Author Archives: ShonaMurphy

I found this talk/Q&A session on twitter by Nick Walker – it is about neurodiversity and covers ABA and behaviourism. I definitely recommend having a listen. In fact I recommend all of Nick’s work on neurodiversity, I have read a lot of it. Here is the link for the Nick Walker talk I am referringContinue reading “Some thoughts on ABA and influencing people”

I recently did a talk at the South Yorkshire Autism Fayre and they are happy for me to share it here. Thank you to Autism Union for inviting me to speak. This presentation is an hour long and is good for autistic parents or parents of autistic children and any one who supports us. ContentContinue reading “False Fabricated or Induced Illness in Autistic Children”

Here is proof that it is possible to define autism without all the medical model deficit based language: Luke Beardon’s (2017) definition: Autism refers to a neurotype that leads to a cognition that is qualitatively different from that of the predominant neurotype (PNT) in the way that information specific to communication, social interpretation and interaction is processedContinue reading “Two excellent autism definitions”

This book is an easy to read introduction to the basics of autism. It is aimed at adoptive and foster families and therefore a lot of the second half discusses the complexities of attachment and trauma when combined with autism. Many autistic people have experienced trauma, so I believe the book is useful to aContinue reading “BOOK REVIEW: Katie Hunt and Helen Rodwell: An Introduction to Autism for Adoptive and Foster Families”

Gillian Loomes and I have started a fund to support autistic people who do work for the autistic community such as training or speaking at conferences. During this time of global coronavirus emergency many have lost all of their income. To read about the new fund, to donate or apply for some money have aContinue reading “Autistic Mutual Aid Fund”

As part of my MA in autism I also did some primary research on the reflections of autistic parents who home educate their autistic children. I was interested in this topic as an autistic mother to two autistic children who both have been home educated when mainstream education did not work for them. It wasContinue reading “Reflections of autistic parents who home educate their autistic children”

As part of my MA in autism I did some primary research on autistic parenthood. I am in the process of preparing this for publication but for now here is a short summary. I completed a qualitative study with 6 autistic parents as participants and I interviewed them to get their perspectives on the prosContinue reading “The pros and cons of autistic parenthood”