Language so important
There’s a bit of a debate over whether it’s right to say a person “is autistic” or “has autism”.
But someone could also have a cold or the flu - that type of language is mainly used to describe illnesses or things that can be separated from your body, but that’s not true for autism.
Autism can’t be separated from my sense of self or body, which is why language and acceptance is so important.
These days, more people are aware of autism but not all people are accepting, and not all people understand how it affects all of my body or the way that I experience the world and process information.
Some people think autism is in your brain, but it’s not just in your brain, it’s in every part of you from your head to your toes.
For example, autism can affect your hearing by making things really loud or it might take time for some people to process things.
Some autistic people can see small details, some people can see less and some people don’t like bright lights and avoid them.
Some people feel like they’ve hit a brick wall when they smell a smell they don’t like.
Some autistic people can feel their toes, but I can’t feel my toes spread apart.
A person’s hands could need to fiddle a lot, or not, and some people may have poor hand-eye coordination.
But to those people who say autistic people are like robots and have no feelings, that’s obviously not true.
Zoe, Autism activist, aged 11.
“Liam has continued to be the happy young man he's blossomed into.”