News and Blog

Read the story of a thriving young autistic person and how early diagnosis and support has helped him achieve his goals.

Help for Psychology, an organisation with extensive experience in supporting neurodivergent individuals, played a key role in the creation or Training videos created for GPs and other health professionals address the challenges faced by autistic adults in accessing healthcare.

We’re developing free-of-charge parent/carer sessions for families with autistic children and young people. Join the conversation and share your insights to help us make them as valuable as possible.

As the end of primary school nears, the move to secondary school can be daunting for any child, but especially for autistic children and their parents.

Organisations that have a current contract with an NHS trust can offer appointments under the NHS Right to Choose policy. This policy allows anyone to request an appointment via their GP with an alternative provider if their local area is unable to meet the government-agreed 18-week target for assessment. Help for Psychology previously had a [...]

A 10 week DBT-informed group covering topics such as Mindfulness, Distress Tolerance, Emotional Regulation, and Interpersonal Effectiveness. Each 1hr group session is designed to help adolescents (aged 14-17) with an autism diagnosis and difficulty with emotion regulation.

There is increasing evidence that waiting times for Autism assessments in the UK are growing. Some areas have simply had to close their waiting lists because they have no realistic way of meeting the current need. 

So, what is driving this rise in referrals? I have spent some time looking at the current evidence, and will attempt to summarise why this seems to be happening.

Just over a year ago, I was privileged to be invited to the offices of the wonderful Sunshine Support team to take part in a training video for GP’s, organised by Cathie Long, an Autistic/ADHD social worker, and good friend of mine.  This training video was sponsored by Health Education England and was intended to provide advice and guidance to General Practitioners when working with Autistic adults.

The story of Noah really highlights how, with the right support, autistic young people can flourish, and how self-esteem and confidence can be developed in a way that taps into the positive aspects of being autistic.

Blog updated 10th April 2024 The inspiration for this blog article came from three separate directions. First, I have noticed on many Facebook group forums that young girls have not been given a diagnosis because ‘they don’t meet the Part B criteria of the DSM 5’ or that they have never even reached the point [...]

Over the past twelve months , I have been writing another book, along with several very helpful contributors who have been kind enough to share their stories with me.

Parents disagreeing about the need for exploration/identification of Autism in a child or young person, is possibly one of the most frustrating and anxiety provoking situations that diagnosing clinicians face. It is inevitable that parents will have different styles of parenting, often based upon their own experiences and family influences.  It is also sadly inevitable [...]

The impact of COVID 19 lockdowns on children’s development and the early identification of possible Autism. As a company, we have not historically tended to assess children under the age of four for possible Autism. The reason for this was because, in the past, very small children with developmental or speech delay tended to be [...]

We have received a number of enquiries recently from people concerned about changes to the DSM 5 Autism diagnostic criteria.  For those who are not aware, the DSM, (which stands for Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders), is the guideline where the criteria for diagnosing Autism are written down. The DSM is the American [...]

Article Updated - September 2022 Since this article was first written in 2017 we have published two journal articles related to PDA. The first is titled "Modification of the Coventry Grid Interview (Flackhill et al, 2017) to include the Pathological Demand Avoidant profile" The second is titled "An exploration of the Pathological (or Extreme) Demand [...]

This article is an update of our original article written in 2017 – long before we, and our children, were faced with the prospect of COVID 19 and the associated disruptions to school and everyday life.  I am talking about about Autism and anxiety, an issue which has taken on a new meaning in the [...]

In March 2020, when the first lockdown to try and manage the spread of the COVID-19 virus began, many Autism assessment teams across the country were already experiencing a high number of referrals for assessment, and consequently families were experiencing long and stressful delays in getting a diagnosis and the support that they had hoped [...]

This is the title of a new book I will be writing, along with colleagues, and which will include real life stories from individuals (and their families) who have been affected by either not having their Autism recognised or being misdiagnosed.  It has been commissioned by Jessica Kingsley Publishers and will hopefully be complete by [...]

As many people who have attended the various PDA conferences over the last couple of years may know, we as a team, decided back in 2016 to collate all of the information we collect as part of our assessment process, and analyse what we found.  We realised we were in a very fortunate position; we [...]

Adult diagnosis, mis-diagnosis, and experience of parenting for autistic women Over the years I have spent a great deal of my working life as part of a multi-disciplinary team assessing both children and adults for Autism.  When I first started work in the NHS in 2001, we saw very few girls or young women in [...]

Due to many weeks of lockdown, caused by the Covid-19 pandemic, we have been reviewing different ways of carrying out autism assessments. This month we carried out our first assessment where every aspect was done, securely, online. What follows is an explanation about the benefits of conducting assessments online, particularly with children who are reluctant [...]

Like many clinical teams who have traditionally been involved in face to face interaction with people, the last two months have been a challenge for us.  Factoring in this alongside lockdown and restrictions on travel have meant we have needed to work quickly to find new ways of supporting families.We have also seen a rise [...]

A new year dawns and it is always a good time to reflect upon the previous year. At Help for Psychology (in common with many other teams) we have seen a huge increase in the number of very complex young people we have been asked to work with, and distressing reports from parents about their [...]

The latest article within this series hasn't been written by Dr Judy Eaton, but instead by Kaylee Weaver, one of our very experienced Higher Assistant Psychologist. Here, Kaylee shares her experience of the challenges we as a team face week in week out when assessing children with Extreme (also known as Pathological) Demand Avoidance. INTRODUCTION [...]

Article Updated - September 2022 Many children (especially girls) do not receive a formal diagnosis of Autism until they move to secondary (or High school) around the age of twelve.  This often follows few (or fewer) difficulties at primary (or Elementary) school.The reasons for this are outlined in this article and may help explain why [...]

As many people may be aware, there has been a great deal of interest in, and controversy around, PDA.  What it is, what it should be called, and whether it actually exists. As it is now over thirty years since the original concept of PDA was introduced by Elizabeth Newson and her colleagues, and how [...]

Human babies are amongst the least developed, in terms of their ability to manage independently, of all mammals.  They are born with only the primitive parts of their brain fully functioning, with the majority of brain development taking place throughout childhood (hence the soft spot or fontanelle at the top of a baby’s head which [...]

Like most people I have been following the recent news stories about young people with autism and the PDA profile carefully.  The first case to be highlighted was that of Bethany, a seventeen year old girl with autism and the PDA profile.  From what I can gather, Bethany’s family had tried (unsuccessfully) for years to [...]

Article updated – September 2022 An article published back in August 2018 by the National Autistic Society, titled ‘What teachers need to know about Autism’, was a very timely reminder that 70% of Autistic children will be attending mainstream schools. Hopefully those with, what I would call, more obvious features of Autism, will be going [...]

In the course of my clinical work, I meet with many parents who are seeking an explanation for their child’s difficulties.  I am also privileged to have been allowed to join a number of closed Facebook groups where parents share their experiences of bringing up children with Autism and PDA. Without exception, these parents have [...]

It is the beginning of September again and parents all over the country are preparing for the start of the new school year.  For some parents though, this is a time of increased stress, or even weary resignation, that once again they will have to face the daily battle of encouraging their child into school.  [...]

This article is about Autism and anxiety. Research suggests that up to 85% of autistic individuals will suffer from anxiety. An autistic child is twice as likely as a neurotypical (non-autistic) child to experience anxiety. A significant number will suffer from extreme anxiety – to the point that it affects not just their life but [...]

This article is equally applicable to both boys and girls. In the course of many years of clinical experience I have learned that boys can be just as good as girls at ‘masking’ their difficulties (particularly those who have the Pathological Demand Avoidance profile). Way back in the early 2000’s I remember when the National [...]

Article Updated - September 2022 The second part of this article is aimed at both parents of Autistic children, and those working with them in a school environment, and examines the impact of the various stresses of the school day for these young people, but also for those who have the job of supporting them, [...]

Article Updated - September 2022 Previous blog articles have touched upon the challenges faced by parents whose children either find it impossible to attend school, or those where their children ‘mask’ or hide their difficulties in the classroom.  In the course of assessments and therapy with families, many parents have reported feeling blamed and judged [...]

Following on from the previous article regarding masking in children on the Autistic spectrum, this article is going to look at boys who mask.  These boys seem to fall into two distinct categories. The first group is those who understand the rules at school and appear to manage the structure of school very well, but [...]

Those who haven’t experienced the frustration of being misunderstood as the parent of a child with Autism can find it hard to believe that the perfectly behaved little girl (and it is usually little girls) who keeps her head down at school and tries really hard to comply and ‘fit in’ with the other children [...]