Life is hard for autistic children in a world that still isn’t made for people like them. Those who are able to attend school have to try and learn at the same pace as their neurotypical classmates while being overwhelmed by sensory inputs and unable to regulate, while the complexities of playground interactions can make breaktimes even more stressful.
Even for a generation growing up in a society that is becoming more aware of neurodivergence than ever before, the pace of change and support is still lacking, leaving parents to pick up the pieces when their over-stimulated, burned-out kids get home at the end of another tough day.
That’s where charities like Spectrum Gaming can be so important. Founded in Bury, Greater Manchester by Andy Smith, it serves the purposes of giving young autistic people a community (online and offline) as well as amplifying their voices and advocating for them.
Amongst the issues they work on are barriers to education, loneliness, burn-out and post diagnostic support. They collaborate with both their young members and their parents and guardians to create resources that are used by local authorities and schools, helping to change the way support for autistic young people is delivered.
And Spectrum Gaming has changed the lives of both me and my 12-year-old son. I first heard about them when we were going through the painfully long process of getting him assessed and diagnosed. When he was old enough to join and places became available, we signed him up.
Initially our focus was on him being able to join in with online gaming within the under-13 community, signing onto the Minecraft server to play with other autistic children. At this point, he’d never really interacted with other people who are like him. If you’re not part of a minority group, it’s hard to understand exactly what that feels like.
As well as Minecraft, he also joined the Discord server and was able to chat and join in conversations with his peers on there, which has been very important to him at times, giving him a safe (well-moderated) space to be himself amongst people who would understand him more than his class-mates at school ever could.
Even more important to him though has been the in-person meet-ups Spectrum Gaming runs each month – a forest school session and youth club evenings. I know from talking to other parents there that these sessions are even more crucial for kids not able to cope with school, some of whom only ever leave the house to go to those events.
It’s not just the children who benefit from their involvement with Spectrum Gaming. Parents of autistic children score higher on levels of stress than other groups of parents, and there is precious little support out there for us. Not only does this charity support autistic children, which is a huge relief, but it also brings together parents who can feel so isolated at times.
Whether battling to get educational support in place or just being overwhelmed dealing with the challenges of an autistic childhood, parents are able to share these either at in-person events while their kids play or on a Facebook group. And that Facebook group helped to change my life.
A year ago I was wondering about my own neurodivergence and the first place I went was to the Spectrum Gaming parents group on Facebook to ask if any other parents had wondered if they were also autistic after their kids had been diagnosed. The response was overwhelmingly ‘yes’ and this gave me the confidence to pursue my own diagnosis.
Spectrum Gaming and its events have given my son so many happy times, which is priceless. Literally so, as all of the events are fully-funded and cost us nothing. That’s why I am so proud that Social chose it as one of the charities we are supporting financially this year. For me it’s a way of giving back to something that has given so much for us and will continue to do so for many years to come.
The sad reality is that there aren’t enough places like Spectrum Gaming out there for autistic young people at the moment. We’re lucky that we live in Greater Manchester, so the events are local to us, but there are members from across the country, enough so that annual London weekends take place to give people the chance to meet up in person when they can’t get to the regular events.
The world isn’t made for people like me and my son, that’s why we need more charities like Spectrum Gaming to at least help us find the parts of the world where we do fit and where things do make sense.
By James Ellaby, Senior Content Writer