Untypical: How the world isn’t built for autistic people and what we should all do about it

Product Information

My son always comes home from school or social outings absolutely shattered and needing time to decompress after hours of sensory stimulation and Pete's writing has helped me to better understand how all of life's unwritten rules to socially adapt are hugely mentally and physically draining. This book is a great starting point for people, not autistic and autistic alike, who want to know what life for autistic people can look like. It's an important source for friends, family and especially employers! In seeking to encourage a change in the world, the book also looks at how people can be allies. Tips include being aware of masking, reserving judgement, and understanding that “communication differences can have drastic outcomes”. The books seeks to explain what it is like to navigate society from the perspective of an autistic person, and is a call to arms to create a more inclusive society for neurodivergent people. This had lots of good information and was coming from a good place, plus I also appreciated that it was a UK autism book.

What I didn't expect is to be able to relate to the book as much as I have done! At one point I actually burst into tears as he described something that I do all of the time. Like every possible moment I can do it, I'm doing it. I've never heard anyone else talk about it before and then suddenly I'm reading it in this book as if I could have written it. It shooketh me. April is #autismawarenessmonth and as you can see from my copy of Un-Typical by Pete Wharmby, this book has been well read and I've even re-read parts for a second time as I've found it so eye-opening. Zoals eerder aangegeven, had ik niet veel verwachtingen qua nieuwe informatie. Over het algemeen is dat ook het geval, maar dat hoeft niet noodzakelijk een minpunt te zijn. In de tussentijd leerde ik wel interessante termen zoals ‘monotropism’. Op het einde van deze recensie las ik een veelzeggende quote over iets wat best wel actueel en problematisch is.RSD (Rejection Sensitivity Dysphoria): a collective term for a set of reactions to any kind of negative attention, seemingly no matter how minor or inconsequential. The reaction can be pretty extreme, causing disproportionate response.

Als “ervaringsdeskundige” (mocht deze term je tenen doen krullen, mijn excuses hiervoor) lees ik me nu en dan in over autisme. Bij het kopen van dit boek verwachtte ik ook niet al te veel nieuwe informatie. Toch overtuigde het simpele, maar allesomvattende cover en titel mij om het boek mee naar huis te nemen. There are so many aspects of this book I can strongly relate to having a teenage son with autism and it compounds my fervent belief and efforts to make the voices of autistic people heard. The neurodiverse community has so much to give but in such an inhospitable society, they miss out on too many opportunities. I see that happening on a daily basis and it makes me sad; I write to my MP to attend autism parliamentary forums and bang my drum just as much as possible but I find those who do not have autism or someone very close to them who does cannot understand the limitations society and the world as a whole place on neurodiverse people.Untypical proved to be an incredibly useful tool - something I found validating in the many areas of life where I'd most identified my own autism affects me - but not one without its own flaws.