Latest / Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD / Autism In Girls: 5 Intriguing Difficulties

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Autism In Girls: 5 Intriguing Difficulties · Aspergers & Autism Podcast [The Aspie World] AuDHD

• 0:00
  Autism in girls here are five inching difficulties presented
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  by a friend says who's an autistic female.
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  So I basically interviewed a friend of mine says Francis from
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  her Channel about being an autistic female and I thought
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  it'd be really cool talking five questions about difficulties
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  that she faces and how that kind of compares to males as well on
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  the Spectrum. So, yeah.
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  I hope you guys enjoy this interview.
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  So I asked her five questions and I'm going to switch between
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  so basically I'm going to ask the questions and then we'll
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  switch to her. Should we answer the And switch
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  back to me asking the questions. So let's do that right now.
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  Hi everyone. My name is Seth Francis and I am
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  an autistic and epileptic YouTuber.
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  I post videos on my channel every week where I focus on
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  raising awareness and acceptance for autism and epilepsy.
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  And I'm also a big huge fan of Disney and Hey Arnold, which I
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  have shown on my channel and I'm also a big fan of history.
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  And also I'm very passionate in charity work and very soon in
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  April. Of this here, which is 2019 me
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  and two other volunteers are going to be participating in the
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  National autistic Society night Spectrum walk to raise money for
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  such a wonderful organization and for a good cause as well.
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  Yeah, really a huge honor to be here at Dan.
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  Thank you so much for allowing me to participate in this
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  wonderful collab. I really do appreciate it.
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  And I'm really excited to be answering your questions today.
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  I'll guess my first question for sirs is how do you say people?
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  Respond, when you say you have autism versus when male silly
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  habit. You see there's a difference
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  there. What's up be honest.
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  I've never seen a male person actually tell someone else that
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  their autistic and they haven't told me what's their response
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  was. So I really don't know but in my
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  perspective I have talked about my autism a lot to most people
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  especially my class Pierce whilst I was in education and
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  what Set in response to that was something I didn't quite expect
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  but at the time I really didn't really think about my proper
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  response, but I don't know why I responded to that and I think
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  looking back on it. Now, I would say I did it for
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  the right reason but probably not knowing it all maybe I've
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  done this for the wrong reason. I don't know because my brain is
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  not really functioning very well and it still doesn't function
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  very well. So what I can remember is that
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  when I was younger when I told a lot of people about my autism,
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  they would say you don't look autistic and I would say well
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  appearances can be deceiving and I don't know why I said that and
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  my like I said before my mind is still confused about it, but I
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  think I as so starting to think that I stood up for myself a
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  little bit but then Sir, I've said to them that this is how I
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  see it and I don't want anyone to judge me on this but I don't
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  really know but I'm gonna still try and figure this one out too
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  because it's been so long since I have talked to someone I was
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  on the autistic Spectrum, but I don't really know what to expect
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  and I still don't know what to expect it.
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  Especially if I go into the workplace in the near future
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  because I'm a volunteer. Well, I actually volunteer for
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  for jobs. And also I haven't told much
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  people about my autism or my epilepsy, which it's the fear of
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  being judged Frank says, okay, then on to my next question, how
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  do you feel help and support access is different from that of
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  males. Do you think that there's more
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  help available for meals? Well the honest this is a very
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  difficult question. I've never really really seen
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  males who have had help and support through education.
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  Because when I was at school, I went to an all-girls school and
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  this is something that it was very hard for me to answer
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  really because I got a little bit older.
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  I started to actually pick up on a few things really because I
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  have some friends outside of YouTube who are my friends and
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  who are also male and one of them who talked with me about
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  their education said that they had they had add a little bit of
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  help and support but not as much as they would like to and
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  because they actually studied in a boarding school.
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  I can imagine these things may be a little bit 50/50.
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  But again, this is not my experience at this is other
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  people's experience, but for my experience, I found that help
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  and support access isn't very easy, and I still don't know if
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  it's really easy today and when I was back in education, I felt
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  that I did get some support but Really didn't get the support.
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  I truly needed and the support I think that was lacking for me
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  was reassurance and emotional support and by that, I mean just
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  trying to let up my other emotions as well as being happy.
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  And while I was at school, I always used to mask my other
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  feelings, especially when it comes to trying to say about how
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  you feel. Especially if you are being
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  bullied criticized or Judged and I always used to feel bullied
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  and criticized and judged when I was at both primary and
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  secondary school. Awesome.
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  Thanks says so next question is what would you say your biggest
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  challenges are in daily living? It's a little bit of a 50/50
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  situation but most of the challenges that I struggle with
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  are mainly to do with my epilepsy rather than my autism
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  but there are times where my autism does get The way a little
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  bit from time to time, but mostly it's my epilepsy and the
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  challenges that I really struggle at the moment are
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  researching stuff or so. In this case.
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  I finding a job and life. I answered before in a previous
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  question. I do volunteering and most of it
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  is working around with children and I want although I really
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  enjoy it. I still struggle a little bit
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  from time to time and and I haven't been in work for about
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  two years which is a little bit of a pain in the backside, but
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  it's quite tricky as well because I have come out with a
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  degree and I feel like I have used it for nothing really I do
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  get stressed about it and emotional but I think this is
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  something that I'm going to have to really stop and think of the
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  reality because there's nothing you can really do about it in
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  the situation and I have to find another way and I am trying to
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  get loads of Help and support. But yeah, I do still struggle a
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  little bit from time to time, but hopefully fingers crossed.
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  Everything will probably be okay but speaking of voluntary jobs
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  the other bits that I find challenging from daily living my
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  listening and verbal skills. Now, I have language and
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  learning difficulties as well. And sometimes when it comes to
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  speech I mix up my words and some people don't really
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  understand. Me but when it comes to
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  listening as well, I try to listen and take all the things
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  in but sometimes I can listen to things a lot and sometimes if
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  it's noise around me, I can't be quite sensitive.
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  And if there's one person talking to me in a very noisy
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  room I try to focus on that person, but I just don't miss a
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  little couple of bits and my brain really doesn't register
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  for the things that I should be listening to.
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  So by the time I do a task, I will get a little bit hiccups
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  and I will get told off. For it, which is not good.
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  But I think this is a thing that I am struggling with as well.
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  And then also the last thing I'm really struggling with is
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  transport. Now.
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  I'm not a really an independent traveler what it's like to you
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  could probably say that I am a semi independent traveler as
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  this is mainly due to my epilepsy.
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  I have this isn't quite hard to explain really but I think to
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  put it In that sense, I did start to learn how to drive when
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  I was roughly about 18 19, but but I think after I had like two
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  seizures, it wasn't really going to be the case and this has put
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  a grounding Holt to my driving practice Bank says, okay.
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  So my next question says is how do you think education
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  establishments treat females with autism differently?
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  Like I said before in question to us?
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  I went to an all-girls school, but it was a religious school.
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  So it was an all-girls Roman Catholic school and the
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  educational establishments. No, they don't worry.
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  Okay, it--she I think but um, it depends on what's the situation
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  with it really my school that I went to as well was mainstream.
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  I never went to a specialist school.
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  I only went to mainstream schools and my primary school
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  was also a mainstream School primary school.
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  I had it. Really really bad.
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  I managed to actually get some stuff done that I needed.
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  But unfortunately Primary School didn't really treat me as well
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  and despite having staff members who have helped me and support
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  me and they have been very kind the places where I had to have
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  one-to-one support wasn't really that great and I had to go into
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  different places to study. So from what I can remember I
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  had to Have one to one support either in the school hallway or
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  in a staff room or in most of the cases and it's pretty
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  horrible in the corner next to the toilets and let me tell you
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  it was absolutely disgusting. However, the staff at the school
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  decided to build a storage cupboard, but unfortunately when
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  I was reaching to the end of my primary school education, I went
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  into that storage cupboard with another autistic.
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  Student and we had our one-to-one support sessions
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  there. I feel that they would have
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  given me better support really because what they did was that
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  as well as they had given me like supports just to help me do
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  my homework and just help me prepare for studies for exams.
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  That's given me some stuff that I really didn't feel comfortable
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  doing and some of the stuff are that I worked on was to do with
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  some worksheets like spot the Fred's on health and safety all
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  on a piece of paper and you have to Circle them to Spot the
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  Difference. So in mentally it was for
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  children who were about seven. So in this case, it should never
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  be used for a student who is over the age of 13 or sometimes
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  11. Thanks so much says, okay.
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  So my last question to you says is what needs slash support
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  would you say females on the Spectrum need differently to
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  males? Well, this is kind of like a
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  little round up our to the questions.
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  I've already answered but in my own opinion, there are things
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  that I really haven't explained which I would really recommend
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  to parents Guardians siblings friends teachers.
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  Basically anyone who is currently looking after teaching
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  or helping a female on the autistic Spectrum.
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  So through my own experience the help and support that females on
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  the autistic spectrum they need is Extra tuition, especially if
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  they aren't really studying things that they should have
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  been studying in school, but then there are other examples as
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  well such as having difficulty with maths having difficulty
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  with English or probably trying something a little bit different
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  that can help them improve on their grades and feel more
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  confident about the exams that they feel that no.
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  No, it's good out or maybe they want to improve on and I did
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  have a tutor that Gave me access to that and I'm so so grateful
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  for her even though I was a pain in the back sometimes but I'm
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  really really glad that she managed to giving these
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  opportunities and we still keep in touch and this is really
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  incredible and amazing because I don't know what I would do
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  without her. So this is something I would
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  really suggest that it could be worth a try.
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  The second thing that I would suggest you do is to Them feel
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  more comfortable and confident because sometimes with school
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  and social life that some girls on the autistic Spectrum may
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  feel uncomfortable in a particular environment or they
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  just feel sensitive around people or something like that.
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  So the second thing I would recommend you can try and
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  suggest girls on the autistic Spectrum to participate in local
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  traumatic groups study drama at school or take some comedy.
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  A workshop and sessions and I would say mainly improvised
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  comedy now that's helped me a lot and it made me feel more
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  confident about myself and it made me feel confident about the
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  people around me. I started drama at GCSE and
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  although I didn't come out with a very good grade.
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  I had a really lovely experience and a lovely time and I took
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  this passion with meet a local drama school called chicken
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  shed, which is an inclusive Theater Company in I'm done and
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  through the GCSE drama and chicken shed.
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  I would say that doing dramatic performances and participating
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  in solos and Duets or something like that.
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  And I performing it in different productions for different age
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  groups was quite a really good experience.
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  It was a massive opportunity. But then also I would suggest to
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  try and allow them to participate in a comedy group,
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  especially if it it comes to improvise comedy.
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  Now again, this is something that's really helped me build up
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  my confidence and especially since I am very comfortable
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  performing on the stage. It don't improvise comedy has
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  helped me just to expand my mind a little bit more just to try
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  and get creative and just try and imagine that you are in the
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  real life situation talking to the person.
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  Who were you were talk to in real life and it's made me feel
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  confident in Meeting people. It's made me feel confident
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  about being honest with myself. Thank you so much, Dan.
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  And yeah, I hope you have a lovely day.
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  Bye. Thank you so much says for
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  coming on the channel and having the opportunity to have you on
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  my channel, which is super awesome.
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  So I'm so humble flat. Thank you so much.