George Watts

Title slide: Where are the autistic people with intellectual disability in neurodiversity research? Contradictions and future directions

Next on autistic people with a learning disability from Izy Utley and @autgeek.bsky.social.

Can you help us? We are looking for participants to attend an autistic social group and then be interviewed about their experience of the group We are looking for people who: Are autistic Are aged 18 or over Are able to understand and communicate in English (using either mouth words or AAC) You will be asked to: Attend an autistic-run social group with 9 other autistic people for a total of 6 sessions. At the end of Session 2 and Session 6 you will be asked to complete a simple diagram to show us which people (if any) you enjoyed spending time with in the group Within two weeks of the final session you will be interviewed about your experiences of the group The group will be held at Scottish Autism's Blue Central support base in Dunfermline, KY11 8US. It will take place at 6.30-8 pm on Wednesday evenings on the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th of May and the 11th and 18th of June We will work with you to make taking part as accessible as possible for all group members You will receive a £30 voucher for completing the interview. This research is being conducted by George Watts, an autistic PhD researcher at Durham University. The research team includes a mix of autistic and non-autistic researchers from the University of Durham, University of Edinburgh and Scottish Autism. For more information please email georgina.n.watts@durham.ac.uk

Do you know any autistic adults based near Dunfermline? If so then I need your help!

I need a few more participants to join my study which is starting next week!

Please share this poster with anyone who might be interested

Feel free to email me with any questions at georgina.n.watts@durham.ac.uk

I was out with my dog earlier and someone walking towards us said enthusiastically to their dog "look it's a lovely collie!" and then as they passed they said "Hello Collie-wobble!" to my dog (who is indeed a collie) while completely ignoring me. I like this stranger a lot, it made my day.

Being autistic often feels like being the kid in The Emperor's New Clothes; people don't like it if you point out the obvious and it's very confusing that everyone insists on pretending the obvious isn't true just to maintain expected social conventions

Is my mental health terrible or did I just forget to eat again? - an autistic memoir.

I'll have you know these are my emotional support fish fingers and custard.
That is all.

How are those ears even real?!

bsky.app/profile/autg...

The image description! 🤣

It has genuinely made my week! I keep telling people about it.

I now have photographic evidence of this phenomenon!

I also have more questions.

Color Taste Texture by Matthew Broberg-Moffitt: 9780593538593 | PenguinRandomHouse.com: Books An accessible family cookbook that offers solutions rather than tricks to empower the food-averse, autistic, and picky eater, with 46 recipes. This much-needed cookbook combines tips and techniques.....

I’m a non-binary Autistic classically trained chef and author! I wrote a food aversion acceptance cookbook and guide titled COLOR TASTE TEXTURE! It’s all about learning how to make food work to your needs, for all ages and all levels of cooking ability (even those who’ve never cooked before).

So Autism Speaks Canada is ceasing operations tomorrow and Spectrum 10K has closed today.

What a brilliant week for moving towards autistic liberation.

Congrats to @kmunday.bsky.social and all of us in autism community who helped to #StopSpectrum10K. Today the S10K team announced study's cancellation. See the report from Hopkins Van Mil and Karen Leneh Buckle, and a reflective blog by Simon Baron-Cohen: www.autismresearchcentre.com/projects/spe...

I am concerned however that the allure of so many squeakable rubber chickens may prove too much temptation for both my children and myself and the resulting cacophony may well lead to a serious accident.

Apparently there are multiple rubber chickens in a range of different colours. Naturally I have requested photos of these at the earliest possible opportunity and we are considering a family outing to see this phenomenon.

Important announcement: My mother has just informed me that there are small buses running in our local area which do not have bells any to let the driver know when people want to get off. One enterprising driver has solved this problem by installing rubber chickens for people to squeeze instead!

I appreciate the sentiment. Really I should work with my support workers to help me plan and get support to place orders ahead of time when I do things like this. Maybe even get them to go collect food for me.

Exactly this. Particularly when people believe they are doing good and you challenge their perspectives, they get extremely defensive

Yep, that tracks.

So even though I was chatting away quite happily to lots of people earlier, or rather because of this, I now can't physically manage the decision making and social interaction demands of placing a takeaway order.

I'm hungry having been too wired/stressed/anxious to eat properly today. I have no capacity left to cook when I get home. Ideally I'd get a takeaway but living rurally it's not possible to do this without using the phone or going in person.

Finally on train home. Giving off my best 'please leave me alone or I might cry or bite you' vibes. Contemplating how people likely perceive me as having low support needs when I'm standing up there speaking about my research but they don't see me at times like now.

Store fire alarm just went off. May die of Extremely Loud Noise. Was already contemplating getting my sunflower lanyard out as I'm not very functional so this seals it

However back to back speaking engagements like this means I don't have enough spare spoons to mask so now I'm stuck trying to get my kid's iPad repaired and I'm not sure the Apple shop staff knew how to respond to me saying "I have an appointment at the genius bar" sounds like a bad pickup line 🫠

I really enjoyed delivering training for the Therapist Neurodiversity Collective last night and speaking about my research at the @scottishautism.bsky.social Centre for Practice Policy and Research launch today.

My kids to their therapists in 20 years time:
"... and every time there was a big storm they would tell us the same story about The Great Storm of '87 and force us to listen to 'John Kettley is a Weatherman', I wasn't born until 2018 but I still have nightmares about Michael Fish 😭😭😭"

Now I've had an email from Tesco's saying the local stores are shutting and all deliveries are cancelled for tomorrow.

I'd better batten down the bins.

I have now had emails from school, uni, an after school activity club and even my local village hall saying everything planned for tomorrow is cancelled due to the severe weather warning. Tomorrow is officially a pyjama day. Let's hope the power isn't down for too long this time.

Just realised what I remind myself of. I'm sick in bed and croakily trying to call my eldest in the hope I might get made a cuppa - I sound exactly like the mother in law in Allo Allo: "Will nobody hear the cries of a poor old woman?!"