Growing-up autistic: Sharing autistic children's experiences and insights.

Every family volunteered after seeing a recruitment post, and all the parents were actively seeking to understand autism better, so these children are not a cross-section of autistic children. 94.1% of the children were white and the families were less deprived than the UK average, so the findings say little about autistic children from other backgrounds. Only children who could complete a long questionnaire, either online or on a video call, took part, so children with higher support needs are likely underrepresented. These are answers given before any course, with no comparison group, so nothing here shows whether any support or treatment changes anything. The long questionnaires caused boredom and shorter answers. The researchers describe themselves as holding a neurodiversity-affirming view, and some are autistic or parents of autistic children, which they say shaped how the themes were built.

The authors received no funding for the research, authorship or publication, and declared no conflicts of interest. Worth knowing: the creators of the NeuroBears course that the wider study is evaluating are authors on this article, and the research collaboration grew out of a partnership they initiated with the lead author.

Do not read this as evidence that any course, programme or therapy helps autistic children. These are baseline answers collected before the NeuroBears course began, no treatment was tested here, and the families volunteered themselves.