Peer Support Groups

Announcements and news articles about social support groups, programs, or workshops for autistic adults get posted on the Internet and by various organizations. Many of these groups involve non-autistic professionals, therapists, or "typical peer" mentors leading a group to meet social educational goals. Occasionally recreation is a goal in addition to learning some sort of life skill, or seen as the "fun way" to acquire the skill.

The word "peer" in the relevant sense here is defined as "a person who is equal to another in abilities, qualifications, age, background, and social status." Thus is has always seemed curious to me that the word "peer" is used to refer to those "typically developing" individuals who clearly are not considered equal with autistic individuals, particularly in the areas of ability, social status, and background. If there was true equality between autistic people and their "typical peers" there would be no push to bring the autistic people to the same "level" as those "typical peers." When a person of one social class is put in a facilitation role with people of another social class, there is by definition a power imbalance, an inequity. This doesn't mean "bad," for example an 8th grade teacher facilitating 8th grade students is a good thing! But it is different from two 8th grade students interacting with out the presence of the teacher.

While there is value in learning from someone who is not like one's self, there is also value in learning from people who share the same experiences--people who are true peers in ability, social status, background, etc. Autistic people can and do learn from each other, and often what is learned is deeply useful or comprehensible specifically because there is a more equitable basis for the information exchange.

Peer (in the sense of run by and for autistic adults) social support groups, programs, and workshops are more rare especially in person than traditionally run groups, but they do exist. They exist online in private mailing groups and semi-public online fora (online peer groups may outnumber more traditional therapist-facilitator type groups?). They exist in local communities as both more structured and more free-form social groups. They exist on an international scale, including in the form of a major conference that has been successfully ongoing for over a decade.

Autistics-only or autistic-run groups may provide some things that therapist or mentor facilitated groups can't, like the ability to socialize or recreate without having to "accomplish" something, the ability to feel safe from critique, judgement, or scrutiny by non-autistics (especially those like therapists whose job it is to make those judgments), an opportunity to share a common culture, and the ability to freely exchange strategies with those who have "been there." Being able to do something for ourselves can also help with self-efficacy and self-esteem.

The development of autistic-run peer groups and programs will hopefully continue evolve, grow, and multiply with time for those individuals who find value in them.

Disclaimer: I am in no way meaning to devalue more traditional therapy-based social or support groups or mentorship models. I am also in no way meaning to suggest that autistic people and non-autistic people can't have equitable relationships--be true peers (I have many, many non-autistic friends who are my true peers!). Autistic-run and autistic-only groups and more traditional models are not mutually exclusive--both have value!