Autism is characterised by:

• Persistent differences in communication
• Interpersonal relationships, and social interaction across different environments
• Being nonverbal or having atypical speech patterns, having trouble understanding nonverbal communication
• Difficulty making and keeping friends
• Restricted and repetitive behaviour, patterns, activities and interests
• Repeating sounds or phrases (echolalia), repetitive movements, preference for sameness and difficulty with transition or routine, rigid or highly restricted and intense interests
• Extreme sensitivity to or significantly lower sensitivity to various sensory stimuli

These core features of autism must be present in early childhood but may not fully manifest until social demands exceed the person’s capacity to cope with them, and challenges may be masked by learned coping strategies.

OUR SUPPORT

At Bethal Manna, we support people to feel confident about taking more control of their lives, so they can make choices, and feel more involved in the world around them. We support younger adults with Autism or dual diagnosis such as Autism combined with a mental illness or a Learning disability. 

Because everyone has different support needs and their reasons for seeking support vary, we start by building relationships with people based on trust and understanding, including with family members. We use Active Support and Positive Behaviour Support principles, which are applied across all our support packages.