Perplexing Presentations: Compulsory Neuronormativity and Cognitive Marginalisation in Social Work Practice with Autistic Mothers of Autistic Children

In recent years, there has been growing interest in exploring the experiences of autistic adults through a lens that adopts emancipatory theorisations of autism. However, despite this changing terrain, autistic people remain a highly subjugated population. Research has begun to theorise a distinctive form of epistemic injustice they encounter in which they are denied access to epistemic resources by a society that valorises cognitively normative ways of being, knowing and existing. An under-explored aspect of this emerging literature relates to the experiences of autistic mothers who are, themselves, much more likely to have autistic children. Evidence suggests that they may be at a substantially increased risk of involuntary social work interventions. This study explores the nature of these experiences, drawing on interviews with autistic mothers as well as my own, lived experiences as an autistic mother. It finds that, through a neuro-normative lens of social work scrutiny, indicators of neuro-divergency in both mothers and children are considered perplexing and assigned malign meanings by those with hermeneutic privilege. This was particularly evident in social work responses to children's difficulties in attending school, with these difficulties located in mothers rather than in exclusionary, hostile school environments. Autistic mothers are much more likely to have autistic children. They may also be more likely to come to the attention of social services. Social workers have a lot of power in the lives of autistic families. Yet, research has so far failed to explore this topic. There is a lot of research about autistic people, but this is nearly all from the perspective of non-autistic researchers. I think that these issues should be researched by people who have experienced them. I have drawn on interviews with other autistic mothers of autistic children as well as my own, personal experiences to analyse how we experience social work intervention. I found that social workers often misunderstand autistic mothers and autistic children. I found that autistic behaviours were often considered to be 'perplexing' and confusing. They were not fairly interpreted. Autistic mothers were not treated as experts in their own lives or the lives of their children. They faced lots of difficulties. In particular, they found going to school very hard. This was made worse by social services putting a lot of pressure on them to attend school, even though it made them upset. I finish by discussing how badly society treats people who are different in the way that they think, feel, understand, reason and sense.