Psychosocial support and autism
Psychosocial support and autism
Strong evidence – there is lots of high-quality evidence that some young people find this support option helpful.
If you feel that you would like support with communication and social situations, then your professional should be able to help you access psychosocial support. The type of support you receive will depend on the difficulties you have and what would be most helpful for you. For example, this type of support could include play-based approaches with your parents, carers and teachers to help them engage and communicate with you.
These approaches should:
- be based on your individual needs
- respect your focused interests and how you would like to communicate
- help your parents, carers, teachers and friends to understand your way of communicating and interacting
- include techniques to improve your communication, interactive play or social routines, depending on what you would find helpful
- include sessions with a therapist so that they can show you certain things captured by video recordings.
Some people find psychosocial support unhelpful and find that it encourages social masking. You could talk to your professional about this, and they should take care to provide psychosocial support in ways that avoid promoting masking.
Support outlined on these webpages may not be available in every local area. It’s important that you discuss with your GP or mental health professional the support options available to you. You can also search for services near you on our Youth Wellbeing Directory and find out more about referral processes here.