Category: Blog Posts
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The left’s problem with weird and neurodivergence
If I’m being honest, the world has felt like a dumpster fire during the past several weeks, more so than usual, with the US election being no exception to this. Being on the other side of the pond, I am not going to pretend I am an expert in all things US politics. However, seeing…
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How childhood masking affects me today as a neurodivergent adult
I have always been neurodivergent, so naturally it’s had a big influence on my life. However, something I’ve learnt through self reflection recently is how masking as a child has very much informed my life as an adult. For those of you who are not familiar with the concept of masking, it’s a term used…
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Young, Autistic and ADHD: 4 Days to go until publication!
If you have been following me on social media, then you would have been well aware that I have been posting about the publication of my first book ‘Young, Autistic and ADHD: Moving into adulthood when you’re multiply-neurodivergent’ A LOT. However, it not every day you have a book published and I am just so…
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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…
Sarah Boon 