World Autism Awareness Week: Peterborough woman launches social media cards to bust myths

Elisa Ferriggi has been helping families to understand and support children with autism for more than 17 years.

And this World Autism Awareness Week she has developed a series of cards that can be posted on social media to help bust the myths around autism.

According to YouGov research conducted for the National Autistic Society, while 99.5 per cent of people in the UK have heard of autism only 16 per cent of autistic people and their families believe people understand autism in a meaningful way.

The cards, along with a series of free online events, are designed to help people embrace autism rather than seeing it as a problem to be ‘corrected’.

“It’s time we moved on from autism awareness to autism understanding, acceptance and empowerment” Elisa said. “Collectively, we need to show more kindness and support and much less judgement to families of children with autism.”

The cards, which include phrases like “autism isn’t always visible” and “autism is not a disability, it’s different abilities” are available for people to download @ThinkAutismLtd on Facebook where there are also more details of the free online events taking place in April:

. Tuesday, April 13, 10am - workshop for parents on explaining autism to siblings: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/explaining-autism-to-siblings-think-autism-tickets-143054137777

. Wednesday, April 14, 1pm - parents can learn more about the core features of autism and the support available: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZEuduGvrjwvGd0nlxkxZAc5s5UO_ilHkzpn

. Tuesday, April 27, 10am - online session for any school staff interested in finding out more about how to address interaction, relationship, communication and sensory challenges within the school environment to support learning and development: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZMocOmpqzojH9QwG7yhJFstzN0GDE2Jzy2t

Visit https://www.facebook.com/ThinkAutismLtd to find out more.