Finding their place in the world: what can we learn from successful Autists’ accounts of their own lives?

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to identify developmental and environmental factors and personal strategies that have shaped the lives of eight successful Autists in Australia, North America, and the United Kingdom. The article employs a process of meta-ethnography to distil learnings and factors from Autist’s publicly available autobiographical accounts. Key findings relate to the importance of: identifying and enabling productive individual special interests; matching individual strengths with environmental resources and opportunities; nurturing self-awareness; developing personal strategies for success; and finding a niche in the world. The article concludes with recommendations for applying study findings in strengths-based approaches to social work and other human services.

Points of interest

• Autist’s as people with autism spectrum conditions (ASCs) who have successfully established a social niche for themselves can be a source of wisdom for other Autist’s, their families, and social work and human service practitioners;

• This study examined the life stories of eight successful Autists to identify factors that supported their success;

• We identified four key areas that shape their abilities and success.

• Those included: being aware of and supported in their special interests; having self-awareness of their internal experience and how they can embrace relationships with others; developing personal strategies to better navigate their world; and finding social and vocational opportunities that capitalise on their strengths, special interests, and self-awareness;

• The study findings hence suggest pathways for strengths-based social work, human services, and other forms of professional practice such as education and training.

Keywords:

• Autism spectrum conditions
• meta-ethnography
• social niche theory
• social work
• special interests
• strengths-based

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Acknowledgements

We recognise and thank the eight individuals included in this meta-ethnography acknowledging their various contributions to society and whose stories provided both the context and material of our meta-ethnography. We acknowledge the deep commitment and insight of many researchers whose work continues to shed new light on autism and neuro-diversity. We acknowledge expert advisors Professor Tony Attwood and Emeritus Professor Lesley Chenoweth, AO.

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded by the School of Human Services and Social Work Summer Scholars program at Griffith University, Australia.