I will be giving a presentation about grief and autism at the Minnesota Autism Conference that will be held at the Minneapolis Southwest Marriott Hotel in Minnetonka, Minnesota on April 22-25,2020.

So I want to begin a conversation thread here on the subject of grief and autism to help me prepare the presentation. Please give me your input on this subject, because there is not a lot of information out there, including on the internet about how grief affects people on the autistic spectrum.

Here are some discussion questions I am posting to get the conversation started. The first ten are for people on the autistic spectrum. The last three are for family, friends and caregivers. They can be answered in any order you decide in the comments below the post. There are no right or wrong responses. Thank you for any help you can give me.

1. Think back to the time(s) you lost someone you love (human or pet) because they died, rejected you (ex. parent, family, friends, spouse, children, etc), you lost a job, or favorite therapist. What was your grieving like? What did you experience?

2. What parts of your grieving do you think was most impacted your life because you are autistic?

3. What did you deal well with while grieving?

4. What did you not deal so well with while grieving?

5. Did you seek help or support? This can be a family member, friend, religious or spiritual leader, therapist, reading...

6. If you did not seek assistance, why not?

7. What are somethings that others responded to you well regarding your grief experience and autism?

8. Were there things that you wished others responded better to with your grieving and autism?

9. If you were to attend my presentation in April, what are somethings you would like me to talk about?

10. What are things that you would want me to avoid in my presentation?

These next three questions are for parents, family and caregivers for autistic people.

1. Think back to a time when the autistic person (child or adult) lost someone they loved. What did you observe (emotions, anxiety, depression, social changes, fidgeting, talking etc) in their grief?

2. What did you find most challenging for you to do to help them?

3. What did you do that you think was successful in helping them?

If you would like to attend the conference, go to www.ausm.org/events/ausm-events/state-autism-conference.html for more information. Thank you very much.