classroom’ without considering why a child may be struggling at…
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Weird Barbie and Autism, Let’s Talk.
If you are unfamiliar with the concept of autistic masking, I would recommend my previous blog post about autistic masking before reading this one ‘Autism and Masking’ A few weeks ago I posted a meme after watching the Barbie film, comparing Stereotypical Barbie’s character as representing autistic people masking with Weird Barbie representing autistic people…
Sarah Boon 