No-one should feel judged for being different
As Paddy and Christine McGuinness share their experiences on TV, a charity tells LAUREN TAYLOR we should celebrate the differences autism brings
TV presenter Paddy McGuinness and his wife Christine have shared their family’s experience of autism in a new BBC documentary.
All three of their children have been diagnosed with autism – as has Christine, 33 – and Paddy, 48, said they decided to let cameras into their Cheshire home so “other families might not feel so alone or isolated”.
The documentary is being hailed as an important insight into the difficulties faced by the 700,000 or so autistic people in the UK.
Peter Watt, managing director of national programmes at the National Autistic Society, says there’s “not enough support or understanding for autistic people and their families”.
Explaining that it’s important to show the positives too, he says: “Not enough people appreciate what it’s like to be autistic. Not just understanding how hard life can be if you don’t have the right support, but celebrating the different perspectives, passions and skills autistic children and adults can have. “Campaigners are changing this.” Autistic children face specific and sometimes significant challenges, he says. “Everything’s harder if, like many families, you have to wait many months or even years for a diagnosis and then even longer for support.”
A diagnosis can be life-changing though, in terms of accessibility to the right support – which for children can include getting extra help from a teaching assistant at a mainstream school or securing a place at a specialist school, or simply finding some like-minded friends.
“No-one should have to put up with feeling judged for being different or have to wait years for support,” says Peter.
It is not clear what causes autism. (The NHS website states: “Nobody knows what causes autism, or if it has a cause.”) If you have one child with autism, you won’t necessarily have another. But recognising the signs may be quicker in families that already have some experience with autism.
“We sometimes hear stories of people realising they’re autistic after their child or sibling is diagnosed,” says Peter (Christine McGuinness, for example, was diagnosed much later in life than her children Leo, Penelope and Felicity). “This comes from seeing similar traits in themselves, for instance an over or under-sensitivity to light, sound or touch, challenges around communication and highly focused interests. There’s clearly a genetic element to autism and there is research that echoes this.”
Every person with autism is different but the core-characteristics are similar.
Peter wants to emphasise that there’s beauty in having children with autism though.
He says: “I love each of my children for who they are and, like other parents, wouldn’t change them for the world. As Christine McGuinness so eloquently puts it, ‘I don’t think my children need fixing, I think they’re amazing as they are.”’