How Autism Spectrum Disorder has transformed my career (for the better)
Having a child on the autistic spectrum has been a challenge, but it’s inadvertently had an extremely positive impact on the work I get paid for.
I’m stating, “work I get paid for” because, frankly, as any parent/carer knows, looking after children is a job in itself!
The tactics I have engaged in order to effectively connect with my ASD beauty, and to develop his ability to participate in social situations, have helped us both to become better people. My communication skills have improved and I am well equipped to converse with a diverse range of personality types, quickly and easily. In fact, I can’t remember the last time I met someone new and didn’t find some common ground or a topic for us to happily discuss.
Before you continue reading this, let me give you some background to my professional life. I’ve been working as a Marketer in the IT industry for more years than I care to say. I fell in love with Marketing at college (that and Law and Computing - I am a complete closet geek).
When my littlest was born, I’ve covered that journey here, I took the decision to become self-employed. I was still happy to work 60 hour weeks but wanted the flexibility to choose when I worked those hours.
It was a leap of faith
But I was extremely fortunate in that I’d worked with a number of terrific, and very supportive, people who immediately offered me freelance work. And thus, with child number three on board, I happily spent some time working for myself.
And it worked. Really well.
Until the autism started to kick in.
Then the wheels came off the bus. It was clear that I needed help. And fast. I was lucky to have secured an early diagnosis as this gave me access to a range of resources which included:
- Some terrific parenting courses, thanks to ADD-vance including: Understanding Autism, Managing Anger & Anxiety, Understanding Sensory Needs, Writing Social Stories
- More Than Words® — The Hanen Program (I’ve already praised this course here)
- Books, so so so many books including: A Real Person: Life on the Outside, The curious incident of the dog in the night time, Access and Inclusion for Children with Autistic Spectrum Disorders ‘Let Me In’, Arnie and His School Tools: Simple Sensory Solutions That Build Success, Autism in the Early Years: A Practical Guide, Autism, Play and Social Interaction, A parents guide to coping with autism. The list goes on and on!
- TED Talks — wow. Amazing. Whilst I didn’t need the diagnosis to access these, I needed to know what I was searching for in order to benefit from this wealth of relevant rich media content.
- A HUGE range of other parenting classes (if it was offered to me, I went!).
What have I learnt in the past few years?
The tech industry, inevitably, involves working with people that have an incredible capacity for logical/critical thinking and the ability to focus at levels that I rarely witness elsewhere.
So, here’s a shout-out of thanks to my littlest one for making me a better marketing professional by:
- Extending my interpersonal skills to Olympic standards (owing to the continuous coaching and constant stream of encouragement I provide him with) and making me mindful of my approach to people based on the nonverbal cues they give
- Teaching me to remain calm in the most ridiculous of situations (I’ve yet to face pressure at work that even comes CLOSE to some of the things life has thrown at me and him)
- Helping me understand the importance of agreeing realistic goals, setting clear expectations and leading on delivery by example
- Making me appreciate the “wins”- no matter how small they are - and to realise it’s good to enjoy what I do (and know that I can help other people do the same)
- most importantly, teaching me to give people time and space to communicate in a way that is comfortable to them (the people we interact with throughout the course of our work are, first and foremost, people — it’s important to remember that)
Why have I written this? There was lots of activity on social media recently following introduction of the “EndAutismNow” hashtag.
I think that were this an: “EndPracticesThatDefinitelyResultInChildrenDevelopingAutism” hashtag then the campaign would not have been so evocatively debated and there would be far less semantics involved (though I appreciate my suggestion is not such a catchy or emotive tag ;)).
THE FACT IS: Autism exists, and we don’t really know what causes it. If people could be encouraged to embrace the difference and utilise it, as a power for good, rather than forcing conformity upon flexible thinking - they may be rewarded in ways yet to be imagined…
When it rains look for rainbows. When it’s dark look for stars — Oscar Wilde
#AutismAwareness #ASD #EveryPersonMatters
