New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline - Ministry of Health

Overview
Overview
Preface
I was born into a rural South Auckland family 52 years ago. I took my first steps at 22 months of
age and many sounds terrified me. I refused to touch sticky substances such as buttered toast.
I had many other developmental delays and differences but also some above average skills such as
reading and writing. Many of these differences were long-lasting and the challenges of adulthood
made some of them more noticeable. My collective characteristics were not recognised as a case of
Asperger Syndrome (a form of Autism Spectrum Disorder – ASD) until my accidental encounter
with an autism specialist when I was forty-three.
New Zealanders should no longer have to experience such scenarios. Because of increasing
awareness of ASD, to which this Guideline makes a significant contribution and is a world
first, individuals with this different way of thinking can be recognised, supported and valued.
Scientific knowledge of the human brain and body is far from complete. Full understanding of
Autism Spectrum Disorder (or, if you prefer, “autism spectrum difference”) is still some years
away. So the NZ ASD Guideline is a foundation for future ‘living guidelines’. It does not contain
everything that is known, or is yet to be discovered, about ASD, but is an excellent introductory
one‐stop‐shop from which interested people can get information and increase their understanding.
I look forward to, and work towards, the day when all individuals who would benefit from
an ASD diagnosis can get one; when children and adults with motor skill difficulties are not
forced to participate in sports and then laughed at, but are instead helped to improve their basic
co‐ordination; to a time when professionals in all fields upskill themselves to at least a basic level
of Autism-friendliness, and can also admit when they don’t know everything about ASD; and
when ASD is not automatically seen as a problem, but is valued for its contribution to a resource
pool of people thinking outside the square.
Looking back in time at some unique individuals, it appears that an above average proportion of
exceptional achievements have been, and are being, made by individuals with ASD, whether they,
or the world, know they are on the autism spectrum.
Information about high-functioning autism (researched in 1943) was not disseminated for
50 years, so many individuals with ASD did not get the diagnosis when they should have, in early
childhood. This backlog of people has only recently begun to be correctly diagnosed, thus giving
a misleading impression of ASD being both a “new” condition and an epidemic. I believe we have
long existed in significant numbers, but our differences have not always been recognised as ASD.
When I told my mother about the ASD Guideline, she said “If only we had had this book when
you were growing up.” I offer this resource to my own ever-patient mother; to all other parents
and family members of individuals with ASD (both diagnosed and not yet identified); to
professional people in all careers; and last but not least, to all of us who have the “autism spectrum
difference” ourselves.
Jen Birch
Adults with ASD
Dave Lennard
Adults with ASD
New Zealand Autism Spectrum Disorder Guideline 11