Dr Ruth Monk

just from speaking to autistic people of all ages, including younger children, we tend to know our brains work differently and we want to know why.

I think autistic people can be definitely very driven by curiosity.

There are a lot of autistic people who are very interested in knowing what

makes autism autism and how, you know, what makes them experience life the way they do.

But also for some people, as Jessie said, having that confirmation and understanding of their experiences throughout life.

We have a lot of autistic people who

are quite frankly very traumatised by what's happened in their life.

They've gone years, decades for many people having very traumatising experiences and being very excluded by society, that having that diagnosis, having something that is confirmation, I guess gives that closure and finally understanding that

This is genetics.

It's in our brain.

This is how we are.

This is just how we experience the world.

It's not our fault.

It can be very, I think, freeing.

Having a diagnosis helps understand you better, helps understand your family better, your interactions throughout life.

Definitely when I was coming through my studies, genetic research was very much you do genetic research so you can find the gene and once you've found the gene, then you can find treatments or cure, which is the opposite of what we're looking at for autism.

We're not looking for a cure for autism or treatment for autism because autism itself is not something that needs to be cured or treated.

Autism research and genetics can be done in a way that can be harmful and

Yeah, that very much goes into the whole idea of autistic people needing to be involved in, not just involved in research as participants.

Like, yeah, I've said it before, like it's your research, but it's our lives and it's our lives being impacted.