Girls With Autism
JULY 13, 2015
by samedifference1
“One parent a few years ago did say that her daughter was cured and she was perfectly fine now. There is no cure. This is a lifelong disorder. What we are trying to do is to give her different strategies and ways of coping with it.” Julie Taylor, Teacher.
Limpsfield Grange in Surrey is the only state run boarding school in Britain specialising in girls with autism. The girls are all aged from 11-16 and more than half of them are on the autistic spectrum. Focusing on three very different pupils, Katie, Abigail and Beth, this one-off documentary follows them over the course of six months both at school and at home, to offer a unique insight into what it means to be autistic and a teenage girl.
With increasing numbers of girls being diagnosed every year, the true extent to which girls suffer from the condition is perhaps only now being recognised. With extreme variations in how every girl presents, the school does it’s best to prepare each girl for an unforgiving outside world using a range of innovative methods, sometimes with tough love and always extraordinary patience.
Through these individual experiences we see how children with autism can struggle to make sense of the world around them, causing overwhelming anxiety. Repetitive behaviours, routine, and obsessions are all part of the condition. And the pressure of trying to negotiate friendship can often be the greatest anxiety and obsession of all.
Teacher Mrs Chippington, also known as Mrs Chips, uses dogs Charlie and Bella in her lesson, acknowledging that some of the girls prefer spending time with animals because there is less pressure and they don’t say unkind things.
She explains: “They want to have friends. Having friends is so complicated. Friendships don’t follow set rules and that is really, really difficult for somebody who has autism.”
Abigail is the quietest member of the class and Mrs Chips is desperately trying to communicate with her. She is unsure whether Abi is selectively mute because it’s giving her control, or whether she has such high anxiety that she feels unable to speak.
Sarah Wild, headteacher, explains: “Every girl here is a conundrum. They haven’t had any friendships, outside of their family probably. When they come in year seven, they have already experienced some depression, feelings of isolation, they are quite bullied, they’ve got really low self-esteem. You do have to be a detective to work here because you have to follow lots of different hunches and leads and you have to try things out.”
Another pupil, 16-year-old Katie, has an obsession with boys. Katie describes herself:
“I am a funny girl. A special girl. I have got Asperger’s syndrome. And ADHD. I feel strangers, sometimes are rude. Over the top. Crazy. I really like loud music. And I like dancing with boys. Especially holding their hands. Ben is my life. I have a boyfriend, and when I am not with him, I feel too sad.”
Autism can lead to obsessive behaviour and when a teenage girl with autism has those feelings for boys, it can lead to complicated and potentially risky situations.
IT Teacher Sam Janaway explains: “One time that she did get things wrong was with my son. He was coming in once a week to help the girls with homework and Katie took a liking to him. That culminated in her going on to his Facebook page to download photos of him and I think she had several hundred pictures of him by the time we became aware of it.”
Most of the girls at Limpsfield Grange board on weekdays and are looked after by a dedicated care team, whose job is to teach the girls to become independent and to deal with their autism.
Fourteen-year-old Beth has reluctantly started weekly boarding at Limpsfield Grange, after serious problems with her behaviour, both at home and in four previous schools. Beth now commutes 250 miles every weekend to the school.
Julie Taylor, Beth’s head of year explains some of the issues involved: “She was an absolute nightmare, she was just head down on the desk, she was refusing to engage in any learning and walking out of class all the time. She was hospitalised over the summer. I think it was a suicidal attempt. She is sort of a jug that is nearly full and so it doesn’t take much to just spill over. It could be that her homework was too difficult, or it’s a Monday or she is just not feeling well. Or she’s missing her mother.”
Beth’s mum Emma says: “I searched high and low for schools in the area to avoid having to send her away. I knew she didn’t want to go away. If there was a school like Limpsfield up the road, she would go there. We had everything, tears, screaming, shouting.”
Beth is determined to sabotage her place at school so she can return home. She admits to self-harming three times a day, every day. Beth says:
“I have learnt how to fit in in a mainstream school and to get on like a normal teenager would. The girls here are weird and whacky and it’s hard.”
Meanwhile, Abigail is still not communicating and Mrs Chips is trying to help her learn to cope with her worries. At home she is very talkative, but her mum Sarah has recently been diagnosed with breast cancer. Sarah has explained her illness to Abi, who tells her she is going to die, despite Sarah’s assurances.
Sarah says: “They don’t understand it. You have to just accept them the way they are. You have to accept an autistic child. I think a lot of people who didn’t understand autism would probably be angry with what she sometimes says, you know. I accept it and I love her no matter what.”
At the end of the week all the girls head home to their families, including Beth who returns home to Warwickshire. Her mum Emma explains that Beth had surgery as a newborn baby due to hydrocephalus, a blocked duct in her brain. Sharing photographs, Emma recalls:
“It was about eight, her behaviour started to get worse and worse and you do think, ‘Oh what have I done? Have I spoilt her too much?’ But I knew that I hadn’t, I knew that I treated them all the same, but you do question everything.”
Beth was diagnosed with Asperger’s and then PDA (pathological demand avoidance), which is a sub type of autism but in Beth’s case it means she seeks to demand and control her environment and refuses to comply with simple demands. Whilst she has a close relationship with her sister Gracie now, mum Emma says:
“She often used to say she wanted to get rid of Gracie. ‘I hate you, I am going to kill you. You know, I wish you’d never been born.’ And she would say to me, ‘Why can’t you send her away? Why can’t you get rid of her?’ And then it would keep escalating and move on from shouting, to getting a knife out of the drawer and running after. We had to put doors in between, whoever she was running at.”
Beth’s high anxiety means she will try to control and manipulate the staff at the school. The staff’s priority is to tackle her refusal to take part in lessons and they have a meeting to decide that a tough love approach is needed to achieve this.
Teacher Julie Taylor says: “With pathological demand avoidance we have to put a very tight, rigid structure around that student, and she will not like it. And it’s a bit like reigning a horse in because it’s almost like a wildness there, that you have got to capture and train.”
Abigail has made a new friend at school but still wont talk to the teachers, who feel she shouldn’t be boarding at the moment. Back at home, mum Sarah has undergone surgery to remove the cancer and admits that looking after Abi is mentally exhausting.
In a scene which illustrates how autism can make her seem insensitive, Abi tells her mother: “Shut it now old woman. Otherwise I will cut you in pieces. And I will ask them if they can take you back to hospital again. And ask them to put you down.”
Back at school, Katie is pre-occupied by the approaching school disco and the boys who will be attending, in particular a boy called Alex from the nearby school. The teachers struggle to keep her focused on her mock GCSE exams.
Katie tries to attract Alex at the disco but he is more interested in his friends. Instead she meets his brother Jamie, also autistic, and asks him to be her boyfriend. He agrees and Katie is beyond thrilled.
Shortly afterwards, Deputy Head Emma makes a breakthrough with Abi, having learnt that the key to getting her to communicate is to give her physical tasks to complete. The strategy is working – so much so that she inadvertently gives the newly helpful Abi a folder of the school’s cheques to deliver, which she promptly runs off with, causing much hilarity and anxiety for head teacher Sarah.
Sarah says: “Any lengths, we will try absolutely anything! You can take a dog for a walk with a child in the middle of a lesson if you need to, if you think that is going to do something to move a situation on or build a relationship.”
Abi is encouraged to write down her feelings, which it becomes clear mostly revolve around her mum undergoing chemo. Through this emerging understanding of her emotions, and a growing friendship with a touchingly supportive classmate Lowri, Abi finally begins to open up, but as Mrs Chips says:
“This is a really long journey that we are on with Abi. We’re not going to suddenly see a girl who is sitting engaging in all lessons, shooting her hand up to answer questions, initiating conversation with people.”
Beth’s situation also improves, as her confidence grows by getting positive attention for her achievements and her self-harm reduces.
As the end of the year approaches, Katie’s new boyfriend overwhelms her thoughts as she prepares for life after school. She does work experience in an old people’s home, where she is keen to tell a 90-year-old resident about Jamie.
Katie’s dad Mark says: “I don’t think she’ll be able to live independently, ever, I don’t think. Unless she, you know, greatly improves, but I can’t see her…she’ll always need help.”
Mum Julie adds: “You can never have a down day with her because she would always bring you up. She will bring joy to anybody that she meets. She is a special little girl, definitely.”
‘Girls With Autism’ tells three very different stories for a less familiar portrait of autism. Teenage girls who desperately want love and friendship, but just can’t quite understand how to go about it.
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Autismo. Mostrar todas las entradas
Mostrando entradas con la etiqueta Autismo. Mostrar todas las entradas
domingo, 9 de agosto de 2015
Girls with autism and PDA strategies
Tuesday, 21 July 2015
Girls with autism and PDA strategies
Last week, a programme about a school in Surrey for girls with autism aged between 11-19 was aired on ITV.
The documentary about Limpsfield Grange showed us the individual stories of three very different girls with autism and I was hooked.
Anyhow following the show and the many discussions that followed online, the mother of the girl with PDA who was on the show got in touch with a letter to explain her views on how the school has helped her family.
I thought it was a very timely reminder that every child is unique, and that what works for one child may not for another. Likewise, what works for our child at this young age may not still be working when she is a teenager, and it's important to keep all options open. Every family will have a slightly different view on the best approach for them, and I think it's important not to judge others, but to listen and learn.
So I'm delighted to be able to reproduce that mother's views here and hope that it will provide the answer as to what their specific situation was and how it worked for them. -
Hi everyone
I hope the attached document helps to put your minds at rest that all our family, including now Beth, agree that the methods used by Limpsfield have worked wonders. Perhaps because of Beth's age, maturity and understanding of PDA, the usual methods of indirect requests and turning things into a game etc have not worked for quite a while - she saw through everything and therefore if anything it made her more determined to NOT do the thing you were trying to get her to do!
I have always been quite boundaried at home but outside the home other people weren't and so I think perhaps the reason it is working now is due to the fact that because at Limpsfield the staff were all trained and all working together as a team to be very consistent in their approach, it meant that she got exactly the same message from everyone. We also followed it through at home and also with close friends who were involved in Beth's life, which meant the same message was constantly being reinforced. This I think was key.
I (and I think staff as well) felt that if we allowed Beth to avoid demands rather than deal with her anxieties and help her to face those anxieties and work through them, it was akin to reinforcing the idea that demands really are something to be feared, especially if everyone around them (and in particular those they look to for protection) are helping them to avoid them. Personally I felt it meant the list of things Beth avoided just got longer the more she was 'allowed' to avoid. Deal with the anxiety and not just the avoidant behaviour which is basically the result of that anxiety - that is what I feel anyway. Obviously the lower demand environment of Limpsfield also helps, rather than a busier mainstream school Beth was in previously.
Anyway, the below is just our story based on the very individualistic approach that Limpsfield took with Beth (as they do for all their students) so I am not saying that what we have done will work for everyone but what I can say is that Limpsfield certainly have done the right thing for Beth.
In response to those questioning Limpsfield on their methods for PDA children or the documentary for how it was portrayed, I can only speak from my personal experience of living through what was, at times, a nightmare with Beth (whilst also having another child with PDA). However, this 'tough love' approach that people seem to be focusing on has, in my opinion, worked wonders, though I would say there is more 'love' than 'toughness' in the methods used. As with any one off programme, Girls With Autism was only able to show a snapshot of Beth's story (and indeed her individual story and not one that makes out that it is representative of all PDA children, as every child is unique and a mix of not only their autism but also their character, life experiences, the way they have been nurtured etc etc), but her transformation is outstanding. For her, let me explain how I view it. Before this 'tough love' approach was taken, Beth's anxiety levels were so high that she was at breaking point and therefore she felt so out of control with her emotions and with the adrenalin rushing through her body from the anxiety that she found herself running all the time, trying to find that control, always to the edge, always away from those who were trying to help (imagine here a frightened horse). The more that boundaries were removed in previous schools, because they were felt to put her under pressure (and these schools did their best to follow pda guidelines), and the more they allowed her to try and control her situation (by not attending lessons, not doing homework, skipping games, coming home etc), thinking this would reduce her anxiety, the less and less she was then able to manage. Instead of this making her feel freer and more in control, she actually felt more and more out of control and therefore anxious, as she would keep coming up against new and even more scary places and situations that she would have to try and control and manage on her own and the further she ran the more exhausted she got. The more she avoided school, the less like the other pupils she so desperately wanted to fit in with she became, and this in itself caused her more anxiety as her peers became less understanding. More emotions, more fear, increasing suicidal thoughts, because the further she ran, the more alone and unsafe she felt. The further she ran, the further away she was getting from the people who could protect her.
So, Limpsfield, TOGETHER WITH PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE FROM CAMHS and other professionals, along with our backing, set about putting some tight boundaries around her (like building a pen around the horse, or a scaffold around an unstable building), all the time being like the horse whisperer, praising her for little things, loving her and providing for her needs, gaining her trust. At first, as anticipated, she kicked against these boundaries, she wobbled against this scaffold, but as they remained firmly in place and she realised they would not move, that the scaffold was helping keep her upright, and that the staff etc would continue to love and support her and weren't going to give up on her as others had, she began to calm. They would put up a metaphorical fence, explain what it was for and why it was there and then leave her awhile to digest it and then they would keep coming back to reassure her that she was safe and loved, to make her laugh to let out her pent up emotions, and whenever she showed signs of calming they gave her even more attention (a bit like praising the good and ignoring the bad on a larger scale - helping to shift her focus of attention from the negative to positive, as she had got into a very negative cycle). And then she calmed some more, and some more. There was no need to keep running, and fighting, and trying to find ways to control, which in itself was not only exhausting for her but was causing horrendous amounts of anxiety, because she didn't feel (and at times wasn't) safe being just left to run and escape into her own dark thoughts. For Beth anyway, rather than feeling less anxious when she had controlled something, the more anxious she felt as the more she felt she had to do next time to maintain that feeling of control and get more attention, (which was and is how she feels people care), but it became impossible to maintain. It could never be enough, like pouring water in a sieve. So, once these boundaries were fixed and secure, in not very long she stopped fighting them and as she did she started to relax against them and use them for support. She started to approach the people helping her and actually let them help. She started to feel safe and secure now she wasn't having to fight all the time and we realised that her anxiety was reducing and after a bit more time (as she was determined to prove she wasn't meant to be at Limpsfield), she also accepted and admitted herself that her anxiety was reducing.
Beth has to (and because she really wants to) be able to function in society if she is to have a future, and society is full of rules and boundaries. Limpsfield are not seeking to cosy her up and keep her feeling like she can assert control over everything for a peaceful life, just so she can get through her school days so she can then become someone else's problem, they are seeking to prepare her for a very real world outside of school and one where she will be able to live in it, rather than just exist through it. Beth is beginning to understand through this consistent, loving, but, yes, perhaps sometimes tough, approach, that boundaries are usually there for safety and security and that actually her anxiety can reduce when she stops battling for control, as fighting is anything but relaxing! She still likes to believe and feel she is in control of everything of course, but staff at the school are helping her to control things in positive ways, such as focusing her control towards her future, on revision and controlling how she does academically so that she can fulfil her dream of becoming a nurse, and using her experiences to mentor younger girls. She has gone from a reading age of below six years, to over 17 years in just 12 months, so I have nothing but high praise for Limpsfield.
On the surface, at a glimpse, perhaps it may not seem like they are following PDA guidelines, but whatever they are doing it has ultimately reduced Beth's stress and anxiety. The proof for me is in the confident, happier Beth we all see today. Beth has always had a keen sense of right and wrong and always wanted to do the right thing, as she is a very loving, caring girl and therefore she also now feels good about herself that she is often now able to do a lot (but not all!) of what people ask of her. Once she felt safe, she was able to look around her familiar and secure surroundings and see what tools were there that she could pick up and learn to use. She is no longer barely surviving, with all the tools lying around her unused through fear of losing control if she doesn't run from them, but she has learned to use the tools Limpsfield have provided, to not only survive but to live and thrive! It may not help with all or even any other PDA children, but it has definitely worked for her and indeed my PDA son, and they (and the rest of the family) are certainly happier for it. So, I for one am thankful that Limpsfield bit the bullet and they tried something a little bit different. Thank you Limpsfield Grange and for the documentary for getting people talking about PDA. We are all on the same side, trying to do the very best for the individual we love.
Girls with autism and PDA strategies
Last week, a programme about a school in Surrey for girls with autism aged between 11-19 was aired on ITV.
The documentary about Limpsfield Grange showed us the individual stories of three very different girls with autism and I was hooked.
Anyhow following the show and the many discussions that followed online, the mother of the girl with PDA who was on the show got in touch with a letter to explain her views on how the school has helped her family.
I thought it was a very timely reminder that every child is unique, and that what works for one child may not for another. Likewise, what works for our child at this young age may not still be working when she is a teenager, and it's important to keep all options open. Every family will have a slightly different view on the best approach for them, and I think it's important not to judge others, but to listen and learn.
So I'm delighted to be able to reproduce that mother's views here and hope that it will provide the answer as to what their specific situation was and how it worked for them. -
Hi everyone
I hope the attached document helps to put your minds at rest that all our family, including now Beth, agree that the methods used by Limpsfield have worked wonders. Perhaps because of Beth's age, maturity and understanding of PDA, the usual methods of indirect requests and turning things into a game etc have not worked for quite a while - she saw through everything and therefore if anything it made her more determined to NOT do the thing you were trying to get her to do!
I have always been quite boundaried at home but outside the home other people weren't and so I think perhaps the reason it is working now is due to the fact that because at Limpsfield the staff were all trained and all working together as a team to be very consistent in their approach, it meant that she got exactly the same message from everyone. We also followed it through at home and also with close friends who were involved in Beth's life, which meant the same message was constantly being reinforced. This I think was key.
I (and I think staff as well) felt that if we allowed Beth to avoid demands rather than deal with her anxieties and help her to face those anxieties and work through them, it was akin to reinforcing the idea that demands really are something to be feared, especially if everyone around them (and in particular those they look to for protection) are helping them to avoid them. Personally I felt it meant the list of things Beth avoided just got longer the more she was 'allowed' to avoid. Deal with the anxiety and not just the avoidant behaviour which is basically the result of that anxiety - that is what I feel anyway. Obviously the lower demand environment of Limpsfield also helps, rather than a busier mainstream school Beth was in previously.
Anyway, the below is just our story based on the very individualistic approach that Limpsfield took with Beth (as they do for all their students) so I am not saying that what we have done will work for everyone but what I can say is that Limpsfield certainly have done the right thing for Beth.
In response to those questioning Limpsfield on their methods for PDA children or the documentary for how it was portrayed, I can only speak from my personal experience of living through what was, at times, a nightmare with Beth (whilst also having another child with PDA). However, this 'tough love' approach that people seem to be focusing on has, in my opinion, worked wonders, though I would say there is more 'love' than 'toughness' in the methods used. As with any one off programme, Girls With Autism was only able to show a snapshot of Beth's story (and indeed her individual story and not one that makes out that it is representative of all PDA children, as every child is unique and a mix of not only their autism but also their character, life experiences, the way they have been nurtured etc etc), but her transformation is outstanding. For her, let me explain how I view it. Before this 'tough love' approach was taken, Beth's anxiety levels were so high that she was at breaking point and therefore she felt so out of control with her emotions and with the adrenalin rushing through her body from the anxiety that she found herself running all the time, trying to find that control, always to the edge, always away from those who were trying to help (imagine here a frightened horse). The more that boundaries were removed in previous schools, because they were felt to put her under pressure (and these schools did their best to follow pda guidelines), and the more they allowed her to try and control her situation (by not attending lessons, not doing homework, skipping games, coming home etc), thinking this would reduce her anxiety, the less and less she was then able to manage. Instead of this making her feel freer and more in control, she actually felt more and more out of control and therefore anxious, as she would keep coming up against new and even more scary places and situations that she would have to try and control and manage on her own and the further she ran the more exhausted she got. The more she avoided school, the less like the other pupils she so desperately wanted to fit in with she became, and this in itself caused her more anxiety as her peers became less understanding. More emotions, more fear, increasing suicidal thoughts, because the further she ran, the more alone and unsafe she felt. The further she ran, the further away she was getting from the people who could protect her.
So, Limpsfield, TOGETHER WITH PROFESSIONAL GUIDANCE FROM CAMHS and other professionals, along with our backing, set about putting some tight boundaries around her (like building a pen around the horse, or a scaffold around an unstable building), all the time being like the horse whisperer, praising her for little things, loving her and providing for her needs, gaining her trust. At first, as anticipated, she kicked against these boundaries, she wobbled against this scaffold, but as they remained firmly in place and she realised they would not move, that the scaffold was helping keep her upright, and that the staff etc would continue to love and support her and weren't going to give up on her as others had, she began to calm. They would put up a metaphorical fence, explain what it was for and why it was there and then leave her awhile to digest it and then they would keep coming back to reassure her that she was safe and loved, to make her laugh to let out her pent up emotions, and whenever she showed signs of calming they gave her even more attention (a bit like praising the good and ignoring the bad on a larger scale - helping to shift her focus of attention from the negative to positive, as she had got into a very negative cycle). And then she calmed some more, and some more. There was no need to keep running, and fighting, and trying to find ways to control, which in itself was not only exhausting for her but was causing horrendous amounts of anxiety, because she didn't feel (and at times wasn't) safe being just left to run and escape into her own dark thoughts. For Beth anyway, rather than feeling less anxious when she had controlled something, the more anxious she felt as the more she felt she had to do next time to maintain that feeling of control and get more attention, (which was and is how she feels people care), but it became impossible to maintain. It could never be enough, like pouring water in a sieve. So, once these boundaries were fixed and secure, in not very long she stopped fighting them and as she did she started to relax against them and use them for support. She started to approach the people helping her and actually let them help. She started to feel safe and secure now she wasn't having to fight all the time and we realised that her anxiety was reducing and after a bit more time (as she was determined to prove she wasn't meant to be at Limpsfield), she also accepted and admitted herself that her anxiety was reducing.
Beth has to (and because she really wants to) be able to function in society if she is to have a future, and society is full of rules and boundaries. Limpsfield are not seeking to cosy her up and keep her feeling like she can assert control over everything for a peaceful life, just so she can get through her school days so she can then become someone else's problem, they are seeking to prepare her for a very real world outside of school and one where she will be able to live in it, rather than just exist through it. Beth is beginning to understand through this consistent, loving, but, yes, perhaps sometimes tough, approach, that boundaries are usually there for safety and security and that actually her anxiety can reduce when she stops battling for control, as fighting is anything but relaxing! She still likes to believe and feel she is in control of everything of course, but staff at the school are helping her to control things in positive ways, such as focusing her control towards her future, on revision and controlling how she does academically so that she can fulfil her dream of becoming a nurse, and using her experiences to mentor younger girls. She has gone from a reading age of below six years, to over 17 years in just 12 months, so I have nothing but high praise for Limpsfield.
On the surface, at a glimpse, perhaps it may not seem like they are following PDA guidelines, but whatever they are doing it has ultimately reduced Beth's stress and anxiety. The proof for me is in the confident, happier Beth we all see today. Beth has always had a keen sense of right and wrong and always wanted to do the right thing, as she is a very loving, caring girl and therefore she also now feels good about herself that she is often now able to do a lot (but not all!) of what people ask of her. Once she felt safe, she was able to look around her familiar and secure surroundings and see what tools were there that she could pick up and learn to use. She is no longer barely surviving, with all the tools lying around her unused through fear of losing control if she doesn't run from them, but she has learned to use the tools Limpsfield have provided, to not only survive but to live and thrive! It may not help with all or even any other PDA children, but it has definitely worked for her and indeed my PDA son, and they (and the rest of the family) are certainly happier for it. So, I for one am thankful that Limpsfield bit the bullet and they tried something a little bit different. Thank you Limpsfield Grange and for the documentary for getting people talking about PDA. We are all on the same side, trying to do the very best for the individual we love.
Teenage girl reveals how autism makes her obsess over boys
Teenage girl reveals how autism makes her obsess over boys... sending one 72 texts an hour and downloading another's photo thousands of times
Katie Greenhalgh's Asperger's syndrome can cause obsessive behaviour
She can become fixated on boys and text one boyfriend 72 times in an hour
The 16-year-old from Surrey was blocked on Facebook for harassing a boy
Her school specialises with autism and mother, Julie, admits it's a worry
By LUCY WATERLOW FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 14:59 GMT, 15 July 2015 | UPDATED: 18:10 GMT, 15 July 2015
While many young girls develop obsessions with schoolboys or members of One Direction, a 16-year-old says her Asperger's syndrome causes her to take her crushes much further than most.
Katie Greenhalgh from Guilford, Surrey, admits she once text a boy 72 times in one hour and has been blocked on Facebook for harassing another.
Speaking on today's This Morning, the teenager said she often has no awareness of when she crosses the boundaries of socially appropriate behaviour.
'With boys I can get obsessive, I stare at them, I fancy them and talk about them a lot. Once I had a boyfriend and I sent him 72 texts in one hour. I get bit too obsessed,' she admitted on the show.
Katie also talks about her behaviour in a one-off ITV documentary, Girls With Autism, which focuses on Limpsfield Grange in Surrey, the only state-run boarding school in Britain that specialises with girls like her.
On the documentary, Katie tells her IT teacher Sam Janaway: 'I got blocked by the Facebook police because I was harassing someone too much because I thought he was fit.'
Mrs Janaway reveals her own son was once the object of Katie's affection and her behaviour towards him quickly escalated.
'My son was coming in once a week to help them with homework and Katie took a liking to him that culminated in her going on to his Facebook page to download photos of him. She had several hundred before we became aware of it,' she said.
Katie admitted she will often download the same picture of a boy again and again.
Her mother Julie revealed the extent of the problem: 'When we cleared her iPhone the other day she had more than 11,000 pictures of the same boy - we don't know who he is or where she got it from but she becomes fixated and obsessed very quickly.'
Children with autism can often struggle to make sense of the world around them and can display repetitive and intense behaviour.
Julie admitted her daughter's obsessions were a worry - particularly given how easy it was to contact people these days via mobile phone and social media.
As well as being concerned about the impact it can have on the boys themselves, she fears Katie's vulnerability could be taken advantage of by online predators.
Julie said: 'I have to monitor her social media activity all the time, who she's talking to, who she has invited to be friends with her.'
'We can't let her out of our sight, it's worrying.'
Julie said her daughter was diagnosed at six years old after suffering behavioural problems at school.
'I used to get called in a lot to her old school,' Julie recalled. 'She was very disruptive, she didn't make friends easily, she was seen as the naughty girl in the class until she got her diagnosis.'
Julie said her and her husband Mark felt like they 'won the lottery' when their daughter was offered a place at Limpsfield Grange.
Most pupils at the school board on weekdays and are looked after by a dedicated care team, who teach the girls how to deal with their autism and become more independent.
Sarah Wild, headteacher, said: 'Every girl here is a conundrum. They haven't had any friendships, outside of their family probably. When they come in year seven, they have already experienced some depression, feelings of isolation, they are quite bullied, they've got really low self-esteem
'You do have to be a detective to work here because you have to follow lots of different hunches and leads and you have to try things out.'
Julie said the school has helped Katie feel much more comfortable as she often struggles in situations 'many of us take for granted' such as taking a shower or being a in a train carriage surrounded by people.
Julie admitted that her son Ben has struggled at times growing up with a sister who demands a lot of attention and who he feels can be 'embarrassing' in public.
But she said that, thanks to Limpsfield Grange, Katie has learnt to cope better with many situations and is more self-aware.
Julie added: 'You can never have a down day with her because she would always bring you up. She will bring joy to anybody that she meets. She is a special little girl, definitely.'
Katie Greenhalgh's Asperger's syndrome can cause obsessive behaviour
She can become fixated on boys and text one boyfriend 72 times in an hour
The 16-year-old from Surrey was blocked on Facebook for harassing a boy
Her school specialises with autism and mother, Julie, admits it's a worry
By LUCY WATERLOW FOR MAILONLINE
PUBLISHED: 14:59 GMT, 15 July 2015 | UPDATED: 18:10 GMT, 15 July 2015
While many young girls develop obsessions with schoolboys or members of One Direction, a 16-year-old says her Asperger's syndrome causes her to take her crushes much further than most.
Katie Greenhalgh from Guilford, Surrey, admits she once text a boy 72 times in one hour and has been blocked on Facebook for harassing another.
Speaking on today's This Morning, the teenager said she often has no awareness of when she crosses the boundaries of socially appropriate behaviour.
'With boys I can get obsessive, I stare at them, I fancy them and talk about them a lot. Once I had a boyfriend and I sent him 72 texts in one hour. I get bit too obsessed,' she admitted on the show.
Katie also talks about her behaviour in a one-off ITV documentary, Girls With Autism, which focuses on Limpsfield Grange in Surrey, the only state-run boarding school in Britain that specialises with girls like her.
On the documentary, Katie tells her IT teacher Sam Janaway: 'I got blocked by the Facebook police because I was harassing someone too much because I thought he was fit.'
Mrs Janaway reveals her own son was once the object of Katie's affection and her behaviour towards him quickly escalated.
'My son was coming in once a week to help them with homework and Katie took a liking to him that culminated in her going on to his Facebook page to download photos of him. She had several hundred before we became aware of it,' she said.
Katie admitted she will often download the same picture of a boy again and again.
Her mother Julie revealed the extent of the problem: 'When we cleared her iPhone the other day she had more than 11,000 pictures of the same boy - we don't know who he is or where she got it from but she becomes fixated and obsessed very quickly.'
Children with autism can often struggle to make sense of the world around them and can display repetitive and intense behaviour.
Julie admitted her daughter's obsessions were a worry - particularly given how easy it was to contact people these days via mobile phone and social media.
As well as being concerned about the impact it can have on the boys themselves, she fears Katie's vulnerability could be taken advantage of by online predators.
Julie said: 'I have to monitor her social media activity all the time, who she's talking to, who she has invited to be friends with her.'
'We can't let her out of our sight, it's worrying.'
Julie said her daughter was diagnosed at six years old after suffering behavioural problems at school.
'I used to get called in a lot to her old school,' Julie recalled. 'She was very disruptive, she didn't make friends easily, she was seen as the naughty girl in the class until she got her diagnosis.'
Julie said her and her husband Mark felt like they 'won the lottery' when their daughter was offered a place at Limpsfield Grange.
Most pupils at the school board on weekdays and are looked after by a dedicated care team, who teach the girls how to deal with their autism and become more independent.
Sarah Wild, headteacher, said: 'Every girl here is a conundrum. They haven't had any friendships, outside of their family probably. When they come in year seven, they have already experienced some depression, feelings of isolation, they are quite bullied, they've got really low self-esteem
'You do have to be a detective to work here because you have to follow lots of different hunches and leads and you have to try things out.'
Julie said the school has helped Katie feel much more comfortable as she often struggles in situations 'many of us take for granted' such as taking a shower or being a in a train carriage surrounded by people.
Julie admitted that her son Ben has struggled at times growing up with a sister who demands a lot of attention and who he feels can be 'embarrassing' in public.
But she said that, thanks to Limpsfield Grange, Katie has learnt to cope better with many situations and is more self-aware.
Julie added: 'You can never have a down day with her because she would always bring you up. She will bring joy to anybody that she meets. She is a special little girl, definitely.'
Autism is different for girls...
Autism is different for girls...
Sarah Wild is headteacher at Limpsfield Grange School, a Surrey County Council special school for girls. She tells us what symptoms an autistic girl might display:
Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to, other people and the world around them. It is a spectrum condition, which means that, while all people with autism share certain areas of difficulty, their condition will affect them in different ways. Asperger syndrome is a form of autism.
Boys and men have previously been more likely to be diagnosed with autism, and most of our preconceptions are based on how boys with the condition behave. So why has autism been seen as a “male” condition? It could in part be due to diagnostic tools that clinicians use to diagnose autism being boy friendly or biased, or, it could also be due in part to the fact that girls with autism behave quite differently to boys.
Boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) tend to be less social than their peers and display prominent and obvious areas of obsessive interests and compulsions. Girls with autism, however, are more able to follow or imitate social actions. When they are younger they can mimic socially appropriate behaviour, without understanding what they are doing or why they are doing it. This can have the effect of masking their difficulties.
Girls with autism are often aware of and feel the need to socially interact. They can engage in play but are often led by their peers. They may not initiate social contact but will react to it, and can appear socially passive or socially odd. They feel that they would like to have friends but do not understand how to make friends. This can cause lots of unhappiness, and can create feelings of isolation.
Social communication can be difficult, with girls not understanding why we would want to communicate with other people. Recognising facial expressions and what emotions they show can be very challenging for girls with autism, making it hard for them to read a situation. This can make people’s responses to them surprising and bewildering.
Appropriate social communication can be difficult, with the girls having little or no understanding about social hierarchies. This can result in girls with autism speaking to adults as though they were their friends, and not changing their language to suit the social situation they are in. This can cause problems at school.
Often girls on the spectrum have really good imaginations, and compared to boys with autism are relatively good at pretend play. They can have very elaborate fantasy worlds that they will spend a great deal of time indulging in. Their fantasy world can be complex and full of detail, can be very important to them, and can be sustained over long periods of time.
Their fantasy world can dominate their play; the girls might be able to talk about their world in depth, and often the line between fantasy and reality can become blurred.
Girls with autism may have very intense special interests such as horses or animals, boy bands or certain books or films. As other girls will move on with their areas of interest, girls with autism often do not. This causes gaps to appear between their social development and that of their peers, often resulting in the girls with autism becoming increasingly socially isolated.
Autistic girls may be particularly sensitive to loud noises, bright lights or touch; may hate wearing tight clothing or particular fabrics; or conversely, may love to be tucked in super tight to her clothes, or need to have her hair tied back in a very tight ponytail. Eating can be a battleground, with only certain foods and textures being acceptable. Not eating or controlling their food intake is another characteristic.
The world can be a confusing and unpredictable place for autistc girls. To minimize this, they may exert a very high level of control on their environment and the people in it. This can mean ritualised behaviour, inflexible routines and meltdowns when unplanned events occur. Autistic girls often want to please, and will spend all day at school trying very hard to do the right thing. The impact of this if often felt at home, where girls might vent their frustration and anxiety for hours at the end of every school day.
So, what can be done to help girls with autism? Clear routines and structure at home can be a great help. A timetable of what is happening, with pictures, can be very beneficial, and can help to make a girls feel less anxious. Communication is key. Make everything explicit.
Explain why you are doing something, or why you talk to someone in a certain way. Use egg timers or sand clocks to count down at the end of an activity, so that changing activity or focus does not come as a surprise. Try and identify triggers for crisis points. Create a calm box in your home, and if it looks like anxiety or anger is building use it to avoid meltdown moments. Fill it with items such as stress balls, toys that light up or reflect light, tactile toys – anything that will help. Display clear visual rules in your home and refer to them. Talk about emotions as they happen and name them to help build an understanding of how she feels physically and the label for the emotion she is experiencing.
Explain, explain, check understanding and explain again!
With the right support and guidance girls with autism can become successful, self-aware, happy and independent young people, able to live and study independently and pursue a variety of careers.
Sarah Wild is headteacher at Limpsfield Grange School, a Surrey County Council special school for girls. She tells us what symptoms an autistic girl might display:
Autism is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how a person communicates with, and relates to, other people and the world around them. It is a spectrum condition, which means that, while all people with autism share certain areas of difficulty, their condition will affect them in different ways. Asperger syndrome is a form of autism.
Boys and men have previously been more likely to be diagnosed with autism, and most of our preconceptions are based on how boys with the condition behave. So why has autism been seen as a “male” condition? It could in part be due to diagnostic tools that clinicians use to diagnose autism being boy friendly or biased, or, it could also be due in part to the fact that girls with autism behave quite differently to boys.
Boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) tend to be less social than their peers and display prominent and obvious areas of obsessive interests and compulsions. Girls with autism, however, are more able to follow or imitate social actions. When they are younger they can mimic socially appropriate behaviour, without understanding what they are doing or why they are doing it. This can have the effect of masking their difficulties.
Girls with autism are often aware of and feel the need to socially interact. They can engage in play but are often led by their peers. They may not initiate social contact but will react to it, and can appear socially passive or socially odd. They feel that they would like to have friends but do not understand how to make friends. This can cause lots of unhappiness, and can create feelings of isolation.
Social communication can be difficult, with girls not understanding why we would want to communicate with other people. Recognising facial expressions and what emotions they show can be very challenging for girls with autism, making it hard for them to read a situation. This can make people’s responses to them surprising and bewildering.
Appropriate social communication can be difficult, with the girls having little or no understanding about social hierarchies. This can result in girls with autism speaking to adults as though they were their friends, and not changing their language to suit the social situation they are in. This can cause problems at school.
Often girls on the spectrum have really good imaginations, and compared to boys with autism are relatively good at pretend play. They can have very elaborate fantasy worlds that they will spend a great deal of time indulging in. Their fantasy world can be complex and full of detail, can be very important to them, and can be sustained over long periods of time.
Their fantasy world can dominate their play; the girls might be able to talk about their world in depth, and often the line between fantasy and reality can become blurred.
Girls with autism may have very intense special interests such as horses or animals, boy bands or certain books or films. As other girls will move on with their areas of interest, girls with autism often do not. This causes gaps to appear between their social development and that of their peers, often resulting in the girls with autism becoming increasingly socially isolated.
Autistic girls may be particularly sensitive to loud noises, bright lights or touch; may hate wearing tight clothing or particular fabrics; or conversely, may love to be tucked in super tight to her clothes, or need to have her hair tied back in a very tight ponytail. Eating can be a battleground, with only certain foods and textures being acceptable. Not eating or controlling their food intake is another characteristic.
The world can be a confusing and unpredictable place for autistc girls. To minimize this, they may exert a very high level of control on their environment and the people in it. This can mean ritualised behaviour, inflexible routines and meltdowns when unplanned events occur. Autistic girls often want to please, and will spend all day at school trying very hard to do the right thing. The impact of this if often felt at home, where girls might vent their frustration and anxiety for hours at the end of every school day.
So, what can be done to help girls with autism? Clear routines and structure at home can be a great help. A timetable of what is happening, with pictures, can be very beneficial, and can help to make a girls feel less anxious. Communication is key. Make everything explicit.
Explain why you are doing something, or why you talk to someone in a certain way. Use egg timers or sand clocks to count down at the end of an activity, so that changing activity or focus does not come as a surprise. Try and identify triggers for crisis points. Create a calm box in your home, and if it looks like anxiety or anger is building use it to avoid meltdown moments. Fill it with items such as stress balls, toys that light up or reflect light, tactile toys – anything that will help. Display clear visual rules in your home and refer to them. Talk about emotions as they happen and name them to help build an understanding of how she feels physically and the label for the emotion she is experiencing.
Explain, explain, check understanding and explain again!
With the right support and guidance girls with autism can become successful, self-aware, happy and independent young people, able to live and study independently and pursue a variety of careers.
Girls with Autism
"Girls with Autism" documentary shows life at Limpsfield Grange School
18:07, 15 JULY 2015
BY AMANI HUGHES
The specialist school caters for young girls with communication and interaction difficulties
The only state-run boarding school for girls with autism in the UK, based in Oxted, is the focus of a documentary being shown on ITV.
Limpsfield Grange School is a specialist school for girls aged 11 to 16, who have communication and interaction difficulties.
In September 2014, the school opened its doors to film crews for six months for the making of 'Girls with Autism'.
Headteacher Sarah Wild explained that she hoped the programme would raise awareness of autism among girls, and for people to realise it is different than in boys.
Ms Wild said: “At the moment the diagnosis tools that are used to diagnose autism are a bit boy-focused.
“Girls can be quite sociable, they want to have friends and connect with other people, some of them might well have boyfriends.
"They are a bit more interesting than boys on the [autism] spectrum, so sometimes they get missed.”
The headteacher, who has been at the school since September 2012, explained the school encouraged a “calm environment”.
In small 10-person classes, students work with animals to “try to get them to manage their anxiety".
“For them they find communication really difficult, they do not understand where other people are coming from, they can take a lot of things at face value, they think a lot of things are true," Ms Wild said.
“It makes them very vulnerable. For them having a teacher not be in a class can create worries, they think about what will happen, they can get into an anxiety chain.
“They look like swans, they look as if they are gliding along but underneath they are paddling fast.”
Ms Wild explained friendships were incredibly important for the girls at the school.
“They are really desperate for friendships because they do not understand how to make friends, they can get a bit obsessed when a friendship is going wrong.
“We teach them how to make friends, how to retain friends and how to repair a friendship.”
Staff, students and parents were behind Ms Wild when she talked about doing the documentary, explaining it was a “terrifying thing to suggest but it was positive as we wanted to raise awareness of girls on the spectrum".
“They [the students] are fantastic, if we can give them a little bit of support they can really succeed and be accepted and celebrated in the community.
“All of the girls are excited about having their voices heard.”
Girls with Autism will be broadcast on ITV1 on Wednesday July 15 at 10.40pm.
18:07, 15 JULY 2015
BY AMANI HUGHES
The specialist school caters for young girls with communication and interaction difficulties
The only state-run boarding school for girls with autism in the UK, based in Oxted, is the focus of a documentary being shown on ITV.
Limpsfield Grange School is a specialist school for girls aged 11 to 16, who have communication and interaction difficulties.
In September 2014, the school opened its doors to film crews for six months for the making of 'Girls with Autism'.
Headteacher Sarah Wild explained that she hoped the programme would raise awareness of autism among girls, and for people to realise it is different than in boys.
Ms Wild said: “At the moment the diagnosis tools that are used to diagnose autism are a bit boy-focused.
“Girls can be quite sociable, they want to have friends and connect with other people, some of them might well have boyfriends.
"They are a bit more interesting than boys on the [autism] spectrum, so sometimes they get missed.”
The headteacher, who has been at the school since September 2012, explained the school encouraged a “calm environment”.
In small 10-person classes, students work with animals to “try to get them to manage their anxiety".
“For them they find communication really difficult, they do not understand where other people are coming from, they can take a lot of things at face value, they think a lot of things are true," Ms Wild said.
“It makes them very vulnerable. For them having a teacher not be in a class can create worries, they think about what will happen, they can get into an anxiety chain.
“They look like swans, they look as if they are gliding along but underneath they are paddling fast.”
Ms Wild explained friendships were incredibly important for the girls at the school.
“They are really desperate for friendships because they do not understand how to make friends, they can get a bit obsessed when a friendship is going wrong.
“We teach them how to make friends, how to retain friends and how to repair a friendship.”
Staff, students and parents were behind Ms Wild when she talked about doing the documentary, explaining it was a “terrifying thing to suggest but it was positive as we wanted to raise awareness of girls on the spectrum".
“They [the students] are fantastic, if we can give them a little bit of support they can really succeed and be accepted and celebrated in the community.
“All of the girls are excited about having their voices heard.”
Girls with Autism will be broadcast on ITV1 on Wednesday July 15 at 10.40pm.
Girls with Autism
Girls with Autism, ITV, review: 'compelling'
This documentary about Britain's only state-run school for girls with autism was sweet and scrupulous, says Iona McLaren
By Iona McLaren11:45PM BST 15 Jul 2015
The most common misconception about autism is that girls don’t have it.
Perhaps Girls with Autism did a certain amount of mythbusting just by showing up in the television listings.
On air, this superb documentary fulfilled that promise and more. But to say it was only “mythbusting” would be faint praise. Our understanding of autism tends to be so basic – loose notions drawn from the particular types, humourless and intense, portrayed in Rain Man or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – that even a bad documentary could be mythbusting. Girls with Autism was better: mesmeric, sensitive and extremely amusing.
A camera crew followed life at Limpsfield Grange in Surrey, the only state school specialising in girls with autism. All the girls there are weekly boarders, some being driven hundreds of miles each weekend to go back home. The documentary focused on three pupils with autism, but otherwise little in common: Abi, Beth and Katie.
Abi was the most obviously unusual: a selective mute who would speak at home but remained silent at school, a rictus grin on her cherubic face, panic in her eyes. She hid in dark rooms to avoid her lessons.
Fourteen-year-old Beth, however, looked a normal teenager, with Titian hair and eyeliner. She had been in a mainstream school until anxiety had made her suicidal. Determined not to settle at Limpsfield Grange (where one student wiggled her hands like octopus tentacles as she went around corners), Beth protested her normality: “The girls here are weird and wacky, and it’s hard.”
Katie, the comic heroine of the piece, seemed a gregarious, pretty 16-year-old. But one clue was the ear defenders: Asperger’s Syndrome made her detest sudden noises. More distinctively, Katie was obsessed with boys, to a degree that television perhaps has not seen before. On her iPad, she would pore over pictures of her latest, unwitting beloved – her parents found one image duplicated 1,160 times. “We can’t let her out of our sight, really,” they said. “It’s worrying.” Her guileless boyfriend-hunting at the Christmas disco made deeply compelling television.
To keep such taxing girls on their various learning curves required patience and gymnastic improvisation from their teachers, who were ready to sit on the swings or walk the school Labrador with their pupils – even in lesson time – if it would help. Limpsfield Grange is an Ofsted Outstanding school, and you could see why. The film was scrupulous in furnishing their side of the story as well as the pupils’ and the parents’.
Despite what one mother thought, autism cannot be cured; but the isolation and anxiety can be handled. Abi finally befriended another pupil, to whom she would talk. “Perhaps one day our imaginary friends can meet?” chirped Abi. “Yes!” said her new pal. “Maybe tomorrow?”
This documentary about Britain's only state-run school for girls with autism was sweet and scrupulous, says Iona McLaren
By Iona McLaren11:45PM BST 15 Jul 2015
The most common misconception about autism is that girls don’t have it.
Perhaps Girls with Autism did a certain amount of mythbusting just by showing up in the television listings.
On air, this superb documentary fulfilled that promise and more. But to say it was only “mythbusting” would be faint praise. Our understanding of autism tends to be so basic – loose notions drawn from the particular types, humourless and intense, portrayed in Rain Man or The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime – that even a bad documentary could be mythbusting. Girls with Autism was better: mesmeric, sensitive and extremely amusing.
A camera crew followed life at Limpsfield Grange in Surrey, the only state school specialising in girls with autism. All the girls there are weekly boarders, some being driven hundreds of miles each weekend to go back home. The documentary focused on three pupils with autism, but otherwise little in common: Abi, Beth and Katie.
Abi was the most obviously unusual: a selective mute who would speak at home but remained silent at school, a rictus grin on her cherubic face, panic in her eyes. She hid in dark rooms to avoid her lessons.
Fourteen-year-old Beth, however, looked a normal teenager, with Titian hair and eyeliner. She had been in a mainstream school until anxiety had made her suicidal. Determined not to settle at Limpsfield Grange (where one student wiggled her hands like octopus tentacles as she went around corners), Beth protested her normality: “The girls here are weird and wacky, and it’s hard.”
Katie, the comic heroine of the piece, seemed a gregarious, pretty 16-year-old. But one clue was the ear defenders: Asperger’s Syndrome made her detest sudden noises. More distinctively, Katie was obsessed with boys, to a degree that television perhaps has not seen before. On her iPad, she would pore over pictures of her latest, unwitting beloved – her parents found one image duplicated 1,160 times. “We can’t let her out of our sight, really,” they said. “It’s worrying.” Her guileless boyfriend-hunting at the Christmas disco made deeply compelling television.
To keep such taxing girls on their various learning curves required patience and gymnastic improvisation from their teachers, who were ready to sit on the swings or walk the school Labrador with their pupils – even in lesson time – if it would help. Limpsfield Grange is an Ofsted Outstanding school, and you could see why. The film was scrupulous in furnishing their side of the story as well as the pupils’ and the parents’.
Despite what one mother thought, autism cannot be cured; but the isolation and anxiety can be handled. Abi finally befriended another pupil, to whom she would talk. “Perhaps one day our imaginary friends can meet?” chirped Abi. “Yes!” said her new pal. “Maybe tomorrow?”
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