4.2 Crucial Things to Know

A Team

We’re repeating a conversation from the first season that is important for anyone who relates to being autistic. Maree Martinovich, a psychologist in New Zealand who specializes in diagnosing adults with autism, has crucial things to tell us about ourselves. Things that will change the way you view your life as an autistic person. If there were only one episode of A Team you ever listened to we’d want it to be this one. Rafael and Robert, the founders of A Team, talk with Maree about executive function, time management, the differences in getting a diagnosis between men and women, tropes about autism, and the fact that if you are autistic you have suffered trauma in your life.

6:45 Tony Atwood - Tony Attwood - Wikipedia
32:50 Robert: ADA and autism - https://autismadvocacynetwork.org/americans-with-disabilities-act/autism-ada-protections/
35:05 Distinction between Occupational Therapy (OT) and Psychotherapy
36:15 Maree: sensory modulation - Defining sensory modulation: A review of the concept and a contemporary definition for application by occupational therapists
39:40 Executive function - Executive Function in Autism Spectrum Disorder: History, Theoretical Models, Empirical Findings, and Potential as an Endophenotype
40:40 Time management - Time perception and autistic spectrum condition: A systematic review
41:50 Maree: interventions for time management
43:35 Importance of a professional diagnosis
47:10 autistic adults camouflage very well - Camouflaging in Autism: Examining Sex-Based and Compensatory Models in Social Cognition and Communication
47:50 difference in diagnosis between men and women - Gender Differences in Autism
48:37 Maree: autistic people are at risk of being missed or misdiagnosed - Missed diagnoses and misdiagnoses of adults with autism spectrum disorder
53:10 Maree: recent changes in the psychometrics of autistic women: camouflaging, masking, and assimilation - What are 'masking' and 'camouflaging' in the context of autism and ADHD?
1:06:47 Maree quote - autistics have the “focus of a laser beam and the acuity of an eagle”
1:07:47 Maree: empathy quotient tests / debunking the myth that autistics have no empathy - Empathy Quotient (EQ)
1:08:20 Maree: reasons why autistic may appear to be nonempathetic
1. Don’t pick up the signs that empathy is needed.
2. Don’t know what to do, we do what works for us when we need support - make a cup of tea and leave them alone. NT wouldn’t want that.
3. Prefer practical solutions instead of emotional support.
4. Hypersensitive and struggling to cope.
1:11:10 Maree: great qualities of a