I think I'm autistic

Parents and carers are often the first to notice a child may be autistic, though sometimes it is nursery staff or teachers. 

We have created a Right from the Start parent toolkit which includes lots of information about what to do if you think your child might be autistic. 

What to look for

Every autistic person is different in the same way every non-autistic person is. However, common signs of an autistic child or young person might include:

  • Difference in speech development – your child may not point as a toddler, take longer for words to appear (or they may not), or they might be an early speaker who can form complex sentences at a young age
  • Difference in social interactions – an autistic baby or young person may be sensitive to noise, prefer less eye contact, and may not love pretend play
  • Girls, however, may like imaginative play and won’t be alone in the playground at school. However, their interactions may be different to neurotypical peers – potentially they are in a group for social protection, and they don’t feel like they belong or they are properly included 
  • Sensory differences - for example, finding busy or chaotic environments exhausting and stressful and trying to escape music groups or being “disruptive” in unstructured noisy school activities
  • Struggling with high levels of anxiety, which leads to difficulties regulating your emotions
  • Difficulty with “neurotypical” social skills. Your autistic young person will have perfectly valid autistic social skills but may find it very hard to decipher the neurotypical social highway code.

Working with the school

If your child is struggling at school, it’s important not to delay talking with the school about support, to begin the conversation about what help your child needs and strengths that can be developed. 

A diagnosis can unlock key information for your child to help them understand themselves – and which can help a school support your child too. Schools are meant to support a child based on need, and not wait for a diagnosis, but with stretched budgets the reality can be that a diagnosis can strengthen your argument for more support (if appropriate), and the diagnostic clinician may have made recommendations that can be fed back to the school.

Not everybody is diagnosed with autism as a child. In fact, many adults go through life without a formal diagnosis. 

While not everybody wishes to seek a diagnosis, it can help to answer questions about your life experiences or explain why you might find some things more difficult than others. 

A formal diagnosis may also unlock extra support, such as access to benefits or care services. 

If you think you might be autistic and wish to seek a formal diagnosis, you will need to be referred for an assessment by someone like a GP. 

Not all GPs are experts on autism so it's a good idea to present them with evidence about why you feel you are autistic.