lucypollardtherapies

lucypollardtherapies Lucy Pollard Speech and Language Therapies.

Independent provider of paediatric speech and language therapy in Kent and East Suss*x, UK

Not on Facebook often, come and find me on Instagram šŸ™šŸ»

Rest in peace Jason Arday.This is devastating news. Lots to say about the intersectionality of racism and ableism and th...
14/08/2026

Rest in peace Jason Arday.

This is devastating news. Lots to say about the intersectionality of racism and ableism and the role this might have played in his death but just finding the words right now. What a tragedy.

14/08/2026

Uta Frith made a recent argument that the rise in autism diagnoses might show that people have been influenced by social media. My thoughts on this:

If we are worried about bias in autism diagnosis, why are we so interested in the possibility that patients are biased, but less interested in the evidence that clinicians are biased too?

Of course social media can influence how we understand ourselves. But patients arenā€™t the only people bringing assumptions into an autism assessment. Clinicians are human too. And thereā€™s a heap of evidence that professional judgement can be influenced by things like: ethnicity.

In a Dutch study by Begeer et al. (2009), 81 paediatricians were given clinical vignettes describing children. Paediatricians were more likely to refer a Dutch child for autism assessment than a Moroccan or Turkish child, even if the description was the same.

Or: s*x and gender.
Consider the 2022 study (Tsirgiotis et al.) where researchers gave diagnosticians hypothetical cases in which the s*x of the person was randomly varied.
The clinicians rated the presentations differently depending on whether the case was presented as male or female, despite being given essentially the same clinical information.

So yes, there is a possibility that someone has been influenced by social media when they identify as autistic. But why should we assume that their bias is the problem that needs correcting, while the clinicianā€™s assumptions are simply ā€œclinical judgementā€?

Everyone involved in the assessment is human, everyone brings assumptions, and nobody gets a completely neutral view of another personā€™s behaviour.

If weā€™re serious about reducing diagnostic bias, we need to examine both sides of the assessment relationship. Otherwise, rewhat Uta calls ā€œprotecting diagnostic accuracyā€ just looks like gatekeeping.

Lucy Pollard Therapies

Uta Frith published an opinion piece on whether autism should be broken down into subgroups today and I read it so you d...
04/08/2026

Uta Frith published an opinion piece on whether autism should be broken down into subgroups today and I read it so you donā€™t have toā€¦

JUST KIDDING please donā€™t base your opinions on one Instagram carousel.

There was a lot to unpick in the article and I had many, many thoughts. Each slide could be a post in itself. But the article raises some really interesting points that I disagree with. Points about:
- Who should hold the power in diagnostic services - the clinician or the patient? And is one group more likely to be subject to bias than the other?
- Does an experience count if it canā€™t be observed in external behaviour?
- Is increased awareness of autism a good thing or a bad thing?
- Is 37 movies about autism too many? šŸ« 

Let me be clear: Uta Frith is entitled to her opinions. This is not a personal attack. Iā€™m not convinced by her argument, and I think the piece relies heavily on generic articles about social contagion and overdiagnosis. Thereā€™s a lot of cherry picking of information going on. Sheā€™s clearly made up her mind on this one. But then, so have I, so maybe Iā€™m just as bad. Except, Iā€™m not ideologically opposed to there being different subgroups of autism. It seems theoretically possible to me. But in order to be convinced, Iā€™d need a far stronger argument than the one set out today.

References in the comments - please donā€™t take my word for it - have a read and let me know your thoughts!

Lucy Pollard Therapies

Thinking a lot about FII at the momentā€¦Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) is a form of child abuse in which a caregiver...
01/08/2026

Thinking a lot about FII at the momentā€¦

Fabricated or Induced Illness (FII) is a form of child abuse in which a caregiver is thought to exaggerate, fabricate or deliberately cause illness in a child.

I wanted to post about this because Iā€™ve observed professionals voicing opinions that parents might be fabricating their childā€™s illnesses on two separate occasions in the last year. The parents were not involved in those discussions and no official safeguarding concerns were raised. It felt very uncomfortable. I questioned whether those discussions were based on evidence, or based on those professionalsā€™ own biases and suspicions about those parents.

The issue is complex. On the one hand, we know that children with SEND are much more likely to be involved in abuse. We have to take safeguarding extremely seriously. On the other hand, I am worried that accusations of FII can be used to avoid providing support to children who need it, and to shut down legitimate parental concerns.

Thereā€™s a recent study by Bilson et al (2025) that shares these concerns. Itā€™s well worth a read and I will reference it in the comments. The study found that the current evidence base underpinning FII guidance may overstate the risk of serious harm, and that this can have unintended consequences for children and families.

Clearly, this is a complex issue. FII is child abuse. Safeguarding is important and every professional must take it seriously. But professionals must also be aware of our own cognitive biases and be mindful not to interpret some parental behaviours as abuse, when they are actually just advocacy.

Thereā€™s a lack of broader research into this, especially intersectional research. Iā€™d love to know how parentsā€ ethnicity or socioeconomic status affects the likelihood of FII concerns being raised. Iā€™d love to see how often FII concerns are used as justification for not providing support for SEND families. I have many questionsā€¦

What are your experiences of this? Either as a professional or a SEND parent? Please let me knowšŸ™šŸ»

Lucy Pollard Therapies

27/06/2026

ā€œAutism and ADHD are on the rise due to widening diagnostic criteriaā€ according to the New Scientist, citing a recent study from Denmark by LaBianca et al.

So much to say about this, starting with:
- The study that is referenced is pre-print, and hasnā€™t been peer reviewed yet šŸ¤Æ
- The study looked at people diagnosed with autism and ADHD and compared it to their polygenic score. This is an estimate of their inherited genetic susceptibility to autism or ADHD based on many common genetic variants.
- They found that people diagnosed in the 1990s tended to have, on average, higher polygenic scores for autism or ADHD than people diagnosed in the 2010s.
- What does that mean? Well, if the underlying prevalence of autism or ADHD has stayed the same but more people with lower support needs were being diagnosed, thatā€™s the sort of pattern youā€™d expect.
- There was no evidence in the study that this change was due to widening diagnostic criteria. The study authors SUGGESTED this might be the reason.
- The New Scientist has reported on this suggestion as though it is scientific truth.
- The change could just as easily be due to increased awareness of autism and adhd; more referrals; and better identification of underdiagnosed groups like women, girls and adults.

So yes, the wording of diagnostic manuals has changed. But also, clinicians now recognise presentations that were often overlooked decades ago.

Reporting like this is frustrating because it takes a study that raises some interesting questions (as good studies should), and reduces it to click bait. As always, reality is more complicatedā€¦

References in the comments

Lucy Pollard Therapies

This post is inspired by:Thomas Cooper, died on 31 January 2025 in the US after a hyperbaric oxygen chamber caught fire ...
21/06/2026

This post is inspired by:

Thomas Cooper, died on 31 January 2025 in the US after a hyperbaric oxygen chamber caught fire and exploded while he was inside receiving treatment.

The unnamed 5 year old autistic child receiving chelation therapy marketed for autism who died after going into cardiac arrest due to dangerously low calcium levels

The many unnamed children who have experienced severe vomiting, dehydration, low blood pressure, and hospitalisation after being given MMS (bleach)

20/06/2026

The firstly years of life are vitally important. And yet hundreds and thousands of children are spending those years without support.

Here are the average wait times for the following services in England (according to NHS England):

1. Autism assessment: 16 to 17+ months on average (236,000 people waiting)

2. Community paediatrics: 12 to 18+ months (180,000 children waiting)

3. Speech and language therapy: around 11 months (65,000 children waiting)

4. ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat): 18 to 25 weeks (650,000 to 700,000 patients waiting)

5. Community audiology: 8 to 12 weeks (20,000 children waiting)

While children wait, they are missing out on the opportunity to have their needs met. And these unmet needs have a significant impact on speech, language and communication. Many children start school without the support they need, making learning, friendships and confidence harder from day one.

Guess what? Early intervention is most effective when it happens EARLY. Every month spent waiting is a month of development that cannot be recovered. So before we start blaming parents, letā€™s direct some of that energy towards the real issue: years and years of chronic underfunding of health services.

Lucy Pollard Therapies

What if autistic language isnā€™t just ā€œdifferentā€?This is a summary of an interesting paper into autistic neologisms by Z...
14/06/2026

What if autistic language isnā€™t just ā€œdifferentā€?

This is a summary of an interesting paper into autistic neologisms by Zane & Luyster (2025)

Some of the main reasons for inventing new words are:
1ļøāƒ£ Precision
Existing words may feel too broad or ambiguous.
Someone may invent a word because no existing word captures exactly the distinction theyā€™re trying to express.

2ļøāƒ£ Pattern-based thinking
If you notice regularities in language, creating a new word by analogy is a natural linguistic process.
English itself constantly acquires new words this way.

3ļøāƒ£ Naming internal experiences
Some autistic people describe experiences that lack conventional vocabulary. Inventing a word can make those experiences communicable.

4ļøāƒ£ Playfulness
Not all neologisms are serious.
Some appear to be linguistic creativity or humour. Itā€™s similar to how poets, children, or authors invent words.

This paper argues that autistic neologisms arenā€™t only interesting because theyā€™re unusual. They may reveal patterns of attention, perception and categorisation that standard language doesnā€™t capture. In other words, studying invented words could help researchers better understand autistic cognition, not just autistic communication.

What are your experiences of neologisms? Have you or your family made up any fun new words recently? Let me know in the commentsā€¦

Lucy Pollard Therapies

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