Dr Becky Quicke
Appearances
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
or dhd this window of capacity is really quite narrow and it's so easy for children to become either completely overwhelmed overstimulated or underwhelmed and i'm actually talking about babies even here dr becky quick is a clinical psychologist with over two decades of experience in assessing girls for adhd and autism she's a committed advocate for neuroverse children and adults
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And so having to develop what we'd call psychological defences is, So defence mechanisms to not feel that shame, either massive doing things to avoid those feelings or projecting those feelings into other people. Projection is a defence mechanism. But doing... things as they grow older into teenagers, adolescents, young adulthood to not feel that shame.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And that's when that becomes potentially problematic.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
I think in my professional life, so as a clinical psychologist assessing people, I hope this doesn't sound arrogant, but I don't ever feel like, oh, that doesn't make sense. Like, that's my thing that actually, it does always make sense. So we do a screening call with people and... They'll start to describe their experiences. And I'm always thinking, oh, yeah, that makes sense.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Yeah, and there's, I mean, I've talked about shame there and the kind of emotional development, but there's lots of other ways actually that an early diagnosis can really, can be extremely helpful. So without it, and like you say, living in a life that's not aligned with who you really are, you can't really understand your needs and therefore, you know,
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
create a life and be in relationships that align with your needs. And we know that, especially with girls, there's a lot of social vulnerability with autistic girls in particular. But I think that one, and it's a complex thing, there are lots of reasons why that is. But without that awareness,
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
you can't then know what you need, so situations that are probably going to be difficult and what to do about that and talk to, as a younger child, talk to parents or talk to friends about that or with yourself kind of work out actually what do you need. Without that awareness, you're kind of...
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
behaving in a way to, like I said before, to kind of avoid those difficult feelings of feeling different and feeling shame. And so your behaviour is fuelled by fear, really, and anxiety, like you say, to kind of fit in and do those things rather than...
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
being um fueled by what's what works well for me what feels good so then you then you don't learn to to know what does it feel like to feel good what feels nice what feels easeful what you know what works for me um and so quite often if if um women you know come to us later on and have a later diagnosis, it really is like you're saying, peeling back those layers and working out.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
I mean, a lot of women will say, I just, I don't know what I need. And, you know, so there's a real process there. I mean, the diagnosis is often a first step.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And then it's kind of peeling back that layers, whether it's with themselves and kind of that exploration and that discovery of themselves and community and being connected with other people who are similar or whether they have support through a therapist or a coach. So, yeah, there's, yeah. We feel really passionate about helping girls and assessing girls to understand themselves.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
That's, you know, that's where it began. We actually started out just assessing girls. That's what our service was. And then women got in touch saying, oh, you know, I love that you have a focus just on girls. How about women? Are you assessing women? And we were like, okay, well, yeah, let's develop that. And that's just blossomed. So we assess both now because there's that connection
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
you know, kind of working back and helping women to kind of work things out from where they're at, but also really trying to kind of help girls early on.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
So, yeah, I think I get that. Yeah, that makes sense. So there isn't anything I think when I'm working professionally. But personally, there are oftentimes where I mean, because I'm obviously in a different mode in my personal life. And sometimes I kind of think, so my partner is autistic, and it's only recently that we're kind of like, oh, actually, you're also inattentive ADHD.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Yeah. Yeah. That's really nice summary, actually, of a really important, important issue around when people struggle and, yeah, are kind of coping, developing ways to cope rather than actually, I talk quite a lot about how understanding ourselves means that we can create a life where we don't need to cope.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Yeah, and the women and girls and parents. Yeah, it really varies. So for some people, I mean, the word that comes to mind is relief. And that is predominantly what we experience, I think, for girls and women. Although I'm just thinking as a piece of... research with people who have had a diagnosis and they talked about feeling relief, so grief and relief.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
So there is the relief, but then there's the grief. This is, I'm talking about women here. Actually, parents can experience that as well, even with young girls, actually, because there's been a period of time of not understanding. But yeah, absolutely the relief. And, um, uh, what's coming to my mind actually is, um, some of the girls are, and this is just, um, I just think it's amazing.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And it's really quite exciting that they, um, I remember one parent saying, um, cause they told their, their daughter that, that, you know, we diagnosed autism on ADHD and they said that she squealed with joy and And I was just, yeah, we get that. So sometimes it's actual real excitement. This is who I am. And it just makes sense.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And like, just that, if you think of the impact of that, you know, on the trajectory of that child. But it's not all like that. So with some families, there can be such a mix of emotions, feelings, It can be guilt, you know, that I've not known this, and if I'd have known this, I might have done these things differently. Oh, it really varies.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
But actually a really significant thing that I've noticed, I don't know what the percentage is, actually, I haven't kind of done the numbers, but... Quite a significant percentage of girls after our assessments have then, or their parents have then, taken them out of mainstream education. Which some people might think, well, that's not a good outcome.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
But actually, the assessment and the diagnosis has made them realise that that their daughter is burnt out in quite a serious way. Quite often that's common. And that mainstream education at that moment in time is just really not working. So whether it's homeschool or online schooling, and this is not easy, you know, So that, you know, is a difficult process.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
However, for those girls, I guess the families are kind of coming together and going, okay, this isn't working. We need to look at something that will work. So I have noticed that it's literally been within weeks.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
It's not hyperactive impulsive, but it's inattentive. So until we made that realization, and now that's really helpful, but until then... A lot of stuff didn't make sense because he likes things to be really kind of quite exact and quite precise. And then he would make a lot of careless errors and my brain would be like, what's going on? So, yeah, I guess.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Yeah, and I think it's that realisation that actually this is too traumatic for this girl right now.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Yeah, yeah, that can happen as well, definitely. And we have assessed women in their 70s and all the way through. Yeah, absolutely. That's definitely, I hear that a lot, actually, real anger at their, it could be people, situations, establishments, you know. Yeah, real, real frustration and anger. I've noticed with the women we've assessed,
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
that I think there's a phase and it's only a small number of weeks it's not a long time but there's a short phase where I think actually I would recommend no recommendations so we do make recommendations on reports but I think there's a there's a phase of kind of just letting it sort of settle and re and just kind of almost everything settling and becoming reordered a little bit really and then working out from there okay actually
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
this is what I need to, you know, potentially need support with. Or actually for some people, we're all good. Actually, that's just kind of the piece, the missing jigsaw piece that I needed. But I think that those first few weeks, it is a real cauldron, a real melting pot of emotions. And it's kind of letting that settle a little bit and then working out where to go from there.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
There's a number of things, I guess, that impact how women, and we've been talking about masking, but kind of present themselves. And I think a significant factor is is about social conditioning. And there are, but I think it really impacts, well, it definitely really impacts boys and men as well, but the gender sort of stereotypes, which... which happened so early on.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
I mean, it's, it's blown my mind as a parent to see other parents who I really like and respect as even with babies and young children talking about, oh, that sort of typical, typical boys always moving is always running around and, oh yeah, she's a girl. She's sat, yeah, sat, you know, drawing. I wish my, I wish my boy would do that. And,
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
so girls from a really young age i'll just focus on on girls because that's my my personal experience and obviously professional experience um learn that that that's apparently not okay and and there are low obviously girls well just girls generally we don't have to even talk about adhd and but um very very active girls but you kind of learn that that's you're not meant to do that um
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And so, yeah, definitely the kind of social conditioning of girls being good and be honest, like obedient, doing what you're told, all that kind of good girl programming has a massive impact. Yeah. And and actually, you know, so a lot of girls kind of become, you know, very, very good girls and sort of switch everything off or kind of learn how to not show their true selves.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
But that's how it is, isn't it, in our personal lives? Like in my professional life as a clinical psychologist, I'm focused, I'm thinking, I'm making sense, helping people to make sense of things. I'm trying to understand things. And so it kind of does make sense. But then, yeah, in my personal life, I sometimes might. It might be different.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And also with all DHD. Moving, you know, it's just, yeah, I'm just thinking about how the education system requires children to just sit still and it's just bizarre. But yeah, so moving and being potentially told off because you're ADHD is...
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
the worst thing for an autistic child who doesn't want that attention doesn't want that that you know doesn't want the the teacher pulling attention to them people looking at them like it's that combination of like oh so really really make sure you kind of develop strategies to to not um move sort of fidget slightly but like you say or kind of internally and kind of keep yourself stimulated keep your brain stimulated
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
um it's a huge topic I feel like we could have a whole podcast just on that to be honest um yeah it's it's it's a it's a complex one because I guess it depends on the family environment and I do think that there are some intergenerational kind of patterns around not not being diagnosed so parents so hypothetically you know parents who
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
are neurodivergent and not diagnosed and and struggling creating an environment where potentially um they struggle to regulate their emotions and so could be shouting could be aggressive or could shut shut down the other way you could shut down and kind of withdraw and so that then impacts the the child and their relationship with their parent because that's the kind of
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
that we're social mammals and we learn about ourselves, about others and about the world from our caregivers. We're not born, we're born as very vulnerable beings and we learn it all through those caregivers. And so if there's an environment where there's, undiagnosed neurodivergence, that can then have an impact on the child. So they could experience trauma in that way.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
I've worked with lots of families prior to these assessment services. I've worked with a lot of families like that. And then it depends, I guess, whether the child... then learns to understand themselves or if not stays in that environment. And then, you know, we talked before about the feeling of shame and sort of doing things to not feel those feelings.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
So there can be trauma in the family environment. But also we were talking before, weren't we, about social vulnerability and experiencing different, having different experiences that potentially put someone in a, where they might experience trauma. So, yeah, it's a really, really complex topic. And in assessment, it's quite important to...
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
unpick all of that um and i mean really kind of focus in and take the time to unpick that rather than just saying oh actually you know you've experienced trauma and even even development so early years trauma is called developmental trauma so in those first early years um you know, you've experienced that early developmental trauma or you've experienced trauma through your life.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
So actually how you're experiencing the world can be explained by that. So we won't diagnose you that, you know, it's just really not okay. I think to not take the time and unpick it because there are, there are, So in terms of social relationships, if someone's experienced trauma, then there's likely to be kind of mistrust within that relationship. It's different sometimes.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
um, from somebody who's autistic and struggling with relationships. And that's more about around, um, social cues and kind of there's, there's differences. Now somebody obviously couldn't have, couldn't have been experienced trauma and being autistic. And so both can be there. Um, but it's about, it is about unpicking it. And actually there are some really, um, helpful tools for clinicians.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
One of them is called the Coventry grid, which actually, um, and this is, it's been developed for children. Um, I really need something for adults, but around when something indicates trauma and when something's autism and actually it goes through in detail all the different things and it's different. So it's important to kind of work out, you know, what it might be or both really. Yeah.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Yeah, it can on the surface look similar. I think that's what's tricky. You know, so I've worked with a lot of children who've experienced trauma. That's kind of been my majority of my career to date. And I'm going to be completely honest. I look back to, you know, 10, 15 years ago and I think, oh, gosh, there are some that I now with, you know, with my work now, I look back and think, wow.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Yeah, so that will quite often come up in, obviously, in the screening assessments. So there's a few things that ring bells, but not necessarily about the actual diagnostic criteria. Let me explain. So they might say, they might say, Or you might say something that like, oh, I kind of, I do like to have things predictable. I really have that preference predictability in routines.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Gosh, I actually wonder whether, you know, that child might have been neurodivergent. And there is research to show now that... in terms of children who are in foster care, looked after children, there's a high percentage of neurodivergent children. And those are the services I used to work in and really don't think that we were aware of that in the past. And I know that that's kind of changing.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
What's quite telling is in the interactions, actually. So it does... It does feel very different when you're with somebody who has experienced a lot of relational trauma. So they might be more wanting to kind of have control over you and kind of dominate and have control over you.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And that kind of gives them that sense of control, whereas someone who's autistic or ADHD, it's not about being in control over another person. They're not mistrusting and anxious within that relationship, which understandably happens when someone's experienced relational trauma. It's more about actually the environment and having things kind of predictable and kind of...
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
having that preference for the sameness and the control in that way. So it does feel different as an assessing clinician. So there are, sometimes we have, Yeah, we have not diagnosed because it's been really clear that there's relational trauma. And as a girl, what we often say is if the girl hasn't reached diagnostic criteria, they may do. It's not sort of saying, well, that's it.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
They're not autistic or ADHD or ADHD. But we...
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
I think probably the most important word is trust, developing that trust. It's where, like I said before, children learn about themselves, about other people and about the world within those key caregiver relations. I'm using a very kind of Yeah, not medical term, but yeah, because it could be, you know, it could be anybody really, but the caregiver.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
So developing that model of who they are, you know, and how they are with other people and the world through those relationships. And so it's where we, as children, develop, hopefully, this is where it's really healthy.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
This is what I would say is a healthy family dynamic, I guess, is that security, that secure base, it's called in psychological terms, of a place to feel that you can kind of go to where you trust and, like I say, feel safe. And so the body can kind of relax and be taken care of. And so and that's just, oh, yeah, apps. It's essential for every child. That's that's a healthy family dynamic.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And it changes over time because obviously how you how that dynamic is as a as a young child shifts, because as you get into adolescence, it's actually you've got a phase of where there is the kind of relationships change.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
are still really important about developing a sense of self, actually starting to shift towards the child, the adolescent, you know, doing that themselves and in interactions with their peers and more kind of outward facing and then coming back into the family unit. It's kind of both really. But yeah, I mean, it's obviously a healthy family dynamic is important for absolutely everybody.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And I think that the...
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
with um children who are all dhd where things are tricky out in the world even if things are not tricky at home and actually really nice and healthy and relaxed and secure and safe and trusting and all that kind of stuff the world can be can be really can be really difficult and so i guess what i would um see as being really healthy is is working that out together you know and um
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And parents kind of being able to support them to, you know, if there's changes that are going to be made, you know, thinking ahead. I mean, it's a lot of pressure on parents. But yeah, being aware of things that are going to change and letting them know and say, this might be difficult. What could you do? And kind of problem solving together, really.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
But then actually sometimes I really don't. And so I don't understand like, which is it? So that happens. That's a very, very common one. Or sometimes I really love, you know, going out and social, you know, being with people. Then sometimes actually I can't see anybody for a long period of time. So, you know, those kind of things come up and I'm like, oh, okay, what's kind of going on here?
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Toddler tantrums versus meltdowns and overwhelm. They really are different. Our aim at Autistic Girls is to help families, their child is ADHD, to understand that, what that means, so that they can kind of work it out together rather than child kind of developing ways of trying to shut that down, not feel it, you know, mass.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Yeah, it's really, really tricky. And it's great that you raise that, actually, because children are a mirror for us as parents. You know, it's like a mirror and you can kind of, I mean, and that can kind of go one or two ways, really. It can kind of be like, oh, actually, I mean, you kind of start to understand yourself through children.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
being a parent, or actually it can be a mirror and it can kind of shine a light on a part of yourself that you don't want to have shone. And so that defence potentially... for some people, is pretty strong, is pretty solid.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And that can be really damaging because if there's a parent who doesn't want to kind of understand themselves in that way and thinks there's, you know, there's a kind of, like I say, there's defence against it, then obviously not only... are they going to struggle to then acknowledge and understand their child? But also there's then this kind of learning that there's something wrong.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
You know, we're going back to that shame again, really, aren't we? That actually there's something wrong if my parent doesn't want to you know, is struggling, then with that, then there must be something wrong with it. And if I'm experiencing that, then there's something wrong with me too. So, yeah, it is tricky. But, I mean, a lot of families on the flip side, you know,
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
they it's either quite often that they're they're understanding their child and they're going for an assessment with a child and they're like oh you know light bulbs are going off we have that with parents all the time and that's brilliant i think um you know and i think that that's does happen a lot um and i think that's really super nice for that to happen
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Yeah, it is. It's very powerful. Yeah.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Oh, this is all ADHD.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Yeah. So tomatoes, the fruit that doesn't belong in a fruit salad.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And so you see tomatoes. They don't belong in there. Fruit, they don't belong in fruit salad. But they're often hanging out with the vegetables. But they're not accepted. They're not accepted there either. They're not a vegetable. So they don't belong anywhere. And that is such a common thing that women... say to us at the very, very beginning of their, their journey.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And I think that's been a reason for the late diagnosis, well, one reason for the late diagnosis, because it's like, I'm, I don't fit with, you know, the kind of autistic community and I don't fit with the ADHD community. I don't belong anywhere. And that's been a, and, and actually I, That's because all DHD is a, I think it's a third, it's a thing of its own, really.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And so, yeah, like the tomatoes, a lot of women we assess don't belong in the fruit salad or in the bolognese.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Oh, thank you for having me.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
In the past, well, I've got a few things that I think that have changed quite a lot. In the past, first of all, with adults, people who had autism diagnoses were seen within learning disability services. Yeah. So I've worked in learning disability services and that's where people would be referred to. But a lot of those people with autism didn't have a cognitive learning disability at all.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
So and I don't think that's happening. That's I think that's shifted. That's changed. And I think that this is quite a big shift. I think this is sort of building. and building is that a lot of diagnostic assessments in the past have been based primarily on observation. So observing how somebody behaves rather than actually getting to understand their internal experience.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
So I do think in the past sort of few years, we're starting to, thank goodness, starting to, understand that actually how someone behaves doesn't necessarily indicate how they're experiencing the world and so I think there's been a real shift from kind of observational assessments and it just makes me feel really uncomfortable the thought of just observing someone.
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Yeah, it doesn't sit with me, but also I just don't think it's that helpful. So moving towards more collaborative discussions where we are, and this is absolutely our ethos at Autistic Girls and Autistic Women, where we're trying to...
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
understand somebody's internal experiences because you know there's lots of reasons why people might not express that and not feel comfortable in certain situations to express how they're experiencing the world it might not come out sort of in external behavior as it were that internal experience that you're describing what could that feel like for a child and how could a parent look out for presentations of that feeling
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
So, or DHD, there is a very narrow kind of window of capacity. Actually, it used to be called, well, it's often referred to the window of tolerance, but I put that on LinkedIn recently and someone really helpfully shared that they describe it as the window of
ADHD Chatter
5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
So this window of capacity is really quite narrow and it's so easy for children to become either completely overwhelmed, overstimulated or underwhelmed. I'm actually talking about babies even here or underwhelmed. So not having enough stimulation. So it might be that you notice that your baby absolutely loves the, you know, the toys.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
You get these, even when the baby's in the line on the backs and these toys with these flashing lights and it's all, you know, amazing. And the baby might be absolutely engaging with that and thinking that's amazing. Kicking the legs, but then actually having significant pleasure difficulty is regulating. And as a parent, the baby is crying and crying and crying.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
When a child comes to understand themselves and actually even just giving the diagnosis... it can actually change things really significantly.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And so it's kind of, even at that early age, and I've experienced that myself as a parent, so I can kind of talk about that, that it's really, really tricky to get that balance of giving enough stimulation, but not overstimulating. So kind of fast forward into kind of toddlerhood and preschool and into school, that's definitely a really, really tricky area, I think, for parents.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Yeah, and I guess as a child experiencing that, you know, that's really, really difficult. You know, wanting that stimulation, getting excited about things, but then feeling completely overwhelmed and then dysregulated. And often that can come out in behaviour.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Definitely with babies, it's distress, it's crying. It's distress. And for parents, it's tricky to help to regulate a baby that becomes that overstimulated. So it's about kind of...
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Managing that and letting there to be a little bit of stimulation, but actually making sure that's not very much and creating an environment where then you drop the stimulation so that the body doesn't become totally dysregulated. Because an autistic and ADHD body and ADHD to a certain extent as well is a very permeable in terms of sensory, the sensory stimulation process.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
just kind of comes in from the outside world. And like I say, the body's very permeable and it feels it really intensely. And so obviously until a baby child is able to develop their own ways of regulating, then they become, yeah.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
very dysregulated and then it can be um expressed similarly you know toddlers this is really is i think this is really interesting thing about toddler tantrums versus meltdowns and you know overwhelm um and they are different they really are different i think that's and it's really i guess it's tricky for parents to know and a lot of parents feel like oh this is
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
you know, toddler tantrums, it's a terrible twos and things like that. But actually what parents have described to me is it's different. It's really quite, it's quite extreme. And it's really, really distressing for some parents. And obviously for the child themselves to be feeling such extreme kind of overwhelm.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Yeah, they can kind of, I mean, that happens, we get women who come in for screening call and assessment and absolutely that's been their experiences. They kind of, oh, I'm not one and I'm not the other, but actually quite often they're both.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
But there is quite a lot of talk of them kind of almost cancelling each other out and it not being shown, but also I think it's really important to say that they intensify each other as well.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
So I always think that like ADHD almost like can really intensify the autistic experience and it can be, you know, it can really kind of almost put a rocket underneath things and intensify the emotional experiences or, and it can make it very, very difficult, or they can, it can actually, they can work beautifully together. I mean, some people have said that, that it works really well.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And actually it's meant that they're able, you know, they are able to develop strategies to organise themselves, but actually it doesn't come, it's not easy or intuitive to be organised. And actually the attention does get pulled and it's hard to regulate the attention, but... Actually, they really want to have that sense of kind of feeling organised and things being predictable.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
And so some people talk about them working beautifully together. And I think that's really important to talk about. It can be experienced differently.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
There can be difficulties, but actually we do get some women who come through and have an assessment and they're not experiencing a lot of distress because they've created a life that really works for them and actually they've kind of worked the two together.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Someone like that historically would not receive a diagnosis, even though we can see, you know, we've done the assessment, we can see actually having that collaborative assessment with them that that's how their brain works, that's how they experience the world, and actually they do reach criteria for autism and ADHD.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
What comes to mind for me is the kind of overwhelming thing is shame. With shame being, I am wrong, rather than, you know, guilt is I have done something wrong. Shame is I am wrong because there are so many, um, like you say, messages from, from people, from school, from family members. And so, yeah, it has a massive impact.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Um, I've worked with a lot of children and obviously adults who are children who've experienced that. And the shame is very, very toxic when, when a child, um, comes to understand themselves and actually even just giving the diagnosis, it can actually change things really significantly.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
You know, if our parents say that we haven't had any meltdowns after that diagnosis, doesn't mean I'm not saying like you get a diagnosis and everything's absolutely perfect. But to know that there's a reason and you can understand and explain these experiences, there's nothing wrong. You're not wrong. You are absolutely right. Because that's the message we give to these girls.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
There's absolutely nothing wrong with them. It just almost, the shame dissipates and kind of goes, you know, really subsides. And that has, and that obviously is a hugely positive thing. So if that doesn't happen and the shame continues, then you start to get towards people, people understandably not being able to tolerate those high levels of shame.
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5 Signs You Have Autism AND ADHD + how to spot it EARLY in children | Dr Becky Quicke
Oh, thank you for having me.