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This article was co-authored by Tanya Adkin and David Gray-Hammond Monotropism is a theory of autism. It is used interchangeably as a theory and also a trait that describes a style of attention. It suggests that Autistic people tend to have singular but highly detailed tunnels of attention, as opposed to spreading their attentional resources

Autistic women often struggle with the onset of menstruation, a key transition point in the female reproductive lifespan. Presently, there is no research invest...

Tanya Adkin lays out the concept of monotropic split, and how it is at the root of various critical moments for Autistic people.

Monotropism is like a force that draws you into a specific channel of interest, much like a river, it has momentum.

Coming from a neurodiversity approach stressing ADHD as a cognitive difference rather than a cognitive deficit, the article aims to restory hyperactivity and at

"Queer is a term used by those wanting to reject specific labels of romantic orientation, sexual orientation and/or gender identity. It can also be a way of rejecting the perceived norms of the LGBT community (racism, sizeism, ableism etc). Although some LGBT people view the word as a slur, it was reclaimed in the late

Monotropism (Murray et al., 2005) is an interest-based model of the mind, according to which different strategies are employed to distribute attention, thereby forming a continuum from monotropic to polytropic predispositions. According to the monotropism theory of autism, autistic people experience a monotropic tendency to be pulled in more strongly – cognitively and emotionally – by their interests. This leads to a more intense lived experience and makes it difficult to interact with stimuli outside of one’s “attention tunnel,” which can “break” the tunnel and cause meltdowns. This engenders some of the prominent features of autism, such as different approaches to social interaction and variable attention profiles. Monotropism has a high level of subjective validity to autistic people (cf. Murray, 2019) and provides a plausible and comprehensive theory of autism. Moreover, it is the most prominent theory of autism developed and led by autistic people. This makes monotropism worthy of further investigation, which would be facilitated by a self-report measure of monotropism. The present research aims to develop and validate such a measure. With an autistic community group, we have compiled a battery of 47 questionnaire items generated by autistic people. Participants will be tested in this measure, as well as the RAADS-14 (Eriksson et al., 2013) and the AQ-10 (Allison et al., 2012). The monotropism measure will be validated by comparing the mean monotropism scores of autistic and non-autistic participants, as well as comparing participants’ total scores on the monotropism questionnaire to the total scores on the RAADS-14 and AQ-10. We will also calculate the reliability of the scale and conduct exploratory analyses, including an exploratory factor analysis and an analysis investigating the impact of ADHD on monotropism scores.

Many autistic pupils experience difficulties associated with a mis-match between the explicit features of autism and the physical and psychosocial environment of secondary school, which leave them particularly vulnerable to a range of negative mental health outcomes, and which can create barriers to their academic success (Charman et al., 2011; Morewood, Humphrey and Symes, 2011). This situation is understood to be compounded by a lack of teacher training and understanding of autism in general, and of its specific impact on individual pupil’s learning styles and support needs (Falkmer, Parsons and Granlund, 2012; Reed, Osborne and Waddington, 2012; Hebron and Humphrey, 2014). This project sought to investigate (1) the extent to which existing descriptions of autism were reflected in the general school experiences of a cohort of autistic pupils, and (2) the impact of a new pupil-to-teacher communication system, designed by the author, on the classroom experiences and psychological well-being of these pupils. Situated within the paradigm of pragmatism, a mixed methods approach to this research project was adopted. Twenty-one autistic pupils shared their experiences of school during semi-structured interviews, whilst their teachers’ experiences of teaching them were elicited via online surveys. Thematic analysis, using a specifically designed coding manual, was used to investigate the capacity of the diagnostic criteria descriptors and definitions of autism, and selected cognitive autism theories, to explain both the general school experiences described by autistic pupils, and the specific areas of difficulty they prioritised for additional support and/or teacher practice change. The efficacy of a new register-based pupil-to-teacher communication system (FAMe™), was evaluated using pre- and post-system implementation interviews and pupil self-report scales. The design of this project positioned participating pupils as experts in their own experiences, whilst the FAMe™ System enabled their voices to influence matters that affected them. The methods used, to facilitate engagement with and collect data from autistic pupils, have the potential to be considered a ‘model example’ for carrying out future research in this field. Analysis evidenced the limited capacity of the diagnostic criteria and autism theory to inform understanding of the pupils’ collective experiences. Positive impact of the FAMe™ System on pupils’ classroom experiences and psychological well-being was demonstrated. Teachers reported improved confidence post-FAMe™ in their ability to teach autistic pupils, and to meet their pupils' self-reported classroom and/or learning support needs. Improved educational outcomes were also reported. Findings contribute knowledge to the under-researched area of autistic pupils’ lived experience. The apparent failure of current diagnostic criteria descriptors and definitions of autism to adequately reflect pupils’ experiences led to the development of a new bio-psychosocial definition of autism. This has since been adopted by colleagues teaching students of autism (Beardon, 2017b) and by those engaged in independent autism research. If the demonstrated positive effect of FAMe™ System use, on teacher’s autism-related practice and on pupil educational outcomes, is replicable in other schools, the impact of its continued implementation, for autistic individuals and wider society, could be significant.

Autistic children endure a lot of ‘behaviour analysis,’ (ABA) usually done by non-autistic people who don't understand autism innately.

Autistic meltdowns 🐝 - a thread. pic.twitter.com/v0bowUhwva— Emily♡ (@ItsEmilyKaty) May 29, 2023

Drawing upon both personal experience of being autistic and a parent to an autistic child, as well as theory and relevant interdisciplinary research, this

The present study examined the prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in intellectually capable children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Retrospective chart review on 103 children (mean age= 7.83 ± 1.72 years female=15.53%), without intellectual disability, who were diagn …

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Development and validation of a new self-report measure of monotropism Hosted on the Open Science Framework

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Therapists that do not consider autistic ways of communication, ethics, human rights, and potential harms are traumatizing autistic children.

If we are all going to do right by autistic children, we need to listen to autistic people about the damage wrought by ABA therapy.

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NPR’s This American Life listens in as a student is assaulted by literacy instruction

A new commentary on research explores the strong link between neurodivergent (here identified as Autistic, ADHD, Dyspraxic/DCD and Tourette’s syndromes) children and young people (CYP) with joint hy...

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